Alabama Baptists regularly pray for International Mission Board (IMB) personnel serving around the world. Those prayers are more focused since IMB announced it needs to reduce its missionary force (missionaries and staff) by between 600 and 800 people to achieve “short-term financial responsibility and long-term organizational stability.”
By Nov. 2 the most experienced missionaries, those over 50 years of age with a minimum of five years of service, must decide whether or not to accept a “volunteer retirement incentive” offered by IMB (see “IMB announces voluntary retirement incentive details” in the Sept. 17 issue). After the first of the year other missionaries will be offered financial incentives should they decide to serve the Lord outside of IMB. This will be called Phase 2, officials said.
Given the circumstances, the retirement incentives will have to be considered but financial rewards are far down the list of priorities for most of these men and women. If income were a top priority it is unlikely they would have been missionaries in the first place.
These are men and women who followed God’s call to overseas service despite its costs. As one missionary writer noted, they struggled to learn new languages, faced loneliness, illnesses and separation from loved ones. They adapted to new cultures, new ways of thinking, new foods and often lived with scarcities.
Some faced persecution. Some stayed with their people group at the price of personal danger.
‘Incarnational missionaries’
These are the men and women who gave their lives to be “incarnational missionaries.”
Some missions strategists argue this is the most effective missionary approach. It has been said that it takes years to reach maximum effectiveness as a missionary. If that is true then those missionaries being asked to consider coming back to the United States are among the most effective workers Southern Baptists support.
To be clear, IMB is not asking anyone to stop serving. Board officials assure that both Phase 1 and Phase 2 will be entirely volunteer responses. Still it is heartbreaking that Christian workers at the height of their effectiveness have to give up the work and return to the U.S. because there isn’t enough money to support them.
Unfortunately similar things have happened in churches across Alabama. According to the 2014 Alabama Baptist State Convention Annual, Alabama Baptists’ total giving to cooperating churches totaled about $720.5 million in 2014. That is almost identical to what Alabama Baptists contributed to their churches in 2005 ($719.5 million) and down $105 million from a high of $825.1 million.
Fewer ministries, less effectiveness
As churches received less, cuts were made. Often ministry positions were eliminated or changed from full time to part time. Programs were eliminated; building programs postponed; resources reduced; giving to causes beyond the local church fell.
Occasionally part-time staff or volunteers were able to lead outstanding programs. Most of the time eliminating a ministry position resulted in fewer ministries and less effectiveness in what was done.
That is why many wonder what will happen when a sizable portion of Southern Baptists’ most experienced missionaries leave the field. IMB President David Platt assures no drop off in gospel witness will occur. Platt promotes a strategy relying heavily on students, retirees, business personnel and other volunteers who will work together as missionary teams to share the gospel.
Months ago Platt described his vision of future missions work consisting of a missionary team with an IMB-appointed missionary church planter at the center of the team. Volunteers using a variety of platforms in the country, along with short-term missions appointees, would coordinate efforts to penetrate a target group.
Consistent with that strategy, IMB announced about two-thirds of the 300-plus missionaries it plans to appoint in each of the next two years will be short-term missionaries — two or three year assignments. Officials say it takes about 600 missionary appointments annually to stay even in light of normal retirements, resignations and returns.
Appointing only 300-plus missionaries will further reduce the missions force. Making mostly short-term appointments rather than career appointments also lessens the financial strain on IMB’s financial reserves.
Some ask if the decision to make mostly short-term appointments is entirely budget-driven since it is consistent with the strategy Platt laid out months before announcing the immediate cut in the missionary force. They point out the 135 career missionary appointments expected each of the next two years is about one-third the number appointed a decade ago.
Some career missionaries charge this approach will turn the missionary force into “amateurs.” New personnel will not have the “gifting, training or calling,” they contend.
Just as every Christian is called to minister, every Christian is called to be on mission for the Lord. But not every Christian is called to be a pastor and not every Christian is called to be a missionary, these critics explain.
The theological nuances of that argument will be debated but it is clear the strategy of doing missions around the world is changing. Incarnational-type missionaries supported through the Cooperative Program (CP) and special offerings is decreasing. Tent-maker missionaries who make their own way will increase.
Platt seems to be relying on the pattern he used while pastor of The Church at Brook Hills, Birmingham. The church was heavily involved in international missions projects and programs providing personnel and financial support.
As a passionate voice for mobilizing Christians to reach the world for Christ, there is none better than Platt. He has the ear of younger Christians, especially. We pray the Lord will bless his leadership in rallying Southern Baptists to share the gospel in America as well as other parts of the world.
Supporting missions
At the same time there is irony that Platt is the one who must direct IMB through this reduction in the missionary force. During his days at Brook Hills the church gave $25,000 annually to Baptist work through CP out of its multi-million dollar budget. Low CP giving in SBC churches is a pattern that helped create the situation he must now remedy.
Thankfully Platt now urges listeners to support missions through CP as often as he presses for personal involvement in missions.
So Alabama Baptists continue to pray. We pray for missionaries facing decisions about returning to the U.S. or staying on the field. We pray for the missionary enterprise, as well, because we seem to be living in a historic time. We may be witnessing a seismic change in missions strategy that goes beyond IMB’s financial responsibility and organizational stability.
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