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IMB trustees hear challenge to expand
missionary force, respond to Burleson SBC motion


ONTARIO, Calif. (BP)–International Mission Board trustees heard a challenge to speed up the sluggish growth of Southern Baptists’ global mission force and appointed 43 new missionaries during their Jan. 29-31 meeting in Ontario, Calif.

Trustees and executive staff members also responded to a motion, made by IMB trustee Wade Burleson during last year’s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting and referred to the trustee board, calling for investigation of alleged improprieties by trustees.

In his report to trustees, IMB President Jerry Rankin appealed for a “new resolve” among Southern Baptists to counteract a slowdown in the growth of the international mission force -– especially in short-term missionary categories.

“I really believe what we have seen God doing in the first six years of this century exceeds even the previous decade in fulfilling the Great Commission,” Rankin said. “It’s evident God is using the volatile events around the world to turn the hearts of people to spiritual answers that only Jesus can provide. But whether or not people have an opportunity to hear, understand and respond to the [Gospel] is directly linked to the number of God’s people who will go in response to His call to engage in cross-cultural witness.”

IMB regional missionary leaders estimate a growth in the missionary force to 8,500 (from the current total of about 5,100) is needed to effectively touch the remaining unreached peoples of the world in partnership with overseas Baptists and other Great Commission groups.

“However, as we move into 2007 we see a disturbing trend,” Rankin said. “Appointments of new missionaries have plateaued, and the candidate pool is smaller than it has ever been in my tenure as president.

“Regrettably, we had to defer qualified missionaries being sent to the field in 2003 because Southern Baptists had not increased their giving commensurate with those being called out of our churches to go as missionaries. But churches got the message and in the last two years have responded with record levels of giving to the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. We were able to remove those restrictions and give priority to sending out career missionaries.

“In 2005, [trustees] approved a goal of sending out a thousand missionaries each year. I believe Southern Baptists are capable of sending out at least a thousand missionaries each year. They are stepping up to provide the financial support to make that happen. Money clearly follows missionaries, and as more and more are sent out, they represent more and more churches who then have a personalized identification with international missions.”

New IMB missionaries in 2006 numbered 758 -– 306 long-termers and 452 in short-term (two- or three-year) categories.

Rankin challenged Southern Baptists to send out 800 to 1,000 short-term personnel a year. Personnel serving short-term eventually will increase the number of long-term personnel. For each of the last eight years, one-third or more of all new long-term IMB missionaries have brought previous short-term experience.

“I am not suggesting loosening our qualifications,” Rankin said. “We must be sure our candidates are doctrinally sound, healthy in mind and body and adequately equipped by education and experience. But I am concerned that we must find ways to reverse the current trend by a renewed commitment to [communicate] that the International Mission Board is the agency of choice for Southern Baptist missionaries being called out of our churches.”

In his remarks, IMB trustee chairman John Floyd tearfully appealed to trustees to pray that God will send many new mission workers into the harvest.

“I’m asking you, are we praying?” Floyd said. “Is it a great enough need that we have missionaries going to the field and harvesters sent into the harvest that we will pray -– and I mean pray -– that we will cry out to a God who is able to supply what we ask? We need to find ways to enlist people, and we need to enlist them and challenge them. But oh, I beg you, let’s pray to the Lord of the harvest, and that way He will be the One who gets all the glory for bringing people to the field.”

MISSIONARIES APPOINTED

Trustees traveled to nearby Highland, Calif., where they were joined by hundreds of California Baptists for the appointment of 43 new missionaries Jan. 31 at Immanuel Baptist Church.

Rankin noted the diversity and various backgrounds of the group. “Yet, there is one thing [you] all have in common,” he said. “Someone touched your life with the witness about Jesus Christ … and the Great Commission became very personal. You’re bringing the skills, the experience, the education, all that God has put into your life to focus on the one thing of significance — God’s glory among the nations. ”

BURLESON MOTION

During their business session, trustees adopted a response to the motion made by fellow trustee Wade Burleson at last June’s SBC annual meeting in Greensboro, N.C.

Burleson, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, Okla., called for the SBC Executive Committee to appoint a committee to investigate alleged improprieties by IMB trustees. With Burleson’s agreement, the motion was referred to the IMB trustees by the convention. Burleson did not attend the IMB trustees’ late-January meeting in California.

Burleson’s SBC motion called for an investigation to “determine sources of the controversies in the International Mission Board, and make findings and recommendations … so that trustees of the IMB might effect reconciliation and effectively discharge their responsibilities to God and fellow Southern Baptists by cooperating together to accomplish evangelism and missions to the Glory of God.”

In their response, the trustees noted that the “diversity of [89] personalities, backgrounds and churches represented invariably is reflected in different opinions in giving oversight to the work of the IMB. This diversity is necessary in arriving at consensus…. We contend that any controversies have been dealt with according to appropriate Biblical guidelines and in line with democratic processes and approved board polity.”

