Chitwood installed as new IMB president Feb. 6

Chitwood installed as new IMB president Feb. 6

Paul Chitwood was formally installed as the 13th president of the International Mission Board (IMB) on Feb. 6 in Richmond, Virginia, at a service that included the appointment of 19 new Southern Baptist international missionaries.

Chitwood said he was honored to speak for all those who have the “privilege of serving in this one sacred task — to help Southern Baptists take the gospel to the ends of the earth.”

Citing 2 Corinthians 7:2, Chitwood thanked Southern Baptists “for making room for us in your hearts” through their prayers, their giving, their going and their sending.

“Thank you for making room for the good work the Lord has given to all of us to do,” he said. “You made room and together we will strive with all that is within us to carry out that work, to lead in a way that would honor those who have made room for us and the Lord whose ambassadors we all are in the privilege of doing His work.”

173 years of missions

The IMB’s board of trustees unanimously elected Chitwood president of the 173-year-old organization on Nov. 15, 2018. Chitwood, who previously served as executive director of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, took office immediately. 

The IMB is the largest denominational missionary-sending body among American evangelicals with more than 3,600 missionaries serving globally

The combined installation service and Sending Celebration was held at Grove Avenue Baptist Church, Richmond. The service included testimonies by several missionaries, some of whom “are going to some of the most difficult and resistant places on the planet,” Paul Akin, IMB assessment and deployment team leader, said.

Tom Elliff, IMB president from 2011 to 2014, delivered a charge to Chitwood and the new missionaries.

“How wonderful it is that we have the privilege of joining in this incredible mission of God, sending these people around the world,” he said. 

‘Humble ourselves’

Elliff challenged those listening to “humble ourselves before the Lord and before one another” to see the Great Commission fulfilled.

Others who participated in the service included IMB President Emeritus Jerry Rankin, who served as IMB president from 1993 to 2010; J.D. Greear, president of the Southern Baptist Convention; Sandy Wisdom-Martin, executive director/treasurer of the Woman’s Missionary Union in Birmingham, Alabama; Chuck Pourciau, chairman of the IMB trustee presidential search committee and senior pastor of Broadmoor Baptist Church, Shreveport, Louisiana; and Clyde Meador, IMB’s interim executive vice president. (IMB, TAB)