Thoughts on Jerry Rankin Retiring.

The number of new churches each year has had a 13X increase in the 16 years Rankin has been president.

Yet there has always been a need to track progress. When Rankin took over leadership of the IMB in 1993, the Southern Baptist mission organization saw nearly 4,000 missionaries help start more than 2,000 churches in 142 countries. Last year more than 5,500 IMB missionaries helped plant nearly 27,000 churches and engage 101 new people groups for a total of 1,190 engaged people groups. http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=31262

This is the power of multiplication.

This has been done, to a large degree, through joining God in what God is doing through Church Planting Movements. These lay led small groups are turning the world upside down through the power of multiplication. Andy Stanley is the the poster child for multiplying small groups in America.

We went from 2000 to 27,000 in the last 16 years. Let's put another zero (270,000) in the next 16 years!

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