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The domestic missionary agency of the SBC has a history that has included a significant amount of change in leadership and direction. A history of the agency compiled by the Home Mission Board at its 150th anniversary in 1995 is accessible in PDF format here.
1845 – The Southern Baptist Convention established the Board of Domestic Missions with headquarters in Marion, Ala.
1855 – The Board of Domestic Missions was renamed the Domestic and Indian Mission Board, incorporating responsibility for Indian Missions.
1861-1865 – During the Civil War, the Board dropped most of its missionary work to supply chaplains for the Confederate Army.
1873 – The Board absorbed the Sunday School Board’s responsibilities and debt. The name then became the Domestic and Indian Mission Board and Sunday School Board.
1874 – The Board was renamed the Home Mission Board (HMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
1882 – The HMB relocated from Marion, Ala., to Atlanta, Ga., the center of travel between the North and the South.
1887 – Every Southern state cooperated with the HMB by commissioning home missionaries and fostering denominational consciousness.
1891 – The Sunday School Board was reestablished and the HMB relinquished its publication of Sunday School literature.
1895 – The first home missions offering was taken by WMU during a “Week of Self Denial for Home Mission,” and it raised more than the $5,000 requested of it. This became an annual event, now known as the North American Missions Emphasis, which includes the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering®.
1925 – The Cooperative Program was established as the primary channel for supporting the work of the SBC.
1929 – The HMB incurred a $2.5 million debt, reflecting the nation’s wavering economy. The Great Depression struck, and missionary forces plunged from 1,600 to 106.
1942 – Western churches were accepted into the denomination, reawakening the SBC’s national expansion.
1944 – Student summer missions, one of the HMB’s first volunteer endeavors, began with 11 summer missionaries
1959 – Cooperative Agreements with state Baptist conventions began, creating a major building block of national mission strategy.
1960 – Work with ethnic/language-culture groups became the HMB’s largest program in budget and number of missionaries.
1963 – Following the constitution of South Burlington Baptist Church in Vermont, Southern Baptists had one or more churches in every state of the union.
1977 – Mission Service Corps was created.
1995 – The HMB celebrated its 150th anniversary. HMB staff move to a new five-story office complex 22 miles north of Atlanta at 4200 North Point Parkway, Alpharetta, Ga.
1995 – The Covenant for a New Century was approved by the Southern Baptist Convention in 1995 and implemented in June 1997. In the covenant, the work of the Brotherhood Commission, Home Mission Board, and Radio and Television Commission was combined in order to reach North America for Christ. The name of the new agency would be North American Mission Board.
1997 – The North American Mission Board (NAMB) becomes a reality, and Dr. Robert E. “Bob” Reccord becomes the first president.
1998 – The Nehemiah Project, which provides a professor of church planting on each Southern Baptist seminary campus who can engage and recruit church planters, is initiated.
2000 – The NET, an evangelism tool to help people share their faith, is introduced. Strategic Focus Cities initiatives begin, with a focus on Chicago and Phoenix.
2001 – NAMB leads unprecedented disaster relief response following September 11, 2001, attack in New York City.
2002 – NAMB leads in concentrated ministry and evangelism efforts at 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
2003 – Mission Service corps celebrates 25 years of placing people in volunteer mission positions throughout the United States and Canada; World Changers participants grow to more than 25,000.
2004 – Annie Armstrong Easter Offering exceeds $50 million.
2006 – Roy Fish named interim president following resignation of Robert E. Reccord. Annie Armstrong Easter Offering surpasses its $56 million goal by almost $2 million for the first time in decades.
2007 – Geoff Hammond unanimously elected president by NAMB Board of Trustees.
2008 – God’s Plan for Sharing (GPS) nationwide evangelistic strategy unveiled with vision of every believer sharing so that every person in North America should have an opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel by 2020.
2009 – Richard Harris named acting interim president following resignation of Geoff Hammond.
