NAMB
The North American Mission Board was created in 1997 when the resources of three former SBC agencies (the Home Mission Board, the Radio and Television Commission, and the Brotherhood Commission) were combined. The primary responsibility of NAMB is to assist Southern Baptist churches in reaching the United States, Canada, and their territories with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Formed in 1997 with more than a 150 year tradition
Offices in Alpharetta, Georgia, just north of Atlanta.
Focus on sharing Christ, starting churches and sending missionaries
255 million unbelievers in the United States and Canada
More than 5,300 missionaries
2,500 endorsed chaplains
450,000 mission volunteers complement the work
More than 1,400 new churches started in 2009.
7,000 ethnic congregations
Funded primarily by Annie Armstrong Easter Offering® and Cooperative Program
Web site: www.namb.net
North American Mission Board Timeline
1845 - Newly formed Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), meeting at First Baptist Church, Augusta, Georgia, establishes the Board of Domestic Missions, to be based in Marion, Alabama.
1847 - First Southern Baptist involvement in chaplaincy begins at the University of Virginia.
1855 - The Board of Domestic Missions was renamed the Domestic and Indian Mission Board, incorporating responsibility for Indian Missions.
1861-1865 - During the Civil War, the Board of Domestic Missions drops most of its missionary work to supply chaplains for the Confederacy.
1874 - The Board of Domestic Missions becomes the Home Mission Board (HMB) of the SBC.
1882 - The HMB relocates from Marion, Ala., to Atlanta, Ga., the center of travel between the North and the South.
1887 - Every Southern state cooperates with the HMB by commissioning home missionaries and fostering denominational consciousness.
1888 - Woman's Missionary Union (WMU) is established as an auxiliary to the SBC. Annie Armstrong becomes the organization's first corresponding secretary, rallying Baptist women to engage in domestic missions to "immigrants, blacks, and Indians."
1895 - The first home missions offering was taken by WMU during a "Week of Self Denial for Home Missions," raising more than $5,000. This marks the beginning of an annual event, now known as the North American Missions Emphasis and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering®.
1907- The Laymen's Missionary Movement begins, which becomes the catalyst for the creation of the Brotherhood Commission.
1925 - HMB benefits from the Cooperative Program, established as the primary channel for supporting missions and ministries of the SBC.
1929 - The HMB incurred a $2.5 million debt, reflecting the nation's wavering economy. The Great Depression struck, and missionary forces plunged from 1,600 to 106.
1926 - Southern Bapitsts involved in the Laymen's Missionary Movement create the Baptist Brotherhood of theSouth.
1934 - The annual missions offering taken to benefit home missions is named in honor of Annie Armstrong.
1941 - SBC begins endorsement of chaplains.
1944 - Student summer missions, one of the HMB's first volunteer endeavors, begins with 11 summer missionaries.
1950 - Baptist Brotherhood of the South becomes the Brotherhood Commission of the SBC, with offices in Memphis, Tennessee.
1954 - The Royal Ambassador movement, sponsored and promoted by WMU since its birth as an organization, moves from WMU to the Brotherhood Commission.
1959 - Cooperative Agreements with state Baptist conventions begin, creating a major building block of national mission strategy.
1960 - Work with ethnic/language-culture groups becomes HMB's largest program in budget and number of missionaries.
1963 - The HMB appoints the first US-2 missionaries (college graduates volunterring for two years of missionary service).
1967 - Texas Baptist Men respond to victims of Hurricane Beulah in the Rio Grande Valley. Southen Baptist Disaster Relief is born.
1977 - Mission Service Corps is created to coordinate and promote self-funded missionary volunteers.
1982 - The HMB supports more than 3,000 missionaries.
1984 - The Brotherhood Commission begins coordination of disaster relief ministry with state Baptist conventions.
1990 - The Brotherhood Commission starts a youth coed mission project called "World Changers" to involve youth in missions.
1995 - The HMB celebrates its 150th anniversary and moves to a new five-story office complex, 22 miles north of Atlanta at 4200 North Point Parkway, Alpharetta, Ga.
1997 - As part of the Covenant for a New Century, the SBC creates the North American Mission Board (NAMB) which combins the HMB, Radio and Television Commission (RTVC), and Brotherhood Commission. The new board is based in Alpharetta, Georgia.
1998 - The Nehemiah Project, which provides a professor of church planting on each Southern Baptist seminary campus who can engage and recruit church planters, is initiated.
2001 - NAMB leads unprecedented disaster relief response following September 11, 2001, attack in New York City.
2002 - NAMB leads in concentrated ministry and evangelism efforts at 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
2003 - Mission Service Corps celebrates 25 years of placing people in volunteer mission positions throughout the United States and Canada; World Changers participants grows to more than 25,000.
2004 - Annie Armstrong Easter Offering® exceeds $50 million.
2005-2006 - Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, coordinated nationally by NAMB, has its greatest response to date as a result of Hurricane Katrina. From August 2005 through March 2006, Disaster Relief volunteers serve 14.5 million meals and collectively give 1.5 million hours toward relief efforts.
2006 - Annie Armstrong Easter Offering® surpasses its $56 million goal by almost $2 million for the first time in decades.
2008 - NAMB introduces God's Plan for Sharing (GPS) at the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana. The 10-year evangelism initiative, to be launched in 2010, urges Southern Baptists to fulfillf the challenge of "Every Believer Sharing, Every Person Hearing, by 2020."