ALPHARETTA — Georgia Baptist efforts to win the state to Christ will soon get a boost as the North American Mission Board formally launches its GPS evangelism campaign next month.

The 10-year effort, which will be launched about three weeks prior to Easter with a national media campaign, will result in 1,688 radio spots and four billboards being rolled out in four of the state’s more heavily populated areas. Radio spots will be parceled out between Savannah, Macon, and Augusta; billboards will also be distributed among those markets as well as a fourth location, Calhoun.

NAMB rolled out its media plan for the evangelism effort, formally known as God’s Plan for Sharing, during its Feb. 17 board meeting.

The nearly 1,700 Georgia radio spots – the largest by far being aired in any state – will be among 7,208 that will be aired nationally leading up to Easter, which falls on April 4 this year. New Mexico placed second with 951, followed by Kentucky with 657.

The plan differs from previous media campaigns which followed “cookie cutter, one size fits all” approaches which used only two or three approaches in all markets. This time, NAMB worked with each state convention to tailor the campaign to its specific audience. As a result, some states opted for more yard signs while others chose banner, newspaper ads, or radio/TV.

Canadians, for example, opted for all of their $25,709 to be spent on 195 Hispanic television ads. The only other state convention to place all of its television ads in the Hispanic market was Oklahoma, with 474 ads.

Banners and yard signs are popular with several states such as Pennsylvania/South Jersey, Ohio, New York, Minnesota-Wisconsin, Michigan, Maryland/Delaware, and Florida. North Carolina put all of its $27,547 in purchasing 2,000 banners – the largest banner state.

The most funds will be spent in California and Kentucky – $199,946 and $106,412 respectively, with 183 of Kentucky’s television ads being shared cross-border with Indiana. Georgia’s campaign will cost $25,714. The vast majority of states received funding levels similar to that of Georgia.

NAMB Communications Team Leader Mike Ebert, in presenting the plan to the trustees, noted that NAMB had previously committed $1.2 million to the project and state conventions had added another $500,000 to the media buy. The sluggish economy means the $1.7 million used in the campaign will purchase much larger amounts of advertising today than originally envisioned when the campaign was announced two years ago at the SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis.

Ebert said NAMB has committed an average of $1.5 million a year for the remaining nine years of the campaign.

NAMB Interim President Richard Harris challenged trustees and the agency to maintain the course on NAMB’s three primary tasks – sharing Christ, starting churches, and sending missionaries – and not be distracted by other well-intended but less urgent needs.

Citing II Chronicles 20, Harris told trustees and staff that “the battle is not our but the Lord’s.” He then reminded those present that 71 percent of Southern Baptist churches are plateaued or dying and that a nation cannot regain its spiritual strength from sick churches.

“Is it the Great Commission or the Great Suggestion? Are we involved in business as usual or unusual business,” he asked.

Harris then stated that change is not an option for the agency, but an imperative if it is going to remain on the cutting edge in reaching North America for Christ.

In other business, NAMB announced it was phasing out its Strategic Focus Cities ministry, a two-year evangelism and ministry approach in selected urban areas, in favor of a new avenue which will put down roots in four of the U.S.A and Canada’s largest metropolitan areas. Work is now phasing out in the last two locations of San Diego and Baltimore; the new emphasis will establish a long-term presence in the United States in the metropolitan areas of Chicagoland; Washington, D.C.; New York City, and Los Angeles. Canadian locations will be Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver.

Presidential Search Committee Chairman Ted Traylor said the team seeking NAMB’s next president has “purposely gone very, very slow because of the work of the GCR Task Force and the speculations of merging NAMB with the International Mission Board.” Now that the Task Force will not recommend such a move, the Pensacola, Fla., pastor said the team’s work will gather more steam in the coming weeks.

“We are still compiling names. We don’t know if we have the name of our final candidate yet so we continue to look high and low. We are in a strategic time in the history of our denomination with the offices of the president of NAMB, IMB, and the Executive Committee all being vacant within a very short time frame. We have to get this right,” he said.

NAMB Trustee Chairman Tim Patterson told The Index that he is “really encouraged by what [GCR Task Force Chairman] Ronnie Floyd told Florida pastors recently about the Task Force’s decision not to recommend a merger of the two agencies. I’m glad that we as a Convention put that issue on the table at this time in our history and we dealt with it because it no longer hangs over our heads.

“I feel better about NAMB today than I have in years. Morale is good and I am greatly encouraged by what I see and hear at the agency.”

Chief Financial Officer Carlor Ferrer told trustees that Southern Baptists gave $56.5 million in 2009 to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions. The amount was 2.7 percent (or $1.5 million) off the previous year’s giving mark and $8.5 million below the goal of $65 million.

The $56.5 million is the fourth-largest total in the offering’s history. The goal for the 2010 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions is $70 million.

Board members also approved adding the Martin Luther King Holiday to the agency’s staff holiday schedule, effective 2011.