Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research, interviewed Kevin Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board (NAMB), and David Platt, president of the International Mission Board (IMB) on a number of different issues at the Cooperative Program exhibit at the 2015 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio. The answers Platt and Ezell gave Stetzer about IMB and NAMB ministry statement amendments signaled an increased amount of collaboration between the two organizations in the future.
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BP photo by Bill Bangham Kevin Ezell, left, president of the North American Mission Board, and David Platt, center, president of the International Mission Board, were interviewed by Ed Stetzer, vice president of LifeWay Christian Resources, about the future of SBC missions June 16 at the Cooperative Program booth in the exhibit hall of the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio. |
When asked about the recent NAMB ministry statement amendment, Ezell responded, “Three or four years ago the IMB asked to change their mission statement so they could minister in North America in collaboration with NAMB. … So what we simply did was take that statement and flip it. It’s the exact same wording to give us the freedom to go outside of America with the collaboration of the IMB.”
Platt added, “The more those relationships and conversations are happening, and through partnerships together, the better for the spread of the gospel here and for the spread of the gospel there.”
Stetzer ended the interview by asking Platt candidly, “Do you plan on moving any people into the empty rooms at [NAMB headquarters]?”
Platt responded, “Everything is on the table.
“However and wherever we can best mobilize churches from, train missionaries from and engage missionaries from – we want to be wherever that is.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE – Seth Brown is the content editor at the Biblical Recorder.)