State Board recognizes Rummage with official installation/ hears challenge of mission imperatives/celebrates past/focuses on future
Featured Photo: Adrian Taylor, pastor of Springhill Church in Gainesville, prays for Stephen and Michele Rummage during the executive director-treasurer installation service April 24.
JACKSONVILLE– Taking on the role of executive director-treasurer of the Florida Baptist Convention Aug. 17, 2024, Stephen Rummage was recognized with an official service of installation during the State Board of Missions meeting April 24-25 at the Baptist Building in Jacksonville.
During the installation service, Josh Reavis, pastor of North Jacksonville Baptist Church, where Rummage and his wife Michele are members, focused on 2 Timothy 2 and challenged Rummage to “stick to the basics,” focusing on “the Lord, His word and His work.” He exhorted the executive director-treasurer not to “quarrel about words” but instead to “present yourself as a worker approved by God,” one who rightly divides the “word of truth.” He further encouraged Rummage to “live in a way worthy of Jesus Christ” and to “run from sin and run to Jesus.”
Speaking to the State Board April 25, Rummage provided a recap of his first several months serving as Florida Baptists’ executive director-treasurer. On the Continuing Together Tour, Rummage reported that the tour was conducted over the past seven weeks, when he traveled 5,500 miles throughout the state, visited 17 locations and participated in 17 events. He stated, “It was a challenging schedule, but I’m so thankful we did it,” adding that it was helpful for him to meet Florida Baptists “in their own context.”
Throughout the tour, Rummage and his wife received hundreds of prayer cards from Florida Baptist pastors and leaders, and they pray over these needs and requests during their meal times together.
“I am so excited about what God is doing among Florida Baptists in our churches–how we are making a difference for the gospel together–and what God has in store for us in the future,” he said.
‘Stay on mission’
I am so excited about what God is doing among Florida Baptists in our churches–how we are making a difference for the gospel together–and what God has in store for us in the future.
Focusing on Philippians 3:12-14, Rummage encouraged Florida Baptists to “stay on mission.” Staying on mission, he said, means “recognizing you’ve not yet arrived.” Rummage explained, “We are all apprentices in a craft that no one has mastered.”
Second, staying on mission also means “remembering you belong to Jesus Christ.” Rummage said, “The motivating factor for staying on mission is realizing we belong to Him.”
Third, staying on mission means “refusing to live in the past.” The Apostle Paul, Rummage said, “deliberately refused to dwell on anything from the past–good or bad, accomplishments or failures–so that he could keep pushing into the next thing God had for him.”
Finally, staying on mission, Rummage said, means “reaching forward to what God has for you.” He said, “There’s a prize to pursue. The heavenly prize is ultimately Jesus Himself—His mission, His glory.”
Four mission imperatives
Rummage stated that the Florida Baptist Convention’s Right Beside You mission is “to serve, equip and support our churches as we make disciples of all nations through the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
He outlined four “mission imperatives for accomplishing our mission.” Those mission imperatives are:
- Evangelize the lost and baptize new believers.
- Call out and disciple more God-called believers to fulfill the Great Commission.
- Plant and revitalize more churches.
- Give more generously to support our cooperative mission efforts.
The executive director-treasurer reported the great strides that Florida Baptists have already made with these imperatives. He urged attendees to “take a moment to celebrate how God is working through each of these imperatives.”
In evangelism and baptisms, Rummage reported that Florida Baptist churches baptized 30,701 people in 2024. “Every baptism represents a soul saved and a heart transformed by God’s grace. To God be the glory,” he said.
In calling out and equipping the called, he said that “one thing” he hears consistently from pastors and leaders across the state is the need for more people to do God’s work. He affirmed the decision of the State Board of Missions during its April 2025 meeting to provide a $1 million rolling advance to Baptist University of Florida as it awaits insurance reimbursements to renovate its campus following devastating hurricane damage. The rolling advance, he said, “is an investment that can pay major dividends in training up the next generation of God-called men and women.”
Rummage also stated that Florida Baptists’ next generation ministries leaders are equipping many individuals for kingdom work.
In planting and revitalizing churches, Rummage said that Send Network Florida states that church planters, during the first quarter of 2025, reported 840 salvations, 305 baptisms and 5,742 gospel conversations.
In giving more generously to support cooperative mission efforts, Rummage said that 2025 marks the 100th anniversary of the Cooperative Program and that each Florida Baptist church will be challenged to give $100 more each month to the cooperative funding initiative, with monies earmarked for pastor wellness and next generation mobilization.
In closing, Rummage stated, “I’m excited about where Florida Baptists are going. Let’s stay on mission!”
Financial snapshot
During their April 2025 business session, State Board members learned that the year-to-date total for Florida Baptist CP budget receipts is $52,578 above projections. Additionally, during the first three months of 2025, Florida Baptists have given $5,193,672 in designated gifts. The Board approved a distribution of 4.5% from the CP Endowment Fund, established in 2000 to create an income stream to supplement CP giving, to the convention’s 2025 CP budget.
After reporting that $815,363 was received for the 2024 Maguire State Mission Offering, the Board recommended a 2025 goal of $1 million, earmarked exclusively for the Send Network Florida Fund for church planting.
The Board learned that a total of $19,574.80 was provided in financial assistance for 26 pastors during the first quarter of 2025.
The next State Board meeting will be held Aug. 21-22 in Jacksonville.