Missions advocate

The last charge Jesus gave to His disciples was to go into all the world and make disciples. The church at large has been negligent in obeying that charge. While there are many good reasons for the Cooperative Program method for supporting missions causes, it has one serious defect. It has essentially removed the missionary from the local church. In a church where I served for over 20 years, we had an annual missions conference. Shades Mountain Baptist Church, Vestavia Hills, and a few others still do. In those conferences, we had missionaries stay in our home, talk to our children and tell us what was happening on the field.

I receive letters or e-mails from 18 missionaries that I have met. We have a prayer time after breakfast and pray for those missionaries. We also participate in their ministries financially. One of my sons is a missionary in Bamako, Mali. We visited him while he was in Cote d’Ivoire. A civil war drove them out of there. It sure makes a difference to visit a field and meet those who are engaged in missionary work.

I commend you for reporting on the revival of interest in missions and promoting our missionary participation.

A.E. Carden
Cottondale, Ala.