Leaders of FMB and WMU Exchange Mail
Vol. VIII, No. 9, October 1995
Editor's Note: On July 12 the national office of Woman's Missionary Union announced it will produce missions education supplements for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Those supplements will accompany selected existing WMU materials for churches wanting to study the work of missionaries appointed by the moderate-led CBF.
That decision prompted Foreign Mission Board President Jerry Rankin to send a letter to all the pastors and WMU directors of local Southern Baptist churches, calling for prayer that the national WMU organization reverse its decision. He accused WMU of abandoning its 107-year historic role of exclusive support of FMB and HMB missionaries at a time of "evangelistic harvest and unlimited opportunities overseas." (The text of Rankin's letter follows on this page.)
WMU Executive Director Dellanna O'Brien responded by saying, "We are furious with the letter sent by Jerry Rankin," calling it "inflammatory, misleading and divisive." WMU President Carolyn Miller echoed those sentiments in statements issued to Baptist Press. (The text of both statements are printed here.)
Rankin commented further by noting his surprise "at the anger and emotion expressed in the WMU response." (His comments are printed herein.)
Rankin told Baptist Press, "I have spoken with Dellanna on several occasions and we've had delegations from our board meet with national staff three times since their new program statement was adopted, but we feel our concerns have been ignored. We are confident that we still have the loyal support of the WMU in the local churches who continue to identify Southern Baptist missions with the work of the Home Mission Board and Foreign Mission Board.
Rankin's August 25 letter to SBC pastors and WMU directors:
Dear Pastor/WMU Director:
At a time of unprecedented growth, evangelistic harvest and unlimited opportunities overseas, when the Foreign Mission Board is experiencing record numbers of missionaries under appointment, we have been disappointed that the Woman's Missionary Union National Board has chosen to depart from its historic relationship with the Southern Baptist Convention of exclusive support to SBC mission agencies.
We are grateful for your faithful support of the Home Mission Board and Foreign Mission Board as the channels of Southern Baptist mission involvement and support.
We are writing to communicate our concerns about this development and express confidence in your continuing partnership.
We are strong advocates of partnership and networking with other SBC entities and Great Commission Christians, but such relationships are based on a commitment to mutual cooperation. It would be counter-productive to endorse and promote any organization which would divert funding and undercut support for the Southern Baptist Convention and our mission agencies.
W e feel [lie decision (if the WMU National Board to provide promotion and publicity for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship undermines a cooperative spirit among the agen-cies. This is especially, confusing for our more than 4,000 missionaries serving with the FMB who have assumed WMU's unqualified support.
The Southern Baptist Convention responded sympathetically [on 20 June] and in support or the WMU's appeal to be included as a respected auxiliary in the ' Covenant for a New Century" and affirmed them as a valued partner in missions education and promotion. We find it disconcerting that the WMU National Board would then [on 12 July] take a position to promote a divisive mission program rather than using its widespread organizational network to influence Southern Baptists to unify in support of the convention's mission programs,
One of the unique strengths of Southern Baptist missions advance has been [he effective, unified support of the Woman's Missionary Union, serving the local church in missions education, prayer support, and promotion of the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. If we are to continue fulfilling the Great Commission and reaching our world for Christ; it is vital that this supportive partnership continue.
We ask that you pray with us that the decision of the WMU National Board to deviate from its historic role of exclusive support of HMB and FMB missionaries will be reversed and this special relationship, which has existed for 107 years, not be abandoned.
Your partner in missions,
Jerry Rankin
WMU Executive Director Dellanna O'Brien responds to Rankin's letter to pastors, WMU Directors:
We are furious with the letter sent by Jerry Rankin, written at the encouragement of Foreign Mission Board trustees. to pastors and WMU directors. The letter is inflammatory, misleading and divisive.
Why this reaction?
1. We were not informed of this letter by the Foreign Mission Board and had to hear it from the press. Jerry Rankin did call our office on Monday afternoon from overseas to inform us of the letter, but as of Thursday, almost a week later, we still have not received a copy of the letter from the Foreign Mission Board. Both June Whitlow senior associate executive director of WMU, and I were at Ridgecrest Baptist Conference Center during Jericho while the Foreign Mission Board trustees were meeting; yet Dr. Rankin did not show the courtesy of discussing this action at the time it was taken. Additionally, it was a serious omission that the letter was sent to pastors, denominational leaders, and missionaries, but not to the members of our Executive Board, erroneously termed "the WMU National Board" in Dr. Rankin's letter.
2. Like Dr. Rankin, we too believe this action will have negative impact on the 1995 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. When we are attempting to reach a challenging $100 million goal, many Southern Baptists will have second thoughts about giving because of this new criticism of WMU from the Foreign Mission Board. We too are desperately concerned about the message this sends to our missionaries. However, through our frequent contacts with missionaries in many conferences and conventions, through correspondence and on the field, we have consistently been affirmed and our work on their behalf, commended. We have assured them of our on-going support through prayer and giving. and this commitment continues. We promote the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for the missionaries and their work; the timing of this unwarranted attack on WMU will no doubt have its damaging effect.
3. Contrary to Dr. Rankin s statement in a press report that the letter was not designed to drive a wedge between grassroots WMU members and the organization's national leadership, it would be difficult not to imagine that this was the purpose. Dr. Rankin's apparent lack of understanding of the polity of WMU does not allow him to see the connection between local church WMU members and the national organization.
Is it possible that he does not know that these grassroots members elect the members of WMU's Executive Board? This is true only of WMU and not other SBC entities.
4. The letter leads its readers to believe that WMU intends "to abandon" its relationship with the Foreign Mission Board. Nothing could be further from the truth!
