IMB Conference presents opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa

Together for the Nations Conference, an International Mission Board effort to expose pastors and church leaders to the great gospel need in our world and offer opportunities for involvement, came to Phoenix on Sept. 25. About 100 attended the event at Foothills Baptist Church in Ahwatukee.

The conference was organized and led by John and Wanne Dina, IMB Sub-Saharan Africa Affinity trainers. John is an Arizona native. He grew up and felt God’s call to missions at Royal Palms Baptist Church in Phoenix.

“Aligning the strengths of the church with the great needs we have on the mission field is one of the goals of our time together today,” Dina said.

In 2023, under the leadership of then Executive Director David Johnson, the Arizona Mission Network entered into a partnership with the Sub-Saharan African Affinity. One of the purposes of this partnership is to provide the means for Arizona churches to strategically engage in missions there.

“I was so pleased that we were able to bring a Together for the Nations Conference to Arizona,” said new Executive Director Monty Patton. Earlier this year, Patton presented a new vision for the AZMN centered around four questions: Who’s Your One, Who’s Your Next, Where’s Your Next and How Can You Help.

“Exposing our pastors and church leaders to Sub-Saharan Africa will challenge them to ask and answer, ‘Where’s Your Next?’ And ‘How Can You Help?’ he said.

The Dinas were joined by other IMB missionaries who shared the great needs in Sub-Saharan Africa. The day started with a number of startling statistics about the region:

• The continent of Africa is 24 million square kilometers, approximately 3-1/2 times the size of the United States.
• Almost 50,000 people are born there daily and over 22,000 die daily.
• The median age is young —17.5 years old — and is on the move, with 75% of all new internally displaced people in the world in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• There are no IMB personnel in 17 of the 43 countries which make up the Sub-Saharan African Affinity.
• There are over 400 unidentified, unreached people groups in Sub-Saharan Africa, with at least 50 having no known churches, believers or access to the gospel.

Attendees then heard about how missionaries in Sub-Saharan Africa are working to identify unidentified, unreached people groups, impacting urban centers, impacting next gen and impacting Africans on the move.

Participants were given an extensive list of current “jobs” (mission opportunities) as well as a great number of prayer requests for the region. Many were able to connect at the event with various IMB personnel to learn how their church might get involved.

This past June, a group of AZMN African American pastors traveled to Kenya on a historic mission trip. Roland Pierce, president of the Arizona African American Fellowship and pastor of Broadway Missionary Baptist Church, led the group of four men and three women. Several of those pastors attended the Together for the Nations Conference and encouraged others to pray about participating in a mission trip to this part of the world in the future.

“Kenya changed us, and now we are committed to helping change the world and encouraging others to join us,” said Anthony Franklin, pastor of Bethesda Community Baptist Church in Phoenix.

An African proverb — “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go farther, go together” — helped John Dina conclude the day’s event. He challenged those present with “going together” by offering the extensive knowledge and help of the International Mission Board. He included a plea for churches to faithfully give to the Cooperative Program in order that missionaries around the world will be able to evangelize, disciple, plant healthy churches and develop leaders for the sake of the gospel.

If you would like to learn more about opportunities to serve through the Arizona Mission Network’s partnership with the IMB or how you can promote missions through your church, contact Monty Patton or Nate Parrow.

Lorri Paetz is the missions coordinator for the Arizona Mission Network.