The Southern Baptist International Mission Board must push past distractions
and stay focused on the vision of taking the gospel to all peoples, President
Jerry Rankin told trustees recently.
The Southern Baptist International Mission Board must push past distractions
and stay focused on the vision of taking the gospel to all peoples, President
Jerry Rankin told trustees recently.
Trustees approved a major change in the way new missionaries
are sent to the field, heard a preliminary report on the boards 2004 budget
and discussed how the word “Baptist” describes churches being started
overseas during their recently scheduled meeting in Austin, Texas.
With financial challenges limiting the number of new missionaries,
Southern Baptists must stay focused on the vision of all people gathered at
Gods throne, Rankin said.
“Ours is not a task that can be resource-driven and limited
to simply doing whatever we can do for whatever may result,” he said. “We
must stay focused on that end vision of taking the gospel to all peoples with
a passion that says whatever it takes. We must be ever vigilant
to avoid distractions that would divert us from moving forward in a unified
focus on our objective.”
Meanwhile, in business, trustees approved a recommendation
that all new candidates for long-term missionary service will be required to
complete a three-year apprenticeship before being changed to career or associate
status.
Research shows that missionaries who serve short-term overseas
assignments before serving as career missionaries suffer fewer transition problems,
become effective more quickly and serve longer than workers without previous
experience, trustee Tom Hatley explained.
The new approach will help new missionaries by giving them
a mentoring relationship with experienced workers as they adapt to cross-cultural
ministry, he said.
The change will not affect personnel currently serving in the
boards short-term programs or candidates already in the approval process,
Hatley noted.
Trustees also heard a report that the budget that will be recommended
for 2004 is expected to reflect a $20 million reduction from this year. Half
that reduction reflects a lowered income projection, while the other half represents
$10 million in capital expenditures that will not be made until the operating
budget is met. The proposed budget would reduce missionary operating budgets
by 7 percent and plan no salary increases for missionaries or stateside employees.
The budget is based on Southern Baptists reaching their
$133 million goal for the 2003 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International
Missions – which would reflect a 15 percent increase from 2002. Last years
offering fell 8 percent short of its $125 million goal, forcing the board to
reduce missionary appointments in the coming year.
Many Southern Baptist churches have made supplementary gifts
to the offering to cut into the deficit. Meanwhile, Rankin has challenged congregations
to give $150 million this year as an expression of commitment to reach the world.
In another item of discussion, trustees discussed whether churches
being started overseas with the assistance of International Mission Board personnel
can be accurately described as Baptist – especially when they come as part
of a so-called “church-planting movement.”
“That is a valid question, …” Rankin said. “Are
they Baptist in terms of their strict adherence to the pattern and teaching
of the New Testament? Probably so. Are they Baptist in terms of replicating
the traditions and forms of what we know as Baptist in America? Not necessarily.
Are they identified as Baptist churches? Not always.”
Southern Baptist workers and their overseas partners reported
8,369 churches organized in 2002. Nearly 3,535 of them were started in one church
planting movement in Asia.
Missions leaders define a church-planting movement as a rapid
multiplication of churches among a people group. Once started, the wildfire
of a church planting movement has the potential to spread the gospel throughout
an entire people group, but a missionary can only disciple, train and anchor
church leaders in the Word of God, Rankin said. Because those churches are autonomous,
missionaries do not control what those churches will believe and practice.
In some places, denominational labels are illegal or may cause
persecution, Rankin said. In other areas, the new churches do not want to affiliate
with older “Baptist” groups whose theology is liberal.
Missionaries use the Baptist Faith and Message statement to
explain who Southern Baptists are and what they believe, Rankin said. Sometimes,
churches even adopt it as their own.
However, such decisions belong to those churches, Rankin added.
If they adopt varying positions, they make that decision independently of a
missionarys teaching, he said.
“The main issue is to understand the nature and the power
of the gospel,” Rankin explained. “Many have identified a church planting
movement as a movement that is out of control as churches plant churches. Is
that not what we want to happen? Is that not the power of the gospel? Is the
life-changing message of Gods Word, indwelt by Gods Holy Spirit,
not something that should spread spontaneously?”
In one final item, Southern Baptist missionary Lyn Hyde told
trustees that even though her husband, Bill, was among those killed in March
by a terrorists bomb in the Philippines, she still is committed to following
her call to missions.
“The bomb that killed Bill did not kill the call to missions
on my life, …” she said. “All I ever wanted to be was a missionary.
… I know God still has a purpose for me.”
She asked the trustees to pray for her on Oct. 22, when she will fly back to
the same airport where her husband was killed to continue her grieving process
and decide whether God wants her to continue to serve there or elsewhere. (BP)