When I came to the North American Mission Board it was with a vision to do whatever it takes to reach the hearts and minds of people in the United States and Canada with the only message that can ultimately bring hope and fulfillment.

NAMB is committed to assisting churches in fulfilling the Great Commission in this generation. Simply put, our business is to communicate the Greatest Message ever told and to equip Christians and churches to fulfill the Greatest Mission ever given. In collaboration with associations and state conventions, NAMB is focused on taking Christ to North America.

To be successful in fulfilling the daunting mission we have been called to carry, I am convinced we must give priority attention to five key areas. Together, the words making up these priorities spell SERVE. This mission will require every Southern Baptist and every church to embrace Jesus command to go and make disciples. And it will require Southern Baptists to forge new partnerships and work in new ways as we remain firmly rooted in the biblical foundations and rock-solid doctrine so essential to our effectiveness and identity.

Strategic Focus CitiesThe size and diversity of North Americas growing cities in some ways make ministry more challenging, but if we strategically take Southern Baptist resources to these places of such lostness and such opportunity, I am convinced we will see God change hearts as never before. Already:

• In Phoenix as many churches were planted in one year of intentional focus as in the previous 10. In 80 percent of the SBC churches in Phoenix average attendance grew 20 percent, missions giving grew 21 percent and baptisms grew 47 percent.

• In Las Vegas 14 new healthy churches were planted and 80 percent of the churches had Vacation Bible School with overwhelming results. A major media campaign linking the local churches to the response had wonderful success.
  

• In Boston 15 new churches were planted and a focused media campaign was implemented. Dr. Jack Graham, pastor of Dallas Prestonwood Baptist Church, was even able to speak to all the runners prior to the Boston Marathon.

Ethnic CongregationsGod is truly bringing the world to our doorstep in North America. A visit to the grocery store in most cities is like taking a trip through the foods and cultures of the world. Some are new citizens, others long-term visitors. All bring hopes of opportunities and prosperity that might be impossible in the land they left behind.

To most effectively reach the diverse cultural collage that is 21st century North America, Christians must approach people in ways in which they can connect and feel at home. With that in mind, NAMB is leading an effort with Southern Baptist partnersLifeWay Christian Resources, Womans Missionary Union and the International Mission Boardto provide the top 12 resources needed to plant Southern Baptist churches for 20 language groups by 2003.

We want to make it easier for every citizen to find a Southern Baptist church where they can feel at home no matter what their ethnic or cultural heritage. We are already making progress. In the last five years more than half of the new church plants in North America were African-American or ethnic congregations with 58 percent in 2001. Building on that progress will help us reach more people for Christ than ever before.

Reaching CanadaThe warm relationship between the United States and Canada means more than ever in a day of increasing world instability and uncertainty. But Christians in the U.S. would be serving our friends to the north poorly if we settle for this comfortable friendship and dont reach out to address the enormous spiritual challenges Canada faces.

Today only 163 Southern Baptist churches serve the entire nation of 31 million people. Canada is experiencing the same cultural diversity as the U.S. and desperately needs new congregations to reach new populations.

From its beginning, NAMB made Canada a priority. We established a North American Church Planting Center in Canadas Southern Baptist seminary. World Changers and summer missionaries have traveled to Canada to serve alongside full-time missionaries who are punching holes into spiritual darkness. One of our newest missionaries, Mark Clifton, is dedicated to a national church planting strategy in Canada.

VolunteersWe are thrilled with the thousands of volunteers who have such an enormous impact for Christ in North America each year. To walk with them and serve next to them has been one of the highlights of my service at NAMB. These volunteers, from Southern Baptist churches throughout the United States and Canada, are the heroes of disaster relief outreach and church construction as well as the leaders of many Southern Baptist ministries that take place in hospitals, prisons, college campuses, resort areas and many others.

But we need more. I thank God for every pastor and missionary we have, but, alone, they cant come close to meeting the needs that exist in our society today. Many of our efforts at NAMB are built around spurring more Southern Baptists and their churches into action. Our Volunteer Mobilization Center helped to mobilize 17,000 volunteers in 2001, and 42,000 volunteers are projected for mobilization in 2002. Our Evangelism Response Center has harnessed technology to facilitate hundreds of trained volunteers to counsel inquirers who call 1-800-JESUS-2000 during media campaigns, strategic focus cities emphases and other evangelistic events. Similar ministries via the Internet allow volunteer counselors to share the life-changing knowledge of Christ from the convenience of their own homes.

Through the ministry of World Changers more than 20,000 young people are taking a week out of their summer vacations to rebuild substandard housing and share Christ. In the summer of 2001 they saw 1,600 professions of faith.

This year is the 25th anniversary of Mission Service Corps. During these 25 years we have seen more than 6,400 MSC volunteer missionaries sacrificially give their time to spread the gospel. Many serve full time and raise their own support. Others have already finished their first careers and use their retirement years serving through MSC. And of course there are thousands of volunteers who impact their communities by serving through their local churches.

The volunteer mindset at NAMB includes encouraging laypeople to share Christ in the real world where they live. On mission, NAMBs flagship magazine, equips Christians to be on mission in their daily traffic pattern of life. Subscriptions have grown from zero in 1999 to 85,000 copies going to individual subscribers and churches in 2001.

Evangelizing StudentsResearch shows that as people grow older, their likelihood of accepting Christ as Savior diminishes greatly. In fact, if a person does not come to a faith in Christ before or during the teen years, it is statistically impropable that he or she will.

Those trends bring an added urgency to the importance of focusing specific efforts on reaching students for Christ. Doing so is also a smart way to ensure that the leaders of tomorrowin our churches, schools, government, media and industrywill carry with them the knowledge of Christ and the biblical principles by which He taught us to live.

NAMB has helped establish Campus Revolution to facilitate student-led and student-sponsored prayer and evangelism clubs on every junior high and senior high campus in America.

The effort was launched in the fall of 2000 and by 2001 had a presence in more than 4,000 campuses seeing an excess of 5,000 students commit their lives to Christ monthly. It has been our fastest growing student strategy in the U.S.

The Campus Missionary strategy helps local churches commission teens with the specific task of reaching their peers at junior high and high school campuses.

Go!, NAMBs magazine for students, encourages and equips readers to have an impact for their faith. Growing from zero in 2000 to a circulation of 65,000, Go! helps students walk the talk and be on mission on their campuses and in their lifestyles.

Another way students are preparing for sharing their faith is through Challengers, an on mission accountability group for boys. There are 2,500 Challengers groups now training for mission service.

The issues we face as we seek to take Christ to North America are staggering. Our societys values, the stability of our families, the soul of our nations, the future of our world, all hang in the balance.

Every church is needed to do its part in becoming a World Mission Center based on Acts 1:8impacting its own Jerusalem, its Judea, its Samaria and the far reaches of the world.

And time is of the essence. With the tensions of our world escalating, the window of opportunity may be diminishing.

When it comes to obediently taking the message of Christ to our city, state, continent and world. the questions become: If not us, who?

If not now, when?

Bob Reccord is president of the North American Mission Board, SBC.