WHAT ABOUT THE MISSIONARIES?

The biggest concern of traditional Texas Baptists in regard to funding is the missionaries. No one wants to abandon our foreign missionaries. As traditional Baptists, we know that missions has always been the basis of cooperation.

Here are several thoughts on the subject. First, you can send money directly to the Foreign Mission Board and not support the rest of the SBC agenda.

Second, realize there are several different ways to “support the missionaries.” One way is to prepare a place for the hundreds of missionaries who want out from under fundamentalist control to go to and continue to have support. It is a catch-22 position. Missionaries want away from the FMB, and yet they can not leave without someone else to sponsor them. You want to keep supporting them, but your funds to the SBC keep something new from starting, and keep them from being able to leave.

Our suggestion is follow your conscience and respect each other. If you change from the FMB to CBF, you are still supporting SBC missionaries. Churches supporting CBF are not “abandoning SBC missionaries”. In truth they are probably supporting their future freedom.

And yet, churches giving to the FMB are not necessarily supporting fundamentalism. Your heart is in the right place as well. Whatever you decide, respect others who do it differently.

In a future issue of this newsletter we will focus on the impact of fundamentalism on missions, and on mission opportunities for Texas Baptists.

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