The trustees, with the “counsel and concurrence of the International Mission Board executive staff,” replied to each of the five concerns in Burleson’s motion:

— Regarding alleged manipulation of the IMB trustee nominating process of the Southern Baptist Convention, trustees said the International Mission Board “has no authority to speak to the work of the nominating committee elected by the Southern Baptist Convention or to investigate the process by which it does its work.”

— Regarding alleged attempts by one or more heads of other Southern Baptist entities to “influence and/or coerce” IMB trustees and administration to take a particular course of action, trustees responded: “While the IMB may exercise authority over its own president and elected staff, we are not in a position to question or investigate the actions and motives of heads of other entities.”

— Regarding the use of closed trustee forums and executive sessions and the “propriety and/or impropriety of excluding any individual trustee … from participating in meetings where the full IMB is convened,” the trustees stated: “The IMB does not allow formal business to be transacted in its closed trustee forums, but uses this time for prayer, personal testimonies and preliminary questions and discussions regarding issues of mutual concern between senior staff and trustees. Official executive sessions are limited to matters dealing with sensitive personnel actions related to staff, missionaries and/or trustees or those in which public exposure would result in detrimental consequences for personnel serving in sensitive and restricted locations around the world.

“Any actions that may be taken to exclude any trustee from participation in closed board sessions by the chairman will have been made with support of the board as a last resort and in order to avoid disruption and distractions to the board fulfilling its assigned tasks with unity and appropriate decorum.”

(Burleson was excluded from committee participation by former IMB trustee chairman Tom Hatley last year after Burleson publicly opposed trustee positions and commented on trustee meetings in his online weblog. Floyd has continued the exclusion.)

— Regarding “new doctrinal requisites for eligibility to serve as employees or missionaries of the IMB beyond the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message,” trustees maintained that “(w)hile the Baptist Faith and Message represents a general confession of Southern Baptist beliefs related to Biblical teachings on primary doctrinal and social issues, the IMB retains the prerogative and responsibility of further defining the parameters of doctrinal beliefs and practices of its missionaries who serve Southern Baptists with accountability to this board.”

— Regarding the “suppression of dissent by trustees in the minority … and the propriety of any agency forbidding a trustee, by policy, from publicly criticizing a board approved action,” the trustees insisted all board-approved actions “result from a process of committee … consideration before they are brought to a plenary session for adoption. All trustees have opportunity in the committee process and plenary session to express and advocate minority opinions. As in any democratic body, once the majority has determined the action to be taken, the board feels that the action should receive the unified public support of all trustees for the sake of effectively moving forward to fulfill our mission task.”

After the vote, Rankin said the Burleson motion “has caused us to examine several facets of our meetings and process. But we’re working hard to see that this would not be a distraction from our primary focus on international missions.”

OTHER ACTIONS

In other action and discussion, trustees:

— responded to another motion referred from the 2006 SBC annual meeting requesting an audit of “all funds handled by the IMB/Central Asia Region for the years 1999-2005” in relation to the alleged embezzlement of mission funds. The trustees adopted a response confirming that in 2004 “there was both an audit as well as supplemental procedures accomplished by a qualified certified public accountant regarding Central Asia finances.” Results of those procedures were “fully disclosed” to trustees in November of that year, and “appropriate action was taken.”

— heard a response from Rankin to criticism in several state Baptist newspapers of the board’s phase-out of its annual unrestricted subsidy to the Woman’s Missionary Union, which is scheduled to end in 2009.

“The [news] articles have [not fully] acknowledged that we reimburse Woman’s Missionary Union for all the expenses in promoting of the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering,” Rankin said. “We have continued to affirm that we welcome the privilege of reimbursing those expenses in appreciation for their partnership -– and that amount was approximately $350,000 this past year. But we do not have the luxury in our budget to continue to make an [unrestricted annual] grant….”

— heard from the trustees’ mission personnel committee that consideration of the previously adopted policy on the practice of private prayer language and guideline on baptism for missionary candidates has reached a “critical juncture.” Trustees solicited and have received input from across the Southern Baptist Convention on both measures. The policy disqualifies missionary candidates who practice a private prayer language, while the guideline stipulates candidates must be baptized in a church that practices believer’s baptism exclusively, embraces the doctrine of security of the believer and rejects a regenerative view of baptism. The committee anticipates bringing recommendations regarding the guideline and policy to the trustees’ next meeting.

— participated in a memorial service for the three active and 28 retired or former missionaries and IMB employees who died in 2006. They included Everett Deane, the longest-serving staff member in board history, who began as an assistant bookkeeper in 1930 and retired in 1980 as treasurer. Deane died Nov. 28 at age 94.

The trustees’ next meeting will be March 19-21 in Memphis, Tenn.
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    About the Author

  • Erich Bridges