DALLAS (BP) — International Mission Board (IMB) President Paul Chitwood encouraged all Southern Baptists to recognize their role in missions during the IMB report at the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting in Dallas.

Chitwood delivered the report to messengers Wednesday afternoon near the conclusion of the two-day meeting. The focus of the entity’s report amplified the essence of IMB’s recurrent message that Southern Baptists are stronger when reaching the nations, together.

“I’m honored to bring you greetings on behalf of your International Mission Board and more than 3,500 missionaries and their families serving around the globe,” Chitwood said.

“I’m here today to thank you, to celebrate with you and to challenge you, because, together, Southern Baptists are making incredible progress in this mission,” he said.

Speaking to the importance of relationships that progress missions, Chitwood emphasized that relationships with home churches, the lost, local partners and all Southern Baptist sending churches are critical to the advance of the gospel around the world.

“Through these relationships, God is moving,” Chitwood said. “Over the past year together, we went to the nations.” He noted that in addition to IMB missionaries, 12,000 Southern Baptists partnered with IMB missionary teams on short-term mission trips.

“We also sent to the nations,” he said, referring to all Southern Baptists, not just the IMB or particular churches.  

“We sent 423 new missionaries, including the 58 we celebrated together yesterday,” he told the crowd. “Project 3000 continues to gain momentum. Project 3000 is our intentional and strategic effort to ensure the remaining 3,000 unengaged people groups are engaged with the gospel. So far, 33 missionary explorers have been sent, with more on the way. Together, they have found 214 people groups and engaged 109 of those people groups for the very first time. Many of these peoples were in areas once thought unreachable.”

Turning to the importance of cooperative financial support, Chitwood reported that Southern Baptist giving reached a historic milestone in 2024.

“Through your sacrificial generosity, we received a record-breaking $206.8 million through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering,” he said. “And your commitment to the Cooperative Program (CP) in this 100th anniversary year remains strong, with more than 60% of your gifts that make it to IMB going directly overseas to be used on the frontlines of missionary work. This kind of giving changes eternity — it sends and it sustains a missionary presence proclaiming the gospel.”

Cooperative giving by Southern Baptists fully funds IMB missionaries, distinguishing them from those who must raise their own support. Chitwood quoted the statistic that half of missionaries who raise their own funds end up back home before their first term comes to an end, most due to withering financial support. 

“Since I became IMB president, because of your generosity, not one IMB missionary has come home due to financial need,” he said, to the applause of messengers.

Chitwood kept missionary presence at the forefront of the report.

“In 2024, more Southern Baptists answered God’s call to represent all of our churches, together, on the world’s mission fields. The missionary applicant pool has grown by more than 500% since 2018, recently topping 1,600.

“That’s not just a number. It’s your sons and daughters, your church members, your friends who need our support.”

IMB believes missionary presence is critical to addressing global lostness. Chitwood reported that more missionaries are not only going, but they’re staying longer on the field, leading to “deeper investment, stronger partnerships and lasting gospel impact.”

Chitwood repeatedly voiced his thankfulness for the partnership of Southern Baptists.

“Your faithful prayers and generosity — every penny of it — enables your missionaries to be steadfastly present and fully funded,” he said.

Chitwood recognized Southern Baptists’ response to natural disaster, hunger, war and trauma through Send Relief. He reported that through 471 relief projects, Southern Baptists served almost 2 million people in 78 countries with physical and spiritual care.

“In 2024, God moved,” he said, reporting:

• 1.6 million people heard the gospel presentation;
• 145,000 of them professed faith in Jesus;
• 68,000 were baptized and discipled by missionaries sent and supported by IMB;
• 84,000 new leaders were trained;
• 2,400 new churches were planted.

“As believers, we are commanded to make disciples,” Chitwood said. “So we train and foster local leadership in their context to embrace the Great Commission, both locally and globally from the start of their existence as a church.”

He continued, “While we celebrate all God is allowing us to be a part of together with one another and with Him, we cannot ignore the sobering reality that every day 166,338 people enter eternity, separated from Christ forever.”

The number is not just a statistic, Chitwood noted. “These are people — each created in God’s image — whose life can be transformed by the gospel if they have the opportunity to hear. The harvest is still plentiful, and the laborers are still too few.”

IMB’s Journeyman Program, through which young adults spend two years sharing the gospel overseas, celebrated its 60^th anniversary in 2025. Chitwood recognized those in the session who had served as Journeymen. He then asked those who had served through the IMB as appointed missionaries or volunteers to stand, as well.

He completed his report by asking everyone to stand in recognition of every individual’s call to pray, give, go and send through local Southern Baptist churches.

“If you are standing in this room,” he said, “there’s a very good chance that you give your tithes and offerings, as God intended, in your local church and that your church gives through the Cooperative Program.”

In his role as IMB president, and in his prior leadership at the local church and state levels, Chitwood has remained a vocal proponent of the Cooperative Program. The IMB receives more Cooperative Program funds than other SBC ministries, for which Chitwood voiced his gratitude.

“I want to affirm that the IMB depends on the ministries CP supports at the state convention level and among our other CP-funded national entities,” Chitwood said.

“The IMB needs state convention ministries that plant and strengthen local churches and advocate for the CP and the IMB,” he continued. “The IMB needs North American Mission Board as our Send Relief partner and diaspora ministry partner, and as a U.S. church-planting force. The IMB needs strong seminaries to send us well-trained missionary candidates. In so many ways, the IMB is stronger because of everything the Cooperative Program has funded for 100 years.”

He concluded the report with repeated thanks and encouragement toward unity.

“Together, we will not stop until the name of Jesus is exalted in every nation, all tribes, peoples and languages,” he said. “We will not stop, we must not stop, until the Great Commission is complete and we stand before the throne and before the Lamb in that great multitude.”