IMB trustees affirm Rankin BF&M letter, see rising baptism, new church numbers
by Mark Kelly Vol. XV, No. 4, April 2002
Trustees of the Southern Baptist International Mission Board – meeting March 14-15 in Kansas City, MO -- roundly endorsed President Jerry Rankin's request that missionaries affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message.
Rankin told the trustees he was alarmed and appalled that critics of his request appear to value irresponsible freedom and cultural compromise over the lordship of Jesus Christ and the authority of Scripture. Baptist distinctives like the priesthood of the believer and the autonomy of the local church are sound doctrine only when church and believer recognize the authority of God's Word, he said.
Rankin praised IMB missionaries for their "wonderful ... understanding" and "cooperative response" to his request. He said their willingness to affirm the faith statement of the churches that support them was further evidence that they are "doctrinally sound and denominationally loyal."
Reports from overseas that show God is moving in ever-more dramatic ways through Southern Baptist missionaries -- 395,773 baptisms and 5,775 new churches in 2001 - reflecting missionaries' passion for fulfilling their call to share Jesus Christ with a lost world, he added.
During the two-day meeting, trustees also elected a regional leader for work in the Caribbean Basin, heard a report about the needs for volunteers to take gospel literature to 98 million homes in Mexico and Central America and learned that Southern Baptists interested in overseas service now can submit their application online through a new IMB web site, and approved 58 new missionaries for appointment in a March 17 service.
2000 BF&M
All Southern Baptist missionaries have been required for decades to affirm agreement with the Baptist Faith and Message as part of the appointment process, Rankin reminded trustees. The revision of that confession of faith in 2000 makes it appropriate for missionaries to update that affirmation. But activists unhappy with the conservative direction the Southern Baptist Convention have criticized his request as forcing missionaries to change their beliefs to conform to "man-made" document. They have asserted Baptists "have no creed but the Bible."
While that slogan sounds like an affirmation of biblical doctrine over human creed, it actually leaves the door open for all sorts of doctrinal error, he said. "We all would readily affirm that we have no creed but the Bible and the Bible is our sole authority for faith and practice," Rankin said. He pointed out, however, that both as a pastor in Texas and as a missionary in Indonesia, he had friends of other denominations with widely differing beliefs who said the same thing.
Rankin said he was alarmed that some Southern Baptist activists "would advocate freedom to the point of supplanting the lordship of Jesus Christ and the authority of God's infallible Word and that missionaries should not be doctrinally accountable to their sending and supporting churches."
"I find it appalling in light of disintegrating homes in America, the diminishing influences of churches on our society, that there would be those who advocate compromise with culture and reject the biblical model of family life and church structure.
"It is especially alarming that so many seem to think that the primary thing that distinguishes Baptists is the priesthood of the believer and autonomy of the local church, forgetting that our soul competency to come to God without any mediator other than Jesus Christ is based on the authority of God's inerrant Word.
"The Holy Spirit never leads an individual contrary to the truth and teaching of God's Word," he said. "The pride and arrogance to elevate freedom and independent thinking above the foundation of our belief must be an offense to our Father and His lordship."
Trustees adopted a motion to affirm Rankin's letter to the missionaries on a standing vote with one opposed.
GOD AT WORK
Trustees heard an encouraging report about the ways God is honoring the passion Southern Baptist missionaries and their Baptist co-workers have for sharing the good news of salvation with a lost world.
More than 5,000 missionaries working among 1,923 people groups and population segments in 185 countries reported 395,773 baptisms and 5,775 new churches in 2001, said Avery Willis, senior vice president for overseas operations, and Scott Holste, director of global research.
Other categories in the report included:
Total churches: 61,569.
Total outreach groups: 36,172.
Church Bible teaching: 3,167,437.
Discipleship training: 646,655.
Non-residential theological training: 47,520.
Residential theological training: 23,648.
CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS
About 90 million people in Mexico and Central America will die in this next generation without ever hearing the gospel, said Phil Templin, regional leader for Southern Baptist work in that area.
"That's unacceptable," Templin said. "So we asked ourselves, 'What can we do? What is our greatest resource?' The greatest resource we have to work with in Middle America are volunteers. We asked ourselves, 'How can we get those volunteers to do something about the gospel in every home?'"
The answer they came up with, Templin said, is "Operation GO" (Gospel Outreach), which plans to reach every one of the 98 million homes home in Central America and Mexico by sending out as many as 10,000 volunteers a year to deliver the Gospel of John booklets and audio cassettes.
Baptists nationals already working on the project are finding that when Bible portions are distributed in a community, people are ready to open Bible studies in their homes the next time the volunteers return, Templin said.
"One church in southern Puebla (Mexico) handed out Bible portions in 7,000 homes and within a month had baptized 35 new converts," he reported. "The Word of God will not return to Him void."
The vision of reaching 98 million homes "is way beyond any possible thing we can do," Templin acknowledged, "but God can do it." [BP]