Wearing an umpire uniform, Jeff Iorg said he wanted to show off his “missionary clothes” during the concluding session of the 2011 National Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) Missions Celebration and Annual Meeting on June 13.
WMU sessions took place June 12–13 at the Wyndham Phoenix Hotel. “Proclaim!” was the theme for this year’s celebration based on Luke 4:18–19.
Alabama Baptists’ Rosalie Hunt was elected to a third one-year term as recording secretary. Also re-elected to a second one-year term as president was South Carolina Baptists’ Debby Akerman.
Iorg, president of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley, Calif., shared how umpiring baseball on the side for 20 years and serving as a chaplain for the San Francisco Giants has allowed him to break free of “the Christian subculture” and share Christ with people who need to hear about Him.
“If you’re going to make a difference in the culture, you must go where lost people are and where lost people are in control,” said Iorg, who has served as a chaplain for the Giants for seven years.
Iorg set forth that challenge in his new book, “Live Like a Missionary: Giving Your Life for What Matters Most.” In a WMU gathering during which International and North American Mission Board missionaries and others shared stories about victories and struggles in their ministries to a lost world, Iorg challenged the crowd to push beyond its ministry leadership positions and regular church duties to share Jesus with others.
Christian leaders too often become cocooned and isolated from those who don’t follow Jesus, Iorg said. It’s a temptation against which Iorg admits he’s struggled.
“The trajectory of my life has surprised me because at each step along the way, I have become more closely identified with the Christian community,” he said, “and less and less identified with the people of the community that I so desperately want to reach with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
“There’s a good place for Christian ministries, but what I’m talking about … is stepping out of the Christian subculture, stepping out of what we control and moving instead into venues in the community and engaging in those,” he said.
It’s in those positions that Christians “will have to earn our position by our service,” Iorg said, “and then earn the right to speak about the name of Jesus Christ.
“And I’ll transform culture by what I accomplish in this process.”
Ginger Smith, executive director of the Mission Centers of Houston, was the keynote speaker for the Sunday night session. She recounted how God is setting people free in Houston through three questions that she has asked every day for the past year: 1. What if we believed God? 2. What if we really loved people? 3. What if we served others — even if we didn’t want to or wanted instead to teach them a lesson?
Sharing that she often felt “more freedom on the streets than in church,” the inner-city minister acknowledged that answering these questions has changed her practice of doing things “for” people to doing things “with” them, empowering them and teaching them ownership.
Exploring human exploitation, the current focus of WMU’s Project HELP, Smith noted examples of the human exploitation prevalent in the Houston area: Cantinas offer “beer with a girl” for $13; a homeless man sells girls for $10.
Rather than rescuing victims, Smith focuses on prevention programs that teach children how to protect themselves, how to communicate when things don’t feel right around them and how to respect one another.
“These children are seen as disposable. We have to do something,” Smith said.
Also speaking during the event were Tom Elliff, president of the International Mission Board (IMB)and Kevin Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board (NAMB).
Elliff urged the 350 WMU attendees to encourage their church leaders to join the IMB in launching an initiative to reach the 3,800 presently unengaged people groups in the world (see story, page 5).
Ezell presented Wanda Lee, WMU executive director, with an oversized Royal Ambassador (RA) racecar to commemorate the transfer of responsibility for RAs back to WMU.
“We love RAs. They were born out of our hearts and … now is the perfect time to welcome them back home,” Lee said.
In a missions focus segment, Gordon Fort, vice president of the IMB’s office of global strategy, facilitated a discussion of current missions issues as the two SBC mission boards cooperate to reach all peoples of the world. Fort countered rumors that the two boards were merging but did stress they are working together in unprecedented ways.
“When we failed to take the gospel to the people groups, God brought them to us,” Fort said, explaining that IMB and NAMB missionaries work stateside and internationally to reach the same people groups.
In her first presidential address, Akerman said, “God has purposed WMU to equip our churches to be on mission, to educate … and to be intentional supporters for our more than 10,000 missionaries,” she said. “Our missions purpose has not changed in our 125 years. [Nonetheless] we need to lessen entertainment venues and increase involvement in God’s Great Commission. And WMU does this so well.”
In other news, two WMU leaders were recognized for outstanding service.
Judith Edwards, a member of First Baptist Church, Rio Rancho, N.M., received the Dellanna West O’Brien Award for Women’s Leadership Development. Laura Morris, a member of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Louisville, Ky., received the Dr. Martha Myers GA Alumna of Distinction Award, which is given to a GA alumna who influences others for Christ and serves as a positive role model for girls. (BP)
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