Four Alabama Baptists were among 36 Southern Baptist missionaries commissioned during the Jan. 10 appointment service at Lakeview Baptist Church, Auburn. Just under 2,000 people attended the service, which filled the church to capacity.
The International Mission Board (IMB) appointment service was especially special for Keith and Carolyn Hocutt, who are members of Lakeview Baptist and make No. 53 and 54 on the current list of overseas missionaries from the east Alabama church.
But the story doesn’t stop there. Also during the service, Lakeview Baptist members Rob and Betty Martin committed to missions service.
Nearing retirement from Auburn University, Martin, an IMB trustee, said they do not know where or for how long but believe they will be serving a short-term stint within the next year.
“As the invitation began, Betty came to me, and we stepped forward to say we are going wherever God sends us in missions,” he said.
Another 40 people, some of whom were from Lakeview Baptist, met with an IMB candidate consultant prior to the service to find out more about missions opportunities. Numerous others came forward during the commitment segment of the appointment service.
“The most immediate and visible impact of the appointment service was the number of people who came forward,” said Al Jackson, pastor of Lakeview Baptist. “We don’t know what kinds of seeds were planted at Lakeview and far beyond Lakeview,” he said.
John West, minister of missions at Lakeview, called the impact “massive.”
“We have an extremely high interest in international missions (at Lakeview),” he said. “We present the cause of Christ to serve around the world weekly, but hopefully our people can catch a greater vision (following the service) and others will increase their involvement.”
David Taunton, trustee from First Baptist, Birmingham, commended Jackson and his staff for the service. “It was an excellent appointment service … and well attended.”
While the service was unique and special for Alabama Baptists, it also highlighted a group that reflects the growing influx of ethnics, older individuals and people of other diverse backgrounds into Southern Baptist missionary service.
The group appointed at Lakeview was more ethnically diverse than usual, including six of Asian background, noted Jim Riddell, who leads the IMB’s mobilization team.
An Alabama couple, Harris and Jenny McLemore Cook, represented one of the diverse couples.
Cook noted that he is in his 50s — once considered too old to become a missionary — and was fulfilling a call God gave him when he was in seminary more than 25 years ago. The lingering illness and eventual death of his first wife prevented his appointment until now. He and Jenny, a Montgomery native, married in 1994 and have been ministering in apartment complexes and mobile home communities for the Bessemer Baptist Association.
The Cooks will coordinate the evangelism efforts for a missionary team focusing on more than 5 million urban poor living in Caracas, Venezuela.
The Hocutts will serve as missionary associates in western South Africa focusing on evangelism.
Hocutt, a native of Elba, is a graduate of Auburn University and Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. He has served at churches in Alabama and North Carolina. He also served as an International Service Corps volunteer to Belize for the IMB and worked at the Center for Great Commission Studies in Wake Forest.
Mrs. Hocutt was born in Anniston and grew up in Gadsden. A graduate of The University of Alabama and University of Georgia, she was also a volunteer in Belize.
The five Alabama IMB trustees, Alabama’s Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU), the State Board of Missions (SBOM), the staff at Lakeview Baptist and the more than 300 volunteers from Lakeview worked together to make the service happen.
“It was an extraordinary evening of praise and celebration to the Lord for what He has done and continues to do for the workers of the harvest of the world,” Jackson said.
Jerry Rankin, president of the IMB, said he felt the “enthusiasm and response of Alabama Baptists that is reflected in record Cooperative Program giving and a record number of volunteers.”
“It was great to celebrate the sending of missionaries here,” he noted.
While the initial invitation to the IMB went out more than five years ago, it was about two years ago that Martin got the word to organize the event.
Form hospitality for appointees, trustees and staff to arranging more than 20 missions speaking points, Martin and the others made it happen. The IMB hosted a luncheon for former missionaries, and the WMU hosted a dinner for missionary parents.
The Tuskegee-Lee Association also hosted a pastor’s brunch with Rankin at Parkway Baptist Church, Auburn.
Bobby DuBois, associate executive director of the SBOM, addressed the crowd on behalf of the state convention.
“The service was the best of more than 50 that I have attended in almost 10 years as a trustee,” Martine said, noting he served two years of an unexpired term before beginning his own eight-year term.
“Our intention was to make this one of the best ever,” said trustee Bill Hudgins, pastor of First Baptist Church, Hokes Bluff. “I think we pulled it off.”
Laurella Stoudenmire, trustee from Thomasville Baptist Church, called the service “indescribable.”
The service was held in conjunction with an IMB trustee meeting. The 36 missionaries appointed brought the total number worldwide to 4,824. (Louis Moore contributed)
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