Southern Baptist missionaries who leave the International Mission Board because they refuse to affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message are finding help from Texas Baptists.
The Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT) has established a transition fund to help missionaries who are choosing to relinquish their ministries or who may be terminated (see story, page 1) over this issue.
The fund is the centerpiece of the BGCT’s five-part response to the mission board’s requirement that its missionaries affirm in writing the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message statement. The fund will help the missionaries with such immediate needs as housing, food, schooling and grief counseling.
The other aspects of the response include: providing an avenue for contributions to the fund, finding churches to assist these missionaries, working with other Baptist groups who share this concern and helping missionaries find new areas of service.
The BGCT executive board approved the package of responses with one dissenting vote Feb. 26 in Dallas. The missions issue surfaced in January when IMB President Jerry Rankin announced all missionaries appointed by the board would be required to affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message doctrinal statement or explain why not.
Members of the BGCT have twice rejected the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message and continue to affirm the 1963 version.
Waiting to sign
According to IMB officials, 99 percent of IMB missionaries have affirmed the faith statement and the others are being asked to decide soon.
Avery Willis, IMB senior vice president for overseas operations, is talking personally with those missionaries about their reasons for delaying.
Thirteen missionary units (26 people) have submitted resignations that cited the request as a factor in their decisions, IMB officials report. The resignations of three other units (six people) are waiting for trustee action during the board’s November board meeting. Board officials estimate that slightly more than 1 percent of the missionaries have not announced their decisions.
A total of 5,437 missionaries currently are serving through the IMB.
As of the BGCT’s Sept. 24 executive board meeting, 16 missionary families have been helped by the transition fund, according to E.B. Brooks, coordinator of the BGCT’s church missions and evangelism section. At least four of those families already have moved into new ministries with the BGCT’s help, Brooks said. And at least two of the missionaries helped by the fund are Alabama Baptists.
In addition, about 80 other missionary families have initiated some level of contact with the BGCT transition program due to their concerns over affirming the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message, Brooks noted.
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