In a much-anticipated report from an International Mission Board (IMB) recently under siege on the issue of trustee rights, new trustee Chairman John Floyd was called into question about a motion referred to the board for investigation.
IMB trustee Wade Burleson, who for months has been the centerpiece of the debate over restrictions on trustees, presented the motion June 13 at the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting in Greensboro, N.C. The motion called for an ad hoc committee appointed by the SBC Executive Committee to investigate certain aspects of trustee protocol, including suppression of dissent and coercion into “a particular course of action.”
Messengers voted that same day for the investigation to be placed in the hands of the IMB board of trustees instead, which would then report its findings to the convention during the 2007 meeting.
“We expect that you will fully investigate these controversies,” Richard Peoples, pastor of Scotts Creek Baptist Church, Sylva, N.C., said to Floyd following the June 14 report of IMB President Jerry Rankin.
Peoples noted two concerns of “more immediate importance” — the restrictions of the right of trustees to participate fully in board meetings and voice dissent on decisions with which they might disagree. “What immediate corrective action do you intend to take?” Peoples asked of Floyd.
“I’m not aware of restriction of trustee rights,” Floyd replied, noting that any decision made recently by the board has been made with a two-thirds majority. “I pray that you’ll pray for us and trust us to do what God leads us to do.”
Another messenger responded, questioning the accountability of the board of trustees.
“Assuming that you would say that the IMB trustees are accountable to the people of the SBC, how is it that the executive sessions, which have continued for months and months, can continue considering that it’s raised many, many, many questions … for those looking on … in not giving the people the full understanding of what’s taking place behind closed doors?”
Floyd responded that there are times when the board needs to meet and discuss things internally with “the press out of the way.”
He also noted that at the last meeting, the board did not call any such session. “I’m not sure in whose minds these executive sessions have existed.”
Floyd called for Southern Baptists to “trust these 87 men and women who represent a cross section of our convention to do the right thing when it needs to be done.”
In his report, Rankin said Southern Baptists “must not be distracted, diverted and discouraged by controversial and secondary issues.”
“May we focus on the task and be found faithful … in proclaiming the gospel until all have heard,” he said.
In the midst of such heavily publicized internal issues, Rankin said publicity and discussion have largely overlooked the fact that God is moving as never before through Southern Baptists and the IMB.
In 2005, 137 unreached people groups gained access to the gospel for the first time, 99 of which had a population of 100,000 or more, he said. The IMB also appointed and sent 805 new missionaries to the field, a 26 percent increase in appointees over the previous year. Seventy-three percent of new long-term missionaries went to serve among unreached people groups.
“We are a mission people … and we rejoice in all our wonderful Lord is doing,” Floyd said, noting that the IMB now has more than 5,100 missionaries serving around the world. He also told messengers that including short-term volunteers, more than 30,000 Southern Baptists “went all over the world to share the gospel of Jesus Christ” in 2005.
Southern Baptists also gave the largest Lottie Moon Christmas Offering in history, with a final total of $137,939,677.59 given during the yearly missions emphasis.
This served as a sign of “your obedience to the Lord, who told us to take the gospel to the ends of the earth,” Rankin said.
Sharing some of his personal missions experiences, SBC President Bobby Welch said Baptists should give even more in coming years. “The missionaries … and the teeming millions of the lost are worth all the best of the rest of our lives that we can give them.”
Rankin added that they also deserve the offering of heavy prayer support from Southern Baptists.
We need to “plead for the nations and those in darkness,” he said. “Would you and your church accept the responsibility of praying into the Kingdom an unreached people group? If hearts are to be softened, it’s our responsibility to pray … just to think that there will be those there with us praising the Lamb because we prayed them there with us.
“We’ll never have enough missionaries to touch all the nations and peoples of the world,” Rankin said. “But the 43,000 churches and 16 million Southern Baptists can lift their voices to God and touch the nations and peoples of the world.”
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