David Uth, one of the IMB trustees, spoke to Baptist Press about selecting Pratt: We weren’t looking for a man who knew how to talk about it; we were looking for a man who was doing it—and using the influence he had to affect the nations. When we considered what Brook Hills was doing to send couples [to the mission field] and to engage people in the pew in kingdom work, we felt like those were clues to how effective he was at mobilizing and getting people to follow the vision that God had given him.

Eight years ago, David Platt became one of the youngest megachurch pastors in America. Today the 36-year-old was announced as the next president of one America’s largest missions agencies: the International Mission Board (IMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).

Platt, who has ministered in India, Nepal, Indonesia, and an unspecified country in the Horn of Africa, replaces Tom Elliff, who at 70 is nearly double Platt’s age.

Platt has pastored the 4,500-member Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama, since 2006, and has called Christians to a movement of radical obedience and discipleship through his ministry Radical and bestselling booksRadical and Follow Me.

As head of the IMB, described by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability as “one of the leading ministries making disciples of all people to fulfill the Great Commission,” Platt will oversee 4,800 Southern Baptist missionaries serving among 787 people groups worldwide.

“We talk all the time about laying down a blank check with our lives before God, with no strings attached, willing to … do whatever He commands in order to make His glory known among the nations of the earth,” he told his church. “Over these past months, God has made it abundantly clear… He is filling in that blank check in our lives and family with a different assignment.” [Full video statement below]

Angelia Stewart, a spokesperson for Radical, spoke to Platt’s past international experiences in a statement to Christianity Today.

“David Platt has traveled extensively to teach the Bible throughout the United States and around the world. His travels overseas have taken him to places like East Asia, India, and Africa to name a few. In his travels he has had the opportunity to meet with persecuted believers, workers engaged in reaching those who have little to no access to the gospel, and church leaders and workers where the church is growing. One of the opportunities he has enjoyed the most is meeting with and encouraging overseas missionaries who are currently on the field,” Stewart said.

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