Some international missionaries supported by donations from Southern Baptist churches are getting “the call.” But this call, they contend, is not from God.
Instead, the calls are being made by Avery Willis, senior vice president for overseas operations with the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board.
Willis is calling missionaries who have chosen not to sign an affirmation of the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message as requested by IMB President Jerry Rankin one year ago.
According to multiple reports from missionaries and their families, Willis is telling the missionaries they cannot continue to serve with the IMB if they don’t sign an affirmation of the controversial faith statement.
This does not constitute “termination,” however, the IMB insists. IMB officials have repeatedly said that no missionaries have been fired for failure to sign the affirmation of the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message.
Rankin’s request, the administrators have said, is a voluntary one with no predetermined consequence for those who decline to sign. Asking missionaries to affirm the revised faith statement is necessary to dispel charges of heretical teaching leveled by unnamed accusers, Rankin said last year.
The IMB confirmed that Willis has been making phone calls since the first of the year to missionaries who have not signed.
“These calls are not being made to inform people that they are being fired. Avery is seeking to counsel missionaries and persuade them to make the affirmation,” said Clyde Meador, associate vice president of overseas operations.
But missionaries on stateside assignment (or furlough) won’t be allowed to return to the field without signing the affirmation, an IMB spokesman said. And those preparing to come back to the United States for stateside assignment are being told they must make their decisions before coming back.
It is not clear how the IMB will handle missionaries who do not sign and who are not scheduled for stateside assignment soon.
More than 30 missionaries have resigned or taken early retirement within the last year rather than sign the affirmation of the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message. Others are believed to have resigned or retired for the same reason but without making that reason explicitly known.
(ABP)
Share with others: