Trustees of the Southern Baptist International Mission Board (IMB) — meeting March 14–15 in Kansas City, Mo., — endorsed President Jerry Rankin’s request that missionaries affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message. One trustee opposed Rankin’s request.
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 such as 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.”
During a business session the same day, IMB trustees accepted resignations from 31 missionaries and moved 62 retiring missionaries to “emeritus” status. Asked about the transition, Rankin said just one resignation appeared to be directly related to his request that missionaries affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message.
Rankin said a number of missionaries are still “sorting things out” about the new requirement, but he believes most will comply.
“It’s going to take time to work through it,” Rankin said. He noted there is no deadline for missionaries to reply and disputed critics who say an ultimatum of “sign or else” is implied. “That’s not the purpose of this,” he said.
In earlier comments to IMB trustees meeting in Kansas City, Rankin said many of his critics reflect a “predisposition” against the Southern Baptist Convention and IMB and inaccurately assume that trustees and staff are suspicious of missionaries.
“To the contrary, it was due to our confidence in the missionaries that we have given them the opportunity to take a stand with us in dispelling unfounded suspicions and mistrust that could erode confidence and support,” he said.
Rankin said he believes it is appropriate for missionaries to affirm what they believe. He said he doesn’t argue with critics who say Baptists have no creed but the Bible.
As a pastor and missionary, however, he said he encountered people from the Church of Christ, Pentecostals and charismatics who said the same thing.
“It is especially alarming that so many seem to think 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 teaching and truths of God’s Word,” Rankin said.
Critics who attack the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message, Rankin said, deny priesthood of the believer to drafters of the statement and autonomy to the SBC “and its authority to govern its institutions and expect accountability on the part of those who serve convention entities.”
In other business, trustees:
Approved 58 new missionaries for appointment.
Elected Dickie Nelson to serve as regional leader for the Caribbean Basin. He succeeds Ron Wilson, who recently became IMB associate vice president for leadership and ministries development.
(BP, ABP)
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