Thanks for the tip. Just to ask, what did you mean by “you all”?

Blessings,
Tim

http://imbresources.org/index.cfm/fa/store.prod/ProdID/1062.cfm

Thanks for your .02. It is interesting that I have now heard from thee M’s. I honor all three of you even though I only agree so far with one of you. :) I will honestly say that the reporting of the baptisms is not openly understood to be any and all churches that have been influenced by our M’s. When one reads this report from the IMB writers one would believe that we are speaking of the M’s direct connection. Per the following statement;
Bershi’s baptism is among the more than 506,000 recorded by the International Mission Board in 2008 — an average of one baptism per minute. Southern Baptist missionaries and their partners also reported starting more than 24,650 new churches last year.

While it does state SB M’s and their partners the entire report gives the impression that the 506k baptisms were performed in direct connection to the M’s.

Now, let us speak about the use of the term “missional”. I agree with what you are saying that the term means. However, this is not the way the term is being presented within the context of Missionaries. I have heard and preachers from influential pulpits advocate everyone is a missionary. You know, we went through this same phase back in the early 90′s when everyone was told they were ministers. My feeling is that it devalues the call of a M going to a place where God has called him. Now we all can say that God has called us to specific places. But I am a Christian and I reach my area that God has called me because I am God’s man for this place. We are losing that type of call on M’s nowadays. It seems we have lost the idea that God calls a man/woman/family to forsake all and go to areas of the world because God places a call on that person/family’s life. With the “missional” movement we appease that type of call by saying, “God hasn’t called me to give up all, but I can go on short-term trips and be a missionary here in the US where I am comfortable and I do not have to go through the issues of various M’s who have forsaken all. I do not believe I am misunderstanding “missional” if you will listen to conference speakers you will hear this thought process also.

As for the funding, I believe if the research were done, one will find that many of the churches that fund these short-term mission trips have done so by taking away funds from the CP.

Blessings,
Tim

As a non-anonymous former missionary, I will throw in my 2 cents worth here as well. It is public knowledge that the IMB’s baptism figures do not only include baptisms performed by actual missionaries, or even just those baptisms performed in churches actually planted by missionaries, but by baptisms connected with our national partners as well. It is hard to measure exactly what influence our missionaries actually have in leading to many of these baptisms. The idea is that our role is more that of catalysts for church planting, training and mobilizing nationals. In all of this, the IMB has always been open and honest, telling it like it is, though. Those who have interpreted the statistics as if all the baptisms were actually performed by missionaries have just not been reading carefully the information put out by the IMB, where they have communicated this accurately and clearly.

As far as “being missional” is concerned, I think either you, or someone you have been listening to is a little mixed up, if you equate that with doing short-term mission trips. As I understand it, “being missional” is more about approaching ministry in your own backyard from a missionary point of view, focusing on “going” to where the lost are, rather than organizing programs to get them to “come” where we are.

And, I am not so sure the IMB is encouraging missionaries to be “glorified travel agents.” I will say, though, that more of this is probably going on than ought to, either due to missionaries who have latched on to this type of thing, or churches that have really pushed this model to the neglect of more traditional long-term missions. Inasmuch as this is really going on, I think you have a very valid point here. We really do need to ask ourselves some hard questions about the stewardship of sending so many people on so many trips, when the support of long-term missionaries is languishing. Maybe it can be both-and, and not either-or, but I do think we need to take a hard look at this, and make sure we are really being honest with ourselves.

Thank you for verifying the information. I know that you all are under the gun to report various numbers. I appreciate the work you all are doing. It does seem that if William Carey were employed by our IMB he would have been reassigned after the first 3 years. I believe our IMB needs to take into consideration the places people are serving and allow the M’s to report more factual results of their ministry.

Blessings,
Tim

This type of reporting also goes for how they report churches. Any honest IMB missionary would say the same thing.

Thanks for the shout out. It does appear that Dr. Rankin is making strides. His apology does seem to say; “I am sorry, but I was justified in saying what I said.” However, if he and Dr. Chapman had worked through their differences then we need to let it drop also. I do commend him on taking this step. You can read his blog here

Blessings,
Tim

Have you seen Dr. Rankin’s blog post for today? It is titled “Learning the Landmines of Blogging” and contains a clarifiction of his previous post and an apology to Dr. Chapman. It appears there will be no need to “corral” the Presidents, although I liked that idea. (:

I would like to follow-up on the last part of our comment. You said; “I would also add that if there were less “discussion” of the Great Commission and more “action” we wouldn’t have one missionary for every 15 million people like in the area I serve.”

I believe I am doing what God has called me to do. I am holding the ropes so that you can go. These ropes get heavy sometime and sometimes they slip in my hands. I have blisters where they slipped, but I am still holding the ropes. I am promoting the CP within my church. We had the largest Lottie Moon offering in the history of the church just this past year. We are promoting short-term mission trips. With that said, I know it is not about me and I also believe you know it is not about you. It is all about God calling people to the mission field. What we are experiencing is, I believe, the new mindset that has swept the convention–”being missional”. Do you realize that if we loose the sense of calling to go to specific areas of the world then those specific areas will not be reached? The “being missional” craze says that we are all missionaries and we should all just take off and go. I am for short-term mission trips, but I am not one that believes that is where the calling of a missionary is. It is the ground work that guy/gals like you doing day-in and day-out that enables short-term mission teams to have a good experience. It has now come to a time that you M’s are being directed to make sure the short-term mission teams are accomodated and looked after well because then they will return to their churches and send more money. Hey, I understand the logistics of such a trip and the ramifications of a church having a good experience. But, I do not believe the SBC has invested the money we have invested in M for them to be some glorified travel agents for various church groups.

This is just my opinion, but I believe the reason we have had a drop in giving that places money on the mission field is two fold. First, we are de-valuing the call of a Missionary. We are telling everyone that all are missionaries and it is a choice we can make to leave everything and just go. However, if we do not want to make such a choice then we can do short-term mission work and still be a missionary. Second, our churches are placing line items in our budgets to send mission teams on short-term mission trips. Then they are looking at that money as being SBC giving because they are using it to go and assist M’s that with the IMB. Thus, with the new Great Commission Giving column that the GCRTF is proposing they now can report it there. Therefore, the money that would usually be given to the CP from the local church is now diverted to send short-term mission teams to be catered to and coddled on a mission trip that includes steak dinners at fine restaurants, and sight seeing tours in foreign lands.

So, the reason we have 1 M for 15 million people is we have 2 millions missionaries here in our churches that are not being challenged to heed the call to go where God is leading them. I tell my people as we leave to go on mission trips; “remember, we are not missionaries we are going to help the M in the area to strengthen their work.”

Blessings,
Tim