April 16, 2024
Worldwide, 115 people die every minute. That’s 6,928 per hour, 166,279 per day, 5 million per month, and 60 million-plus per year.
Sadly, most of them are dying without Christ.
International Mission Board President Paul Chitwood understands that. It propels him in his efforts to get the gospel to the nations.
“More people will die lost today than on any other day upon which the sun has risen in human history,” Chitwood told Southern Baptists gathered in Anaheim for the annual meeting earlier this summer.
Each death represents the loss of one human being for all eternity: a parent, a sibling, a friend, a neighbor, a co-worker, etc. Each of those people meant something to someone. And most importantly, each meant something to God.
That’s why it behooves us to provide prayer support and financial support for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, the North American Mission Board, and the International Mission Board. We simply must reach our state, our nation, and our world with the gospel. People’s eternal destinies depend on it.
In the face of such a huge challenge, it is perhaps natural to feel helpless. But biblically, what should be our response?
It is to share the gospel. That’s not just the loving thing to do; it is the obedient thing to do.
Of course, we must be intentional in sharing the gospel with people in our own homes and churches and communities, but we must go beyond that. Jesus gave us the Great Commission to “go” and take the gospel into all the world.
In cases where we are unable to go ourselves, we can support those who are by contributing to the Cooperative Program.
Alone, we may not be financially able to support even a single missionary, but by joining forces with other Southern Baptists through the Cooperative Program, we can support literally thousands of them in Georgia, across North America, and around the world.
Ensuring that Southern Baptist missionaries have the funds they need to shine the light of Christ in a dark world is critical.
In January, the Southern Baptist Convention reported that the IMB had 3,597 overseas missionaries, and NAMB had 2,218 domestic missionaries. No one person or church can support all those missionaries. But as a family of believers, we can.
Giving to the Cooperative Program provides Georgia Baptists the opportunity to be part of a coordinated effort to share the gospel.
“Spiritual lostness is the world’s greatest problem for it is the one problem with eternal consequence,” Chitwood said in Anaheim. “Lostness is the world’s greatest problem, but God has given us a solution. That solution is the gospel.”
It is up to us to help share that solution at home, across our nation, and around the world.
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Henry Durand is news editor of The Christian Index. He can be reached at hdurand@gabaptist.org.
