You are correct in saying that Kevin Ezell’s election as president of the North American Mission Board is one more step in the direction of a new model of missions support (The Alabama Baptist, Sept. 23).
As this new model plays out on foreign fields, those who contribute through the Cooperative Program will support the career missionaries who are necessary for the “missions trips” of those who don’t contribute through the Cooperative Program. It is the career missionary who must arrange for lodging, transportation, translators, medical care in emergencies and a place of ministry and follow-up on the decisions and a thousand other details that are necessary to make a “missions trip” a success. We don’t hear about missions trips going to places where career missionaries, supported by the Cooperative Program, haven’t prepared the way.
As the number of career missionaries dwindles due to lack of support through the Cooperative Program, I predict that another step in the new model of missions support will take place. Large churches will contribute to the support of a few missionaries directly, and their missions trips will be limited to the place where “their” missionaries work.
Ben E. Hope
Gadsden, Ala.
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