Hammond presents need for missionaries in North America

by Lauren Crane

Though the United States is often considered a “Christian nation,” Geoff Hammond said there is still plenty of work to do in making believers and disciples of all people, especially those residing in North America.

The president of the North American Mission Board, Hammond has a passion for reaching people living in the United States, Canada and the territories, those areas that are the focus of NAMB’s work. He said people often forget there is a very ripe mission field within the United States, and it is one that is growing and constantly changing. While speaking to the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary family during chapel on April 29, Hammond challenged students to see the world they live in as a mission. After presenting a NAMB video on the status of North America and the work of Southern Baptists here, he challenged students to hear the call of God and allow themselves to be sent by God, wherever that may be.

“There is still work left to do,” Hammond said, after showing the great need for missionaries in this region. Although there are approximately 150,000 NAMB missionaries, volunteers and chaplains working within North America, Hammond said there are still 250 million people to be reached.

“We have been sent by the Father,” Hammond said. “We follow in the footsteps of the disciples, as we too have been given the Great Commission.”

Hammond said the mission field of the United States, Canada and the territories is constantly changing and challenging those who are trying to make believers in this area.

“It is becoming a darker mission field,” Hammond said. “The rise of pluralism, the rise of secularism…North America is a mission field.”

Like many international missionaries working in closed and hostile countries overseas, Hammond said there are missionaries with NAMB who are now working with sensitive people groups by using a platform – that is, working in another capacity to gain access to people for the sake of the gospel.

Hammond said there must be a distinction between “calling and sending,” but that both aspects of ministry must be present.

“I believe in the call of God, but I also believe in the sending of God,” Hammond said. “In the calling, there is also a sending. Realize you have been sent by the Father, and it is the Holy Spirit who keeps you there.”

Speaking from John 9:4, Hammond said the passage teaches us to do the work of the Lord at all times, because no one knows when night will fall.

“We are sent by the Father to do the work of the Father,” Hammond said. He said this sense of urgency, stemming from the unknown time of the return of the Lord, should motivate us to reach people with the gospel.

“If we as Southern Baptists were as consumed about doing the will of the Father as we were about fellowship, we would be a lot more effective at evangelizing Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the Earth.”

Hammond said to go wherever God calls and sends you and to work diligently, awaiting the “nighttime.”

“Three-fourths of the people who die in the United States die without a saving knowledge of God,” he said. “Be sure, wherever you are, to share the love of Jesus Christ.”

Looking at the numbers of people yet to be reached with the gospel in North America alone, Hammond likened the church to a cornfield, with the capacity for 300 rows that is planted and cultivated with only 40-60 rows of corn.

“I want to say to you, Southern Baptists, God has given us, just in the United States, over 300 million. If we continue to just plant and reap in just 40-60 million of those folks, we will never reach North America for Christ,” Hammond prayed, “Lord, send out laborers from this group of people that will go to all those rows. Send them, and give them fruit.”