Ninety-nine point nine percent of what we do is, and will remain, related to the Home and Foreign Mission Boards. Rather than ‘promoting and publicizing' the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, we are simply responding to a request from churches for materials which include information about what the CBF is doing in missions.
Our Executive Board has taken into consideration the concerns Dr. Rankin has put forward from time to time. Likewise, we have forwarded our own concerns about recent steps by the Foreign Mission Board toward relying on outside assistance, such as Global Focus, which erodes confidence in the promotion and missions education efforts of WMU.
These non-traditional methods have totally left out the significance of prayer support in favor of "raising money" for missions.
We agree with Dr. Rankin that these are times of "unprecedented growth, evangelistic harvest and unlimited opportunities overseas." It is our desire and purpose to equip all Southern Baptists to fulfill the Great Commission. We have no intention of aborting any efforts to serve "the local church in missions education, prayer support, and promotion of the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering."
WMU President Carolyn Miller:
I am appalled that Dr. Rankin would assume by our action that we have deviated from our historic role. We have never intended to change our relationship with the Foreign Mission Board nor our support for Southern Baptist missionaries.
Our decision to produce materials related to the work of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship missionaries grows out of the decision the WMU Executive Board made in 1993 and reaffirmed again in our June meeting in Atlanta. The 1993 decision states that WMU would "produce resources for Southern Baptist groups involved in missions at their request." Our recent action is in line with that decision.
WMU will not promote these materials. CBF leaders will. WMU is simply the printing and distribution vendor.
The Foreign Mission Board trustees apparently understand the need for working with other groups in sharing the gospel message. In their recent meeting at Ridgecrest Baptist Conference Center, the trustees approved the Board's joining the Evangelical Fellowship of Missions Agencies. In a press statement related to that decision, Dr. Rankin is reported as saying, "we're recognizing we don't work in a vacuum on the mission field and therefore need to cultivate relationships and communication with other evangelical missions."
If the Foreign Mission Board can work with evangelical groups - some of which have been viewed in years past as "competing" with Southern Baptist efforts - why cannot we work with a group of Southern Baptists?
Rankin responds further:
I am surprised at the anger and emotion expressed in the WMU response. Instead of speaking objectively to the matters of concern, we were criticized for sending a letter which sought to affirm the support of WMU and express confidence in our continuing partnership at all levels. The fact is that the WMU never consulted with us or bothered to inform us of the decision to produce materials for the CBF and we read about it in the press weeks later.
This reactionary statement clearly reflected why we felt it necessary to communicate our concern to pastors and WMU leadership in the churches.
There was no acknowledgment of the unique nature of CBF and its disruptive effects on cooperation and unity within the SBC. In numerous times of dialogue with the WMU, they continue to use their 1993 program statement to serve the Churches to justify servicing CBF. They have specifically defined their role as no longer being an auxiliary to the Southern Baptist Convention, a clear departure from their historical role that has been obscured in explanations to Southern Baptists.
We are only concerned for the support of our missionaries and are hopeful the positions being taken by the WMU can be discussed objectively and any misunderstandings resolved.
[Banner Editor's Note: The above is reprinted from The Indiana Baptist 12 September 1995. In addition, the following exchange is pertinent. Speaking at a church in Tennessee on 13 April 1992, shortly after he had become executive director of CBF, Dr. Cecil Sherman responded to the following question:
Question: "Will the Fellowship get any sympathy from the national WMU?"
Answer: "I have talked with Dellana O'Brien. I will be in a meeting with her May the eighteenth, at her invitation. She is interested in what we are doing. I am not going to say she is sympathetic. She should say what she is. But she is at least curious. And we will be meeting May the eighteenth: Pat Ayres, the moderator (she is the moderator elect now; after Fort Worth she will be the moderator). Pat Ayres will sit beside me when we talk to the people ... we will go to Birmingham. I think that is all that is correct to say, but SHE INITIATED THIS MEETING. That ought to tell you something."
I have placed four words in Sherman's reply in all cap, bold print to draw your attention to them. There are two things to note: First, it was Dellana O'Brien who initiated the meeting, not Sherman; the WMU leadership, not the CBF leadership. Second, the dates are relevant. Sherman was speaking on 13 April 1992. He and Ayres were to meet with O'Brien on 18 May 1992.
In her letter Carolyn Miller notes that the WMU Executive Board made its decision in 1993 to "produce resources for Southern Baptist groups [emphasis added] involved in missions at their request."
With a motion having been made at the recent CBF annual meeting that CBF declare itself a separate denomination, with action on it having been delayed while a committee studies the issue, with CBF and its affiliated organizations filling all the roles of a denomination, with Cecil Sherman having publicly acknowledged more than once that donations to CBF reduce gifts to the SBC and are therefore competitive, it is more than a mite disingenuous for Dellana O'Brien and Carolyn Miller to assume an attitude of injured innocence.
Just below her point number four, Mrs. O'Brien writes, "Ninety-nine point nine percent of what we do is, and will remain, related to the Home and Foreign Mission Boards." In a committed love relationship 99.9% is not good enough. I guarantee you my wife expects her husband to be true 100% of the time, not just 99.9%!
If the national WMU decides to become a generic mission support agency, that is their right. They are completely free to do so. But to take a giant step away from their historically unique affiliation with the Southern Baptist Convention and yet pretend there has been no significant change, is to make Southern Baptists (and especially the wonderful ladies in the thousands of local churches who do the actual work) out to be simpletons, unable to understand what is occurring before their eyes, and willing to blindly follow a national leadership increasingly not only out of step but also at odds with the recently strengthened biblical orientation of the SBC. TCP]