The declining number of International Mission Board (IMB) missionaries on the field is about to make a 180-turn. More opportunities to serve are being opened up and restrictions on who can be appointed are being loosened.
But even with the new policy, which was approved by IMB trustees during their May 12–13 meeting in Louisville, Ky., some of the core qualifications remain in place, IMB President David Platt said.
For instance, IMB missionaries must be baptized members of a Southern Baptist church at the time of appointment and hold a commitment to and identification with Southern Baptists. The candidate’s conviction of truth must align with the current Baptist Faith and Message (BF&M) and be devoted to the vision, mission, values and beliefs of IMB. The person also must indicate a vibrant personal discipleship and be active in disciple-making. The call to serve must be affirmed by the local church as well as IMB leadership.
IMB service will be open to U.S. citizens and permanent residents of the U.S. who are in good physical, emotional and mental health and who model a godly family life and/or personal relationships.
Possibilities are limitless
While there is a lot of work to be done before IMB will be ready to appoint people in the new opportunities, being labeled pathways, the possibilities are limitless, Platt explained.
The concept is moving toward missional living rather than missionary living. IMB won’t be financially supporting most of the new appointees. Instead the idea is that those newly appointed would support themselves while doing missions.
“They will not leave their work to do missions but leverage their work to do missions,” he said.
Professionals who can get jobs overseas, students studying in universities in other countries and retirees are all prime targets for the new missionary positions.
The idea is that the official point person on the field would be a traditionally funded missionary while other team members would be self-supported.
And while the new roles will come with specific sets of qualifications such as certain education levels and other requirements, previous disqualifiers related to baptism, speaking in tongues and divorce have been eliminated.
Also having teenage children will no longer be a disqualifier.
Baptist Faith and Message
“We want it to be simple and clear that what’s driving us doctrinally is what all these churches [of the SBC] have agreed on in the Baptist Faith and Message,” Platt said during an hour-long telephone news conference with editors. “We’re tethering ourselves to the Baptist Faith and Message, and we tethered ourselves to it in such a way that if the Southern Baptist Convention were to edit or adjust the Baptist Faith and Message a year from now or two years from now or whenever, then that would adjust the way we work.”
Subsequent to the news conference, IMB spokeswoman Wendy Norvelle said trustees have yet to determine the preferred funding mechanism for new pathways of missionary service. She added, however, that IMB encourages churches to give through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions and the Cooperative Program.
Not enough money
But, Platt noted, “the reality is that we will never have enough funding to send full-time, financially supported missionaries to all the most extreme places in the world with the gospel … even if the Cooperative Program and Lottie Moon Christmas Offering were to double overnight.”
Moving IMB to serve in a unique way to train and support larger numbers of people on the field who are able to provide their own support is a way for 40,000-plus churches to partner together, he said. “I believe the local church is the agent God has appointed to spread the gospel around the world. I want to lead IMB very intentionally to partner with local churches.”
Previous policies “were put in place at various times for good reasons,” Platt said, but needed revision given the demands of fulfilling the Great Commission today.
Platt commented on several specific changes related to hot-button issues:
• DIVORCE
“Divorce is not an automatic disqualifier for long-term service with the IMB as it was under the old policy,” Platt said.
The marital history of all missionary candidates still will be examined. However, the circumstances of a divorce will now be considered along with the view of the prospective missionary’s host culture regarding divorce and the candidate’s potential role on a missionary team, Platt said. Requirements regarding divorce may need to differ for lead church planters and support personnel, he said.
• BAPTISM
The only baptism requirements under the new policy are that a missionary be “a baptized member of a Southern Baptist church” and possess a “conviction of truth as expressed in the current Baptist Faith and Message statement of the Southern Baptist Convention.”
The BF&M, Article VII, defines baptism as “the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried and risen Saviour; the believer’s death to sin; the burial of the old life; and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus.” Article VII adds that baptism is “prerequisite” to church membership and the Lord’s Supper.
IMB missionaries, Platt said, “are going to believe and function and practice and live in accordance with” the BF&M.
“Baptism must take place under the authority of a local church that practices believer’s baptism by immersion alone, embraces the doctrine of the security of the believer’s salvation and does not view baptism as sacramental, regenerative or essential to salvation.” The policy applied to all missionaries at all levels of service.
• SPEAKING IN TONGUES
The new policy does not mention speaking in tongues or using a private prayer language, but Platt said the IMB Field Personnel Manual allows a missionary to be terminated for disruptive emphasis on any specific spiritual gift as normative for all Christians.
Previously IMB policy defined the gift of tongues, or “glossolalia” in Greek, as speaking “a legitimate language” and disqualified from service all missionary candidates who used an unintelligible language in worship or practiced glossolalia in worship without following the New Testament guidelines. Using an “ecstatic utterance as a prayer language” disqualified a candidate from service.
• TEENAGE CHILDREN
Families with teenage children are eligible for appointment and will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, Platt said, noting some missions fields are suitable for families with teenagers while others are not.
A previous policy stated that couples with children 12 and older would be eligible for service only after specific criteria were met, including psychological or psychiatric evaluations of the children.
When asked about policies governing alcohol use, Platt said trustee-approved policy did not previously and does not currently disqualify from service candidates who drink alcohol. Yet the Field Personnel Manual requires all missionaries to abstain from alcohol following their appointment. Platt cited policies on alcohol as a model for how other debated issues might be handled in the future.
“The only way to address some of these issues is not a policy that’s a disqualifier on the front end,” Platt said.
“People know. It’s not like we’re hiding any of what we believe about these issues. But we are saying, ‘OK, they’re not automatically disqualifiers on the front end, but it’s clear, as an IMB missionary, that we abstain from alcohol.’”
Making adherence to the BF&M the baseline requirement for missionary service represents an attempt to ease initial restrictions on qualified Southern Baptists who feel a call to take the gospel to the nations.
Trustees “see that there are some issues we must address as the IMB,” Platt said. “Our pipeline has been small and tough to get through in different ways that we could open up and free [up].”
Regarding prospective missionaries who were prevented from serving under the old policies, Platt said, “The door is open for them to explore serving with the IMB.” (Compiled from BP, IMB, TAB stories)
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