When International Mission Board (IMB) President Jerry Rankin asked missionaries to affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message (BF&M) in January 2002, a large majority complied automatically. Within the following weeks and months, many others turned in their affirmations.
And now that a May 5 deadline has been set for the remaining 31 people to make their decisions, the IMB reports that almost 99 percent of the 5,500 overseas workers have affirmed the document.
Alabama Baptists Leon and Jean Champion serve as IMB missionaries in Venezuela and affirm the 2000 BF&M.
“Jean and I are both veteran Alabama missionaries who were appointed in 1984 to Argentina and have spent the last eight years serving in Venezuela,” Leon Champion wrote in a letter to The Alabama Baptist Dec. 2, 2002. “We [affirmed] the Baptist Faith and Message, and we are in agreement with the very points of the BF&M in which [Rick and Nancy Dill] are in opposition. (Champion is referring to the Dillses’ response to the IMB’s request to affirm the BF&M, which was reported in the Oct. 24, 2002, issue of The Alabama Baptist. That article may be found online at www.thealabamabaptist.org.)
“I believe the folks in Alabama deserve the right to hear the other side of the issue of how thousands have signed the BF&M, and they need to hear our position on the interpretations of the changes that were added to the new BF&M,” Champion wrote.
“For example, I stand behind the removal of the wording of ‘the criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus Christ,’” he said. “Jesus is my Lord and Savior, and I honor Him as such. As I pray to Father in His name, they give me guidance in interpreting the Scripture. However, there is a group out there who has taken the words above and has perverted the earlier intentions of the expression in the 1963 version. This group is now saying, ‘Only the things that Jesus taught are the things that should govern our Christian faith.’
“Since Jesus didn’t deal directly with things like homosexuality, the place of women in church, women as pastors, the evolvement of the church, etc., we should then ignore what God, through the Holy Spirit, later revealed in His writings to the apostle Paul?” Champion questioned. “In fact, I have a sister-in-law, who is in another denomination, who rejects the writing of Paul, because, according to her, he was a male chauvinist. She refuses to teach anything in Sunday School except the other books of the Bible,” Champion said.
“It doesn’t have to be us, but I believe that if The Alabama Baptist is going to be fair, equal … attention and time should be shared with the churches of Alabama to let them know that there are literally thousands of missionaries who do support the changes that were made,” Champion noted.
Alabama Baptists Jess and Wendy Jennings, who serve as IMB missionaries in the Philippines, also affirmed the BF&M.
“We have been IMB missionaries since December 1992 and have had nothing but a positive experience being Southern Baptists working under the International Mission Board,” the couple wrote in an e-mail to The Alabama Baptist Jan. 7.
“It has been over 10 months now since we signed the new BF&M, and articles are still being written. We have been on stateside assignment now for over six months and we have yet [to be] asked about this while in a church,” they said. “There seems to be more concern about this in the denominational ranks and maybe with those who have access to media outlets.”
Noting that only a small number of missionaries have resigned compared to the 5,500 missionaries on the field, the Jenningses said, “Last year when we were asked to sign, it was not an issue on most missions fields or by most missionaries.
“We serve in the Western Pacific region and have a very good relationship with our regional leadership. We also have confidence in our leadership at the Board,” they wrote.
“It is very disheartening to continue to read articles that focus on controversy, especially when most of the controversy is not from the ranks of missionaries.
“We feel that you have a responsibility to report what is going on, but you have a responsibility to report responsibly,” they explained. “If this is not an issue with less than one-half of 1 percent of the missionaries, then that is about how much attention The Alabama Baptist should be giving it.”
Other missionaries sent e-mails to the IMB supporting Rankin’s request that missionaries affirm the 2000 BF&M.
Keith and Lisa Wagner, who were appointed to plant churches in the Dominican Republic in May 2000, said, “We support the content of the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message without reservation. We find it to be a document based on solid, biblical theology.
“We are not ashamed to be serving as missionaries with the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC),” the Wagners wrote. “In fact, we feel quite honored to be sent out as missionaries from the churches of the SBC. We believe, as missionaries, we should be held accountable for what we teach on the missions field.”
Charlotte Acree, who has served as a clinic nurse in Nigeria since 1987, said, “When we first heard we might be asked to [promise to work in accord with the 2000 BF&M], I was against it on principle and on hearsay, and I was glad when the trustees reaffirmed us,” she wrote. “However, when [Dr. Rankin’s request] came out, I followed the suggestion of comparing the three editions of the BF&M and found no cause for any alarm or dissension in any of them.”
Chris and Eileen Carr, who were appointed for general evangelism in Russia in January 1999, said, “We have had no problem or hesitation. The newest revision of the BF&M contains nothing that conflicts with historic, evangelical, orthodox Christian doctrine,” they wrote.
“Everything in the BF&M dovetails with traditional Southern Baptist faith and practice,” the Carrs noted. (TAB)
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