Despite disagreements, focus remains on international missions

Sue Sprenkle/BP

Helping farmers • Southern Baptist missionary Mike Loftice, left center, works with a group of farmers in the famine-stricken nation of Niger, West Africa last year. Loftice, who has lived and worked in the Maradi region of Niger since 1997, recently coordinated a $75,000 relief project in six villages. The effort supplied more than 8,000 people with tons of millet and beans.

The work is more important than the worker. The mission is more important than the missionary. The International Mission Board is more important than the leadership or the trustees.

The preceding statements are not made to diminish in any way the workers in God’s vineyard, the missionaries serving around the world or the leadership and trustees of the IMB, but to emphasize the inestimable value of the work and the purpose of this missionary-sending agency of our Convention.

Internal discussions and disagreements among the trustees have attracted a considerable amount of attention since the trustee meeting Nov. 14-17. At that meeting in Huntsville, Ala., as reported in the Jan. 19 issue of The Christian Index, the trustees voted to ban missionaries from using a private prayer language in their personal devotions.

Voicing objections

The new policy also states that missionary candidates must be baptized solely by a church that practices believer’s baptism by immersion alone, by a church that does not view baptism as sacramental or regenerative, and a church that embraces the doctrine of the security of the believer.

Any missionary candidate not so baptized is now required to seek rebaptism in his/her SBC church as a testimony of identification with the system of belief held by Southern Baptist churches.

Some contend that these decisions were made to address unbiblical practices on the mission field, while others believe that the policy on prayer was aimed at IMB President Jerry Rankin, who has admitted to having a private prayer language.

Wade Burleson, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, Okla., has indicated that the new policies exceed the theological parameters established by the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message and border on legalism. The Oklahoma pastor has voiced his objections to the new policies on his blog at kerussocharis.blogspot.com

Although Burleson maintains that he never betrayed any trust by voicing a minority report, his fellow trustees voted to censor him and call for his removal as a trustee at the upcoming annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Greensboro, N.C. in June. Burleson states that the rub comes because “many are under the impression that dissent should become silent when a measure or policy is passed by a majority.”

Burleson has become a hero to many because of his willingness to stand against the current, buck the majority and stand for what he believes to be right. Others contend that Burleson’s actions are comparable to church committee members who cannot accept the decision of the majority and proceed to stir up trouble in the congregation by foolish rhetoric.

BP

International Mission Board President Jerry Rankin charges newly appointed missionaries during an appointment service in Glen Allen, Va. Jan. 10.

David Baxter, an IMB trustee and physician from Mableton, reported, “I voted against the motions concerning private prayer and baptism. My reason concerning private prayer language is that if someone has this and does it privately and does not teach this on the mission field … why not? There is a group from Texas that is trying to control the convention in every way …. There has been an undercurrent to remove Jerry (Rankin) from office.”

Baxter continued, “Concerning Wade (Burleson), I had never met him until he came on the board last year. I don’t think he should have posted a private letter on the Internet, but to ask the SBC in full Convention to remove him is quite unusual. I voted against this also, because it will force every pastor and lay person at the convention to draw a conclusion about Wade and the issues at hand.”

The important thing

But what is the crucial issue in this over-publicized controversy? The most important thing is not that Burleson blogged or that the trustees want to remove him from the Board or that Rankin has a private prayer language. The important thing is that the work of preaching the Gospel to the entire world continues by dedicated missionaries whose service and sacrifice are examples to all.

Burleson states on his Jan. 18th blog, “Never forget, it’s all about missions. The International Mission Board is the one agency that causes all of us as Southern Baptists to get excited about cooperation. Though I have discovered that there is a wide variety of beliefs regarding ecclesiology, eschatology, missiology, soteriology and other interpretations of Scripture among the IMB trustees, I can guarantee you every trustee I have met is interested in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world.”

Sometimes statements are made or disagreements surface that get folks sidetracked, but Southern Baptists must remember that God has called His people to proclaim His name among all peoples. It is remarkable that in 2005 IMB workers and their Baptist partners overseas reported a record 459,725 baptisms and 108,713 churches, but there is so much work yet to be done.

There are still 5,872 people groups who live in the Last Frontier – the part of the world with little or no access to the Gospel. That means that there are still more than 1.6 billion people who have virtually no chance of hearing the good news of Jesus Christ.

Southern Baptists are presently giving to missions and going to serve as missionaries in record numbers. In a telephone conversation recently Rankin indicated that he is encouraged with the giving for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions.

Rankin stated, “With the appeals that have been made to help with the tsunami relief in the Far East and the appeals made to assist the victims of Hurricane Katrina many thought there would be ‘donor fatigue’, but I am not buying into that. We also know that many churches on the Gulf Coast devastated by Katrina are incapacitated to give, but we are trusting God to meet our needs.”

Yes, in the midst of some disagreement among trustees, the work continues with hundreds of new missionaries being appointed, thousands of new converts being made and almost 50 new churches being planted every day.