The International Mission Board (IMB) recently launched the Lead Global Training Center in Nairobi to equip Africans for effective outreach to the African continent. The IMB is a Baptist Christian missionary society affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
On January 26, IMB missionaries and senior leaders from the Richmond, Virginia, offices gathered to pray for African churches to send native missionaries and to celebrate the work being accomplished across the continent, according to Baptist Press.
Chad Pumpelly, who serves with the IMB and directs the Lead Global Training Center, shared his vision for the facility, stating, “I want to look around the room one day and see African missionaries being sent out.”
His wife, Miriam, added, “Our hope is for African believers to own their part in the Great Commission and for us to equip those who are already called, so they can use their skills for God’s glory throughout the world.”
The dedication featured remarks from local IMB missionaries and Todd Lafferty, with Daren Davis celebrating the occasion alongside Lafferty through a ribbon-cutting and the unveiling of a dedication stone.
The Lead Global facility aims to empower churches to engage effectively with unreached people groups. IMB missionaries are committed to helping African Baptist churches reach a point where they can independently send and support missionaries.
Pasifique, a believer from Burundi, completed training in the components of the missionary task and evangelized in a challenging area, resulting in 16 new baptized believers. Now, he aspires to become a trainer himself to equip churches in Burundi and other French-speaking countries in evangelism, discipleship, and church planting.
The IMB, which was formerly known as the Foreign Mission Board, originally purchased the Lead Global property in 1980, and since 2019, the site has been utilized for mission training.
By the year 2050, it is projected that 38 percent of the world’s professing Christians will be from Sub-Saharan Africa, and participants in the Lead Global program aim to collaborate with IMB globalization partners to identify mission fields in need of African workers.
The Lead Global team is also training African missionaries to join IMB teams worldwide as Global Missionary Partners and is currently seeking four additional trainers and an operations manager to support their efforts.
