The trustee chairman of the North American Mission Board (NAMB) believes the Great Commission Resurgence (GCR) declaration creates an opportunity for dialogue about an issue he believes needs to be addressed: a merger of the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) two mission boards — NAMB and the International Mission Board (IMB).
Tim Patterson, pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church, Jacksonville, Fla., told the Florida Baptist Witness that Southern Baptists should have a “singular world-missions agency.”
Noting the SBC’s declining membership and baptism statistics, Patterson said he has been concerned about the “direction of our denomination for some time.” While the society, culture and world have changed in the past five decades, the SBC structure has not, he said.
Patterson said the “greatest” change in the SBC has been the “shift back to a biblical center where we honor and believe in the inerrancy, infallibility and plenary inspiration of the Word of God,” but while the SBC’s “message is stronger,” its “methods remain antiquated” with inefficient agencies.
“We duplicate properties, personnel and programs and thus are not good stewards,” he said.
Because “North America is now just as much a foreign missions field as any other country or continent” with diverse people groups and cultures, Patterson said, “We need a singular world-missions agency that does not lessen its emphasis on missions in North America or any other part of the world, but enhances it.”
Patterson added, “The way we structure, fund and administer our work is overly bureaucratic and bloated. If we combine our efforts and funding, we could be much more effective and become better stewards of God’s resources.”
He signed the GCR statement as NAMB trustee chairman because of his long history in denominational life, which has allowed him to have a “very good, first-hand understanding of how our systems work or don’t work,” he said.
Noting that he is the longest-tenured current NAMB trustee, Patterson said he has seen the organization “at its best and worst.”
Signing the declaration as NAMB chairman is “to make a personal statement that from my personal perspective as the chairman, I see the need for a Great Commission Resurgence.”
But Alabama Baptist Ellie Ficken disagrees.
As a member of the board of trustees of NAMB, Ficken said she is confused by Patterson’s statements.
“The chairman of trustees made this statement without any of the trustees being aware of what was happening,” she said. “We had an executive committee meeting the end of April and none of this was ever mentioned. We learned when it appeared in the news.”
Ficken likened the situation to a chairman of the deacons of one church announcing a church merger in the press without first talking to the other deacons or the pastor.
“That is the way it is and it is so confusing,” she said, noting she was “quite surprised.”
“This is all new to us. … We are totally behind the work [at NAMB] and our president. This is coming from outside, not from inside.”
When it comes to the idea of merging the two boards, Ficken said it would be like looking at apples and oranges.
“Our polity is so different than the IMB,” she said. “While both are responsible for missionaries, they are different in how they do it. The IMB is in total control, but we (NAMB) work through cooperative agreements through state conventions and directors of missions. … It is a unique thing.”
The Great Commission Resurgence seems to start with the seminaries and “go down to the pew,” she said. “But Southern Baptists started in the pews and went up from there, eventually getting to the seminaries. Jesus gave (the power) to the people, not to an organization.”
Ficken noted that while decisions might be made at the top, “the people in the pew don’t have to give. If they choose not to give, it doesn’t matter how powerful the ones up there think they are. It doesn’t matter.”
Two Alabama Baptists serving as IMB trustees — Rob Jackson, pastor of Central Baptist Church, Decatur, and Ray Jones, senior pastor of Ridgecrest Baptist Church, Dothan — were not aware of any IMB discussions related to this issue. But both noted the next IMB trustee meeting was taking place May 18–20 in Denver.
“It would be premature to offer any statements about what it means or possibilities (because) we have not discussed that information at all,” Jones said. “I found out like everybody else did. It has not been a formal topic of conversation for our trustees.” (BP, TAB)
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