Day two of the Biennial was very productive. The second day begun again with Leonard Sweet, but this time he spoke about how Jews prayed (and still do) the psalms. He sought to bring to light the nature of Jesus’ words on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” Of course, as most Bible students know, these are words from Psalm 22. Psalm 22 begins will sad words, but ends with a glorified understand standing of God’s power. In the ancient world, when you began a song most people would know the entire song. Today, if you sing “Amazing grace how…” most people could finish that first line because they know the song. Most Baptists will not understand the nature of a psalter, which many Christians sing on a regular basis in worship, because Baptists threw out any ritual that resembled Anglo-Catholic faith. I have learned the value and beauty of singing the Psalms as they were intended at the United Methodist congregation I served at for 2.5 years.
At lunch time, I attend the Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board lunch. MMBB always does a great job of making an event nice. The MMBB money is well spent… err, I mean managed. Seriously, MMBB is one of the best retirement organizations for a denomination out there. MMBB’s performance usually beats the major indexes. I sat next to some International Mission people from the ABC and got the low down on the missionary situation.
As it turns out, the Mission Fund of the ABC has been not been a priority for the churches of the ABC for the past few years. Giving is down. The endowments, which support the missionaries, were a large vehicle of support for missionaries. With the stock market down, the money to support missionaries is down. The International Mission people decided to make the missionaries responsible for 60% of the cost to support their ministry. The IM people want churches and individuals to support individual missionaries rather than give to a pooled fund. The pooled fund will continue to exist, but it will not be the main source of support for missionaries. The IM people found that the most successful mission organizations follow this model because it draws the greatest amount of support for missionaries. The writing was on the wall for a long time, but it was time for something to be done. I was told that if this new model was not implemented then missionaries would be recalled. Now, because of this new model of support, the missionaries will stay on the mission field.
In the afternoon, I attended “Publishing for Pastors”, which was led by Rebecca Irwin-Diehl, editor for Judson Press. She did a great job guiding pastors through the publishing process. Good food for thought.
I grabbed some dinner and headed to the general session that included music, worship, prayer, and reflection. There was a “fleshing out” of the theme, “These Hands, These Feet” through personal stories of churches doing the work of the Gospel. The session included a meaningful communion time. Rev. Dr. Kirk Byron Jones spoke.
1 Comment
I am not persuaded that making missionaries do their own support-raising will pay off well. I wonder whether anyone has done a study of whether individuals in those organizations that work that way have been able to garner appropriate support over an extended period of time. In other words, there may be a flash of enthusiasm at the beginning of such a relationship, but will it continue for years and years?
And then someone also must have data on what percentage of a missionary’s time has to be given to this task. I’ll wager that doing this kind of thing takes a huge amount of energy away from the mission itself.
I understand about the investment problems. But even though I work to help churches create endowments and I look for people to remember Christian causes in their wills, etc., I am also aware that if a mission effort is supported by more dead Baptists than live ones, it will eventually fail. Do we need a rediscovery of the missionary imperative among American Baptists?
Side note: just this week stopped along the road in Crewe, VA, to read the historical marker interpreting the grave of Lottie Moon, she with whose name Southern Baptists raise gazillions for international missions. Do American Baptists have a Yankee Lottie Moon?!