FMB Adopts Basic Principles

by Robert O'Brien                                                                                                                 Vol. VIII, No. 3, March 1995

Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board trustees sent a "valentine" to the world Feb. 14 [1995] as they appointed 44 new missionaries to join more than 4,000 others taking the love of Jesus Christ to millions of people around the world. They also approved seven basic principles to undergird the board's missions program during their Feb. 13-15 meeting on the campus of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, N.C.

Foreign Mission Board President Jerry Rankin, who came home from the mission field in June 1993 to head the 150-year-old missions agency, challenged those appointed to make known the "mystery" of Jesus Christ on their far-flung mission fields. "When we lived in Thailand, we would often observe Buddhist funerals in our own community," Rankin said, "and see the monks as they would encircle the casket, chanting over and over again: `Dead, never to arise; gone, never to return; asleep, never to awaken.' To them the gospel was a mystery," said Rankin. "God has called you to make known that mystery, to reveal the precious truth of the gospel."

The appointment service, the first held on the campus of a Southern Baptist seminary, highlighted enthusiastic student reaction during the three-day meeting. During the appointment service and seminary chapel services at least 51 people responded to invitations to commit to missions.

Meanwhile, trustees conducted business, including unanimous adoption of the seven principles after some revision from the floor. That included strengthening the second principle to emphasize belief in the reality of hell.

Rankin noted that the principles and previously approved vision and mission statements grew out of a year long process of fine-tuning input from trustees, missionaries, and staff.

He urged their ratification to go along with the vision and mission statements in setting "the direction for this board as we move into the 21st century."

The principles declare:

"1. Our basic commitment is obedience to the lordship of Jesus Christ and God's infallible Word.

"2. Our basic belief is that Jesus Christ is God's only provision for salvation and that people without personal faith in him are lost and will spend eternity in Hell.

"3. Our basic means of understanding and fulfilling God's mission is prayer.

"4. Our basic purpose is to provide all people an opportunity to hear, understand, and respond to the gospel in their own cultural context.

"5. Our basic task is evangelism through proclamation, discipline, equipping, and ministry that results in indigenous Baptist churches.

"6. Our basic strategy is to send and support gifted, God-called missionaries who, with mutual respect, accountability and cooperation, carry out the Great Commission in an incarnational witness.

"7. Our basic role is to lead and facilitate the international missionary involvement of Southern Baptists in partnership with overseas Baptists and other Christians who are fulfilling the Great Commission."

The previously approved vision statement declares: "We will lead Southern Baptists to be on mission with God to bring all the peoples of the world to saving faith in Jesus Christ."

The mission statement says: "The mission of the Foreign Mission Board, SBC, is to lead Southern Baptists in international missions efforts to evangelize the lost, disciple believers, develop churches, and minister to people in need. Leading Southern Baptists is done by mobilizing prayer support, appointing missionaries, enlisting volunteers, channeling financial support, and communicating how God is working overseas."

Trustees also learned that overseas baptisms exceeded 300,000 for the first time in board history last year, and that 1994's record-breaking appointment year has risen from 534 (reported earlier) to 545. Eleven more two-year workers were added after the previous report in early December.

The 545 total breaks 1993's record of 498. It includes 255 career and associate missionary appointments - the highest in seven years - and a record 290 two-year International Service Corps workers and journeymen. The two-year worker total tops the 1993 record of 275. The board's record for career and associate appointments was set in 1985 with 304.

In chapel addresses and in his report to trustees, Rankin urged Southern Baptists to approach their world missions task as if Christ would come again before the completion of their lives. No one knows the time that will happen, he said, but "it could be that God is giving us the privilege of being that last generation of witnesses to see an evangelized world, to see the kingdom of God ushered in."

If that's the case, Rankin told the seminary students, they must follow the example. of the Apostle Paul to 1) carry a burden to reach the whole world regardless of the cost, 2) submit themselves in weakness and humility before God, and 3) totally focus their lives on Jesus Christ. The biblical Great Commission is sufficient authority to go out to a lost world but not sufficient motivation, Rankin said: “It's not the authority of an external command that motivates, but the impulse of the internal presence of Jesus Christ.”