IMB news office
Photo: -IMB
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Representing Southern Baptist churches throughout the United States, 21 International Mission Board missionaries were publicly celebrated during a service at Magnolia Church in Riverside, Calif., Wednesday, Jan. 29.
The missionaries were voted on and approved by IMB trustees earlier in the week in California. Jeff Iorg, Gateway Seminary president, delivered the message at the service, spurring the congregants and missionary appointees toward their missional responsibility.
IMB President Paul Chitwood opened the missionaries’ testimonial time by reminding those gathered of the vital role their churches play in the sending of missionaries.
“These 21 have heard the gospel preached in our churches; they have surrendered their lives to the Lord, were baptized and joined our churches; they have been discipled in our churches; called to the nations in our churches; they go out from our churches with the promise of support from our churches,” he said.
“How grateful we are for their willingness to go, and the privilege that God gives us to send them from our churches,” Chitwood said.
Iorg challenged those in attendance to recognize the all-inclusive missional responsibility the apostle Paul related in Ephesians 3.
