Can You Find Out How Many NAMB Missionaries Are Involved in Church Planting?

Chuck Kelly, President Emeritus and Distinguished Research Professor of Evangelism at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Director at Innovative Evangelism, recently posted a noteworthy report on his Facebook wall.

For those who don’t want to use Facebook here is the text of the post (note: Kelly did not use paragraphs):

I was excited to hear about 216 new church planters for NAMB. However, I find it very mysterious, even incomprehensible why NAMB refuses to report how many of the total number of its appointed missionaries are assigned to some aspect of church planting. In the past that total number of church planters was a standard part of NAMB’s reports to the SBC. For example, until 2012 NAMB posted in the SBC Annual each year how many of its missionaries were appointed to do some aspect of church planting. For some reason, when NAMB began to nearly triple their church planting budget, they stopped reporting the number of church planting missionaries under appointment. They did so without giving any explanation for the change. As part of a research project I am doing to assess the impact of the Great Commission Resurgence on the SBC after a decade has passed, I contacted NAMB and made an official request for the church planter number each year for the last decade. They adamantly refused to release the number for any year since 2012. I asked a former NAMB Trustee if the NAMB staff tracked that number and he said yes, regularly. This means the information on how many church planters are appointed is very accessible, not requiring special efforts from staff to discover. I asked the Trustee Chair and the two Alabama NAMB Trustees if I could get that annual number of church planters. Again, the request for a very simple and basic piece of data at the core of the mission assigned to NAMB was refused. This means the Trustees have agreed with the administration not to release this basic piece of information to Southern Baptists. With NAMB now budgeting north of $70 million dollars a year on church planting, I cannot imagine why NAMB and its Trustees would not want Southern Baptists to know how many church planters CP is funding. I cannot not imagine not being willing to explain to any Southern Baptist who asked, why such basic data is being kept so confidential. I do admit I never conceived a world in which the number of CP-funded missionaries engaged in church planting would be such a closely guarded secret. Life is best lived with a sense of humor. But let us not forget: This is the season for gratitude. At least we know that in this 2023 CP budget year, Southern Baptists definitely have 216 church planters, and in that we can all rejoice!

To highlight – and let this sink in: “…until 2012 NAMB posted in the SBC Annual each year how many of its missionaries were appointed to do some aspect of church planting. For some reason, when NAMB began to nearly triple their church planting budget, they stopped reporting the number of church planting missionaries under appointment. They did so without giving any explanation for the change.

…

They adamantly refused to release the number for any year since 2012. I asked a former NAMB Trustee if the NAMB staff tracked that number and he said yes, regularly. This means the information on how many church planters are appointed is very accessible, not requiring special efforts from staff to discover. I asked the Trustee Chair and the two Alabama NAMB Trustees if I could get that annual number of church planters. Again, the request for a very simple and basic piece of data at the core of the mission assigned to NAMB was refused. This means the Trustees have agreed with the administration not to release this basic piece of information to Southern Baptists. With NAMB now budgeting north of $70 million dollars a year on church planting, I cannot imagine why NAMB and its Trustees would not want Southern Baptists to know how many church planters CP is funding. I cannot not imagine not being willing to explain to any Southern Baptist who asked, why such basic data is being kept so confidential. I do admit I never conceived a world in which the number of CP-funded missionaries engaged in church planting would be such a closely guarded secret.

The North American Mission Board is up to God only knows what. And it appears any mechanism of oversight has been completely eradicated. You aren’t even allowed to know where their money goes and how, despite donating to their coffers via Annie Armstrong and more every year.

Randy Adams, a man who has tried to mobilize Southern Baptists on this catastrophic failure of oversight for years, drew the obvious conclusion in his reply: