But with dwindling reserves—the IMB now has enough cash for only two more years at its current rate of spending—expenses needed to be cut. In November, CT examined whether the situation spells the end of the full-time missionary. “The financial realities are clear,” Platt told CT at the time. “[I]n order to get to a healthy position for a future like I’ve talked about, we have to get to a healthy place in the present.”

Six months after announcing plans to cut 600 to 800 missionaries and staff in order to balance its budget, the International Mission Board (IMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) revealed today that it has lost 1,132 workers—almost twice as many as its low-end estimate.

In all, 983 missionaries and 149 US staff have accepted the IMB’s offer of voluntary early retirement or resignation. That brings the number of SBC missionaries in the field down from 4,700 to about 3,800—a return to 1993 levels.

The news “is disappointing to all of us,” SBC president Ronnie Floyd told Baptist Press. Frank Page, president of the SBC’s Executive Committee, said his “heart is broken” over the large number.

“This reset is not regress or retreat,” Floyd told Baptist Press. “Southern Baptist churches must see this as a fresh calling to reaching the world for Christ. Now is the time to go forward with a clear vision and an aggressive strategy to make disciples of all the nations for Christ.”

“IMB is now in a much healthier financial position,” said president David Platt, announcing a balanced 2017 budget during IMB meetings this week. Giving from churches is also up, he said.

“The stage is now set financially, organizationally and spiritually for IMB to work with Southern Baptist churches to create exponentially more opportunities for disciple making and church planting among unreached peoples around the world,” stated Platt in IMB’s press release. “IMB is committed to a future marked by faithful stewardship, operational excellence, wise evaluation, ongoing innovation and joyful devotion to making disciples and multiplying churches among the unreached.”

The cuts were part of Platt’s plan to stabilize the mission agency’s finances. Since 2010, the organization has spent $210 million more than it has received, according to an FAQ on the IMB’s “organizational reset.”

The overage has been paid through reserve funds and selling missionary housing and other property overseas, CT reported in August.

But with dwindling reserves—the IMB now has enough cash for only two more years at its current rate of spending—expenses needed to be cut.

In November, CT examined whether the situation spells the end of the full-time missionary.

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