One of the ideas floated as part of the Great Commission Resurgence discussion is that of merging the North American Mission Board and International Mission Board into a single missions organization. I don’t know if the idea will gain any traction but it’s interesting to note that according to a recent article in the Biblical Recorder, the state newspaper of North Carolina Baptists, the idea is one that has been looked at some eight times in the last 130 years.

Check out the story:

Baptists studied board mergers since 1880

Southern Baptists have been studying potential merger of their two mission boards off and on for nearly 130 years.

But in the first such study in 1880 and in separate committees and commissions in 1915, 1917, 1924, 1925, 1927, 1928, 1933, 1956-59 and 1995 the recommendation has been the same: keep the national and international mission boards separate.

Now, thanks to an informal proposal by the current chairman of the North American Mission Board; the president of NAMB’s Aug. 11 forced resignation; and work of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force, such a merger is again bound to be considered: for at least the ninth time.

Archivist Bill Sumners of the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives uncovered an unattributed document in a 1956 folder while looking for information at the request of the Biblical Recorder. The document appears to be a summation compiled for the Committee to Study the Total Southern Baptist Program initiated in 1956. It brought its report in 1959 and became known as the Branch Committee, after its chairman Doug Branch who was executive director of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.

The document lists various study committees and their reports. Each was considering the efficiencies of SBC operations, which were considerably different in the formative years than today. Various committees considered the combining or eliminating of certain operations, boards and agencies.

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