IMB reports 500,000 baptisms in 2008

by Don Graham                                                                                                                                          Vol. XXIII, No. 3, March 2010

[Editor’s Note: The International Mission Board has released its Annual Statistical Report for 2009, which provides information on God's work around the world during 2008.]

"You could be killed for talking about Jesus around here." That's what a Muslim named Bershi* told missionary Luke Jenkins* after Jenkins shared the Gospel with him.

Bershi was an illegal immigrant looking for work when he came to the Central Asian nation where Jenkins serves as a church planter. But his warning didn't stop Jenkins. He continued to discuss Jesus with Bershi, and as the young man's interest grew, they began studying the Bible together. Eventually Bershi gave his life to Christ and was baptized.

Since that time Bershi has begun to actively share his faith and even baptized three others he led to Christ earlier this year. He also has returned to his own country, a place with severely limited access to the Gospel and very few believers.

Bershi's baptism is among the more than 506,000 recorded by the International Mission Board in 2008 -- an average of one baptism per minute. Southern Baptist missionaries and their partners also reported starting more than 24,650 new churches last year. (Baptisms were 10.6 percent below the 2007 total; new churches, 8.6 percent below.) Meanwhile, the total number of overseas churches topped 204,000, up from 111,000 just five years ago.

The IMB also reported engaging 93 new people groups with the Gospel for the first time.

The numbers are evidence of the way God is continuing to use Southern Baptists to complete the Great Commission task.

*Names changed to protect the participants.