BMA Global Goals for 2024
Here are some of the goals for a few of the areas and ministries of BMA Global for 2024:
Operations — Vice President for Global Operations John Meriweather
• We are praying for a 15% increase in The Jerry Kidd Missions Offering — over 250 participating churches plus a $500,000 offering.
• We are praying for a 5% increase in church support for our World Missions Fund — 5% more churches and a 5% increase from current supporting churches. This closely aligns with the growth we are seeing in the number of global ChangeMakers (national church planters).
• We are praying for more individuals and families to be personally engaged in God’s global mission. Increased engagement includes an increase in individual donors, increased engagement with our communication streams (including email, social media and web) and increased involvement in short-term missions.
North American Church Planting — Vice President Church Strategy and Training Larry Barker
• We aim to see BMA Global planting churches in North America among 15 language groups. We have church plants in seven languages right now.
• We are asking God to raise up church planting clusters where three families will go to a determined city to plant three churches which will multiply to three churches each in five to seven years.
We are asking God to raise up more local churches to multiply by sending a group out of their church to reach people far from God. This could be local or distant, but churches plant churches!
Healthy Church Solutions — Vice President Church Strategy and Training Larry Barker
• We aim to see our pastors and churches embrace our prayer initiative by participating in prayer retreats and prayer trainings and developing a prayer culture in our churches.
• We encourage our pastors and church leaders to attend our newest one-day regional training course, ReFresh. (You can contact us to attend or schedule this training in your area. Contact us at larry@bmaam.com or heidi@bmaam.com.)
• We want to see pastors and church leaders be renewed and encouraged at our ReCharge Conference this October in Northwest Arkansas.
North American Spanish Ministries — Hispanic People in US Ministry Coordinator Elvis Garcia
• We pray to continue seeing the number of Spanish-speaking churches in the U.S. multiply. We currently have 60 Spanish-speaking churches in 9 states.
• We pray that we will develop leaders through our leader cohort and church planting residency. We have 22 leaders currently in the program.
• We hope to provide conferences like the “Man to Man” conference and trainings for future expansion to the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population.
Training — Assessment & Training Coordinator Eliezer Semedo
We currently have the following trainings scheduled for 2024:
• Good Soil Evangelism and Discipleship (GSED) Training (Buena Tierra) in January — This training is geared toward a few of our Hispanic leaders in Central Arkansas. The GSED approach uses “the Bible’s redemptive story, from Genesis through Revelation, allowing the participant to have his/her own ‘aha’ moments as mysteries of the Bible are progressively revealed through the study. It’s a great ‘no pressure’ way for non-Christian participants to clearly understand the gospel so they can sincerely embrace Jesus as Savior.”
• Bible Training Center for Pastors (BTCP) in March — BTCP training uses a “biblical, systematic, portable and comprehensive approach to providing the foundational equivalent of a good Bible college or seminary education.” The mission of BTCP is to “extend comprehensive theological training to the world’s pastors and church leaders.”
• GSED training in June.
• Multiplication Workshop in August — This workshop is focused on training every believer to become a disciplemaker.
Missionary Care — Director of Missionary Care Jonathan Montgomery
• We aim to grow our team of encouragers that will reach out to our global missionaries, church planters and their families.
• We aim to create more resources and services to provide care and support for our missionary kids.
• We aim to increase our number of CareGivers who can provide monthly financial support to help our ministry expand.
Baptist Medical Missions International (BMMI) — Director of BMMI Dr. Ralph Izard
• We prayerfully ask for God’s guidance in recruiting and training new medical professionals.
• We are prayerfully considering new locations where BMMI can help reach people with the gospel.
Volunteer Student Missions (VSM) — Director of Short-Term Missions Angela Rice
• We are praying for God to send more students to the field this year.
• We are praying that we can recruit and train students and leaders.
• We are praying for more opportunities to work with churches on logistics and training for mission trips.
BMA Global Leadership Structure
Dr. John David Smith, President
John David Smith is passionate about the missionary mandate. Influenced by church-planting parents and with a love for church multiplication, he has been in ministry since 1987. He and his family served as missionaries to Cape Verde Islands (West Africa) from 1992 to 2004. Three years after his time there, John David was named assistant to the director of BMA Global. He also began leading the missions degree program at Central Baptist College, and today, he serves as an associate professor. In 2010, he became the executive director of BMA Global, which has more than 500 missionaries in over 70 countries. John David and his wife Kim have two sons, Josiah (Baylee) and Seth. He enjoys sports, aviation, biking, and scuba diving. He is a cancer survivor, speaks three languages, and has helped fly a small airplane across the Atlantic.
International Missions
• Stan Scroggins — regional coordinator for Asia Pacific
• David Dickson (recently retired) — regional coordinator for Latin America
• Charlie Costa — regional coordinator for the Middle East
• Johnmichael Poulin — regional coordinator for South America and Africa
• Larry Wood — regional coordinator for Europe
• Eliezer B. Semedo — regional coordinator for Portuguese-Speaking Countries
• John Meriweather — regional coordinator for Southeast Asia
• Eric Johnson — regional coordinator for Mexico
• Buddy Johnson — trainer
• Jonathan Montgomery — Director of Missionary Care
North America Missions
• Larry Barker — Vice President of Church Strategy and Training
• Jamshad Hadyat — ministry coordinator for Pakistani People in the US
• Asher “Ashraf” Sara — ministry coordinator for Arabic People in the US
• Boris Lebedev — ministry coordinator for Russian People in the US
• Elvis Garcia — ministry coordinator for Hispanic People in the US
• Heidi Sorrells — pastor advocate
• Eliezer B. Semedo — coordinator of Assessment & Training
• Dr. Scott Carson — coordinator of BMAA Chaplaincy
Mobilization
• Dr. Ralph Izard — Director of Baptist Medical Missions International
• Dr. John Ladd — Assistant Director of Baptist Medical Missions International
• Angela Rice — Director of Short-Term Missions
• Sidney Vines — Church Relationship Coordinator
Operations
• John Meriweather — Vice President of Global Operations
• Tina Cummins — lead accountant
• Karen Ann Keathley — accountant
• Cherie Hall — accountant
• Margaret Anderson — office manager
• Holly Meriweather — content coordinator