The SCBI wants to set the environment for every church to be active in missions in our state and globally. 

We need to fuel the IMB pipeline with more missionary candidates, and we need to actively reach people in our state and beyond with the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

The Hoosier Heartbeat for Missions is a packaged way of expressing our commitment to providing your church with these opportunities. 

There are five beats to the Hoosier Heartbeat:

Indiana Disaster Relief

Disaster Relief is nothing new to Southern Baptists. It is a very effective ministry for sharing and showing the love of Christ with people in times of great need, like we saw a few weeks ago when one of our DR teams led a person to the Lord while serving in Kentucky. 

The SCBI is committed to boosting this ministry by expanding training and better organizing our efforts so that churches can more easily participate. 

Indiana Children’s Services

I recently introduced the partnership we are developing with Sunrise Children’s Services in Kentucky to be able to license foster families and provide for adoptions in Indiana. The Sunrise lawyers are still working with the Indiana government to approve our contract to allow us to operate out of our biblical convictions. We’ll formalize this relationship and organization once that contract is granted (we’re hopeful), and we’ll certainly celebrate it with our churches!

When your church supports our Children’s services organization (financially or supporting families from your church who foster and adopt), you will see children in homes with people who love Jesus and will model a Christlike lifestyle, and you could change a generation of Hoosiers. This is an incredible mission!

Missionary Pipeline Awareness & Equipping (with IMB Advocates)

I sat in the International Mission Board’s building in Richmond, VA, knowing their goal of sending 500 more missionaries over the next five years. What I didn’t know was that 300 missionaries come off the field every year for various reasons (their assignment is complete, they retire, etc.). So, when I realized that we need to send 400 new missionaries every year if we’re going to see 500 more over the next five years, I started thinking of how we can fuel the pipeline with more Hoosier candidates. 

Our solution: We’re going to utilize our IMB alumni (missionaries who completed their assignment) to connect and couple. We held a training on August 15 with eight IMB alumni, three IMB staff, and some of our staff and pastors, to see if they would commit to serving our convention as IMB Advocates. All of them agreed! They will:

CONNECT– Make one connection (phone call, etc.) with an SCBI pastor each week and be available to speak in churches/associations when missionaries are desired.

COUPLE– Every Hoosier candidate in the IMB pipeline will be paired with one of our IMB Advocates to have prayer and emotional support throughout the process. 

International Pastor’s Training (with OnMission2)

This ministry partnership is nothing new, but it’s one we’re going to keep strengthening. David Wilson leads an organization called OnMission2, and the SCBI scholarships two pastors for three trips a year to Ecuador to train pastors there. Giving pastors this opportunity to teach theology in several locations throughout Ecuador exercises their gifts of teaching and helps ignite a new passion in them for missions that they will bring back to their churches. 

Strategic International Short-term Experiences

These experiences are still being developed, but we are partnering once again with the IMB to create short-term mission trips for Indiana churches. We’re choosing a strategic location where church members can go and serve alongside missionaries. Over time, we’ll be able to see the impact our churches have had in a particular part of the world. Essentially, the SCBI and IMB will do the admin work for our churches to sign up, pay up, and show up to go for a short-term international mission trip. The SCBI is grounded and growing. We have a rich history and a bright future. The Hoosier Heartbeat for Missions will help your church be on mission in our state and around the world. Are you ready to go?