Strategy Coordinator: Changing the Course of Southern Baptist Missions

In 1976, the Southern Baptist Convention adopted its Bold New Thrusts in Foreign Missions with the overarching goal of sharing the gospel with every person in the world by the year 2000. The formation of Cooperative Services International (CSI) in 1985 and the assigning of the first nonresidential missionary (NRM) in 1987 demonstrated the commitment of the Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board) to take the gospel message to countries that restricted traditional missionary presence and to people groups identified as having little or no access to the gospel. Carlton traces the historical development and offers an analysis of the key components of the paradigm and its significant impact on Southern Baptists’ missiology.