In 2004 Alabama Baptist churches baptized 23,369 new believers. When that statistic was reported, readers understood what it meant. Alabama Baptist churches had played a role in leading that number of individuals to a saving faith in Jesus Christ and had physically baptized that number of people into church membership during the year.
To take that same understanding to the number of baptisms reported each year by the International Mission Board about baptisms around the world might create a false impression. It certainly created a recent misunderstanding that resulted in an exchange of news releases about the meaning of International Mission Board (IMB) statistics.
To its credit, the IMB has always been forthright with its statistics. The 2004 Annual Statistical Report declares, “Field personnel and Baptist partners baptized… .” Do not miss the words “Baptist partners.” Nowhere does the IMB claim that its missionaries baptized the 607,132 new believers reported for 2004.
In a Feb. 2 press release, IMB President Jerry Rankin asked, “Do missionaries baptize? Yes, occasionally. Do missionaries start churches? Yes, they do. But a very small portion of the new churches we reported (21,028 for 2004) would have been started by a missionary.” He added, “If we found out that missionaries were doing the baptizing, we would probably reprimand them.”
The IMB has always reported the results of work where missionaries are “actively engaged” and “have an influence and ministry among Baptists in those countries,” Rankin explained. Never, in recent history, has the IMB reported only those persons baptized by its missionaries.
The situation becomes more complicated when one realizes that some of those baptized and some of the new churches started may also be reported as the result of work by other missions groups.
More than once I have sat in meetings of IMB trustees where the president of the board (Rankin and, before him, Keith Parks) had to explain to new trustees that missionaries from more than one sending agency might work with the same group of local believers. When that local group baptizes new believers or starts new work, the missionaries from both sending agencies might report the numbers to their sponsoring agencies because both groups “have an influence and ministry among Baptists in those countries.”
Rankin has always been very clear as he was in the Feb. 2 news release. He pointed out, “We’re not claiming that this (the 607,132 baptisms) is simply the work of our missionaries.” He added the report includes the “results coming from our missionaries and where they are serving.”
Work in Venezuela illustrates that point. The majority of IMB missionaries now serving in that country work in church planting efforts or with indigenous people groups. Few work in the established churches. As a result of Alabama Baptist partnership with Venezuelan Baptists, the number of baptisms reported by Venezuelan churches has gone up. That increase is reflected in the IMB numbers, because the baptisms come from areas where the missionaries serve and from churches with which the missionaries have a historical relationship.
The IMB has never said the increase in baptisms in Venezuela is the result of the work of its missionaries.
Venezuela would account for little of the total growth in baptisms reported by IMB. While eight of the then-15 geographical regions of the IMB reported increases in baptisms in the past year, South Asia and East Asia accounted for half of the total number. The same two areas accounted for 85 percent of the total of new churches reported.
Most of the church starts and most of the baptisms were done by national Christians. Again Rankin was clear when he said, “The nationals take the lead in starting their own churches.” The role of IMB missionaries is to train leaders in an area how to teach and disciple others, and this responsibility is shared with other Great Commission Christians with whom the IMB partners.
While the IMB has always been clear about its numbers, other Southern Baptists have not been as careful. Sometimes one hears claims that “Southern Baptists baptized 607,132 people last year.” Lost in the claim is reference to the important work of national Christians or other missionaries who labor alongside IMB workers.
Whenever such claims create the impression that Southern Baptists baptized this many people and started that many churches by themselves, it is a false picture, as the recent misunderstanding indicates. Such claims fail to recognize the important role played by national leaders and pastors all over the globe, as some charge.
With humility, we should all acknowledge that it is the Holy Spirit who convicts of sin, and it is the grace of God that saves a person’s soul. Only God can give the increase. If the role of IMB missionaries is to plant the gospel seed or to water the seed or to harvest the crop, let us praise God for the victory.
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