God is the source of life and mission. God created a good world. Human beings used their God-given freedom to sin, bringing death and destruction to themselves and all creation. Ever since, God has worked to rescue us from death, to undo the destruction caused by our sin and to renew creation. The decisive step in God’s saving mission came when God entered fully into our life through Jesus of Nazareth. In the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, "God was reconciling the world to himself" (2 Corinthians 5:19).

The church is formed as the Spirit of God takes those who respond to Jesus and builds them into a community of faith. By our words and actions as a body of believers, we have the privilege of playing a role in God’s mission to the world. We are ordinary people through whom the Spirit does extraordinary work: glorifying God, making disciples of Jesus Christ and offering to all a glimpse of the coming Reign of God.

American Baptists have been a part of the world-wide body of believers since we came into existence some three centuries ago in colonial America. In 1814 we responded to God’s call to engage in mission beyond our own land, forming an organization that is now called American Baptist International Ministries.

We give thanks for the leading of God that has given us a rich heritage and a worldwide reputation for balanced and sensitive mission outreach. We recognize that our history also includes times when we have not responded faithfully to God’s leading. But, because the Holy Spirit who is working in our world is also working within us, we are not limited by past failures or accomplishments. American Baptists look to the Spirit, to Scripture and to our experience with sisters and brothers around the world to renew our witness and to lead us into fresh and effective ways to glorify God in our rapidly changing world.

Our world is on the move. People are moving further, faster and more frequently than ever before. People groups who once were separated by continents or oceans now meet as neighbors. Information moves so quickly and is spread so widely that local events can be known worldwide. World events have become local events. Scientific and technological discovery moves at unbelievable speed. What we learned as children must be replaced by new learning as adults. What was impossible yesterday becomes difficult today… but available to everyone tomorrow. Yesterday’s breakthrough product becomes tomorrow’s commodity.

But… even when we live next door, we do not always become true neighbors. And, some of those "on the move" are refugees fleeing harmful economic and political forces. Some of our fast-moving information is misleading, or even destructive. And many people have almost no access to information technology at all. Some of our technological breakthroughs are not an advance but are merely new ways to control or destroy.

The city is where people are going in record numbers. Not long ago the people of our planet lived primarily in rural settings, but our world is fast becoming one of urban dwellers. People are flooding into cities in search of jobs, knowledge, culture and recreation.

But… where people come together, we bring not only our creativity but also our sinfulness. So our cities, while full of potential, are choking on problems.

The world economy is no longer a phrase, but a reality. Local economies are now powerfully linked to the global economy. Worldwide exchange is creating opportunities for production and distribution that give average people access to goods and services once available only to those with great privilege and power.

But… our global economy means that decisions and judgments made by unseen and faraway people can produce crises and devastation in local economies. And, many people on our planet cannot hope to acquire even those products that we regard as available "to everyone."

"Who am I?" becomes a hard question to answer in the midst of so much and such rapid change. To answer this question, people in many places are identifying more strongly with their ethnic group, their race, their religious tradition or their culture. Being a citizen of a particular nation is becoming less important to people than being a member of an ethnic, racial or religious group.

But… our human sinfulness makes it easy for our group identities to become the basis not only for strength, but also for competition and conflict with other groups. Many regions of the world are torn by conflict between ethnic, racial or religious groups.

Spiritual hunger grows as people search for a sense of identity in the midst of bewildering change. Spiritual hunger also grows as people realize that science and technology can answer only their questions about "what" and "how," but not about the "why" of their lives. Throughout the world, people are increasingly aware of the spiritual character of human life and are searching for spiritual answers.

But… especially in the most economically and technologically advanced nations, many people have given up the quest for spiritual answers, settling for either despair (seen in rising rates of suicide and drug use) or distraction (through consumerism and entertainment).

Christ is the answer to spiritual hunger, spiritual apathy and the human problems that tear apart our planet. Believers have never had more means at their disposal to communicate the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. The wind of the Spirit is stirring the members of our churches in new ways, giving people a deep desire to become personally involved in mission. The wind of the Spirit is also blowing around the world, raising up missionaries, evangelists and gifted leaders from among God’s people in every nation.

But… while Christians in nations where churches are rich and respected have access to all manner of devotional aids, teaching tools and ministry sophistication, Christians in poorer nations often struggle with basic issues of economic survival, literacy, access to Scripture and religious persecution. Most importantly, despite God’s amazing work of mission—especially in the last two hundred years—over a billion people on our planet have never heard the message of salvation in Jesus Christ.

God continues to call American Baptists into mission, together with our sisters and brothers from other churches and other countries. We are situated in a part of the planet where both economic resources and access to the gospel of Jesus Christ are in plentiful supply. At the same time, it is a place where human brokenness and need for the saving power of the gospel are clearly present. With full awareness of our own need for God’s grace and transforming power, American Baptists in our time are called anew to participate in God's mission to the whole world. Renewed in our calling, we must be renewed also in our methods. As we do mission in new ways, fit for a new day, we confirm the words of our first missionary, who declared the future to be "as bright as the promises of God."

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