Missions Week at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary emphasized the need and the opportunity for students to reach the nations with the Gospel.  

Taking place March 24 – 28, the week featured a variety of guest speakers and events all focused on the importance of fulfilling the Great Commission, one of the seminary’s four pillars.  

Greg Mathias, associate professor of global missions and director of the seminary’s Global Mission Center (GMC), opened chapel on Tuesday (March 25) by recapping two recent mission trips the GMC led during spring break (one to London and one to Mexico). 

Mathias said the seminary’s reason for taking these two outreach trips is clear.

“It’s because of who we are; We want to fulfill His mission,” Mathias said. “That’s why we were established as a Seminary. That’s who we’ve been, that’s who we are right now and, God willing, that’s who we will continue to be.  

“That’s also why we have weeks like this. As you think about this week, I want to encourage you to not miss the opportunity to connect with the church planters, ministries and missionaries that are here on campus. This is a tremendous week not because we highlight missions during this one time of the year, but because we highlight what God is up to all the time and how we can be a part of it.” 

Jamie Dew, president of NOBTS and Leavell College, asked students to consider their part to play in fulfilling the Great Commission.  

“Throughout our whole history, we have really tried to focus on the Great Commission and urged people to consider what God is calling us to do towards the Great Commission,” Dew said.  

“For some of you that means plane tickets and passports. For some of you it means quite literally moving yourself, your spouse and your family across the world to the nations. For some of you, you’re going to pastor churches, and I charge you to pastor and lead in such a way that you’re raising up a generation of people in your church that will go. Whatever it may be, my request to you this morning is that you would make the prayer of your heart: ‘God, how can I be a part of the Great Commission? What do you want me to do towards that end?’” 

Events held throughout the week include a night of prayer and praise at Pontilly Coffee, a missions expo featuring a variety of church planters, missionaries and ministry leaders, an outdoor movie night and a next steps meeting led by representatives from the International Mission Board (IMB) and the North American Mission Board (NAMB).  

The week’s guest chapel speakers were Vance Pitman, president of NAMB’s Send Network, and Paul Chitwood, president of the International Mission Board. 

Pitman spoke on Tuesday about his passion for church planting and his desire for the younger generation to catch the same vision.  

“Church planting is my life,” Pitman said. “It’s what I love, and it’s what I’m so passionate about.  

“I pray that God raises up many of you to be a part of church planting teams. That’s another part of the emphasis that we have right now is the raising up and sending out of teams. We don’t just need to find pastors to preach sermons, we need teams of people to relocate.  

“If you look at the New Testament, Paul is the greatest church planter who ever lived. When you read the name Paul in the Bible, the next word is almost always ‘and’ because Paul never went anywhere by himself. Paul always took a team of men and women that made up those church planting teams that were leveraging their job skills and passions for the sake of the mission.” 

Pitman emphasized that church planting and mission are ultimately inseparable. 

“It’s never just about a church plant,” Pitman said. “What we’ve done in North America in church planting is we’ve made it all about the growing of the church and the success of the church and what we’ve done with the nations is we’ve made it a department in the church we call missions. The Church doesn’t do missions, the Church is born for the mission. That’s been the case since Jesus started this movement 2000 years ago.” 

Chitwood started his Thursday address by expressing gratitude for the work of the seminary and encouraged students to get involved in reaching the nations with the Gospel. 

“Thank you faculty and staff at New Orleans Seminary for the job you are doing,” he said. “You make me proud as a Southern Baptist.  

“Every time I am here, I am renewed in my optimism that God is doing something unique in the rising generation to complete the Great Commission. I praise God for the commitment that you feel to that. Go and share the good news. There’s a world full of people literally dying to hear it.”