Missiologists affirm BGCT network
By Ken Camp
Texas Baptist Communications

Texas Baptists do not have to create the framework for a world missions network. It already exists among “missional” churches. But a network could provide those churches the help they need in connecting with each other, according to a noted missions strategist.

“The bones are there, and they are strong. What the network can provide is the connecting tissue. If it is done correctly, the bones will work together in coordination. There is real strength for the body in that,” said Mike Stroope, associate professor of global missions at Baylor University’s Truett Seminary in Waco.

Stroope, who served two decades with the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board, is one of several missiologists who has endorsed the concept of a world missions network as proposed by the Baptist General Convention of Texas Missions Review & Initiatives Committee.

That committee has recommended that the BGCT establish a world missions network as a not-for-profit affiliate with the stated purpose of helping churches, associations, institutions and individuals “fulfill their missions calling through both short-term and long-term missions endeavors across the United States and the world.”

The network would work closely with existing missions agencies, such as the SBC mission boards, the Baptist World Alliance and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, as well as accessing the resources of BGCT-related missions programs.

The BGCT Executive Board endorsed the proposal at its Sept. 24 meeting in Dallas, subject to a vote by messengers to the BGCT annual session Nov. 11–12 in Waco.

“I affirm Texas Baptists for their willingness to think outside the box,” said Bill O’Brien, veteran Southern Baptist missionary and retired director of the Global Center at Samford University.

“As I understand it, the network is not in competition with any other agency. It’s not even a sending agency, per se. But it holds the potential for putting a host of Texas Baptists into the mainstream of what God is doing in global missions,” O’Brien said.

Justice Anderson, who served 17 years as a Southern Baptist missionary in Argentina and 27 years as a professor of missions at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, echoed those sentiments.

“I am very pleased that the concept is general enough to include those who still want a relationship with the International Mission Board, as well as keeping a relationship with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship for specific missions projects,” Anderson said.

But the missions experts also agree that that real test for the network will be whether it can “keep its missional edge,” in Stroope’s words, and stay true to its founding vision of being a facilitating agency for local church initiatives.

“There will always be a temptation for the network to control and to over-manage. There will be a constant tension between wanting to help and wanting to take charge. People in some churches will even invite them to control and over-manage,” Stroope said.

“The network will have to guard against going into one ditch or another. It will have to let the local church take the initiative and not take it over for them. But at the same time, it cannot let them flounder. There is a time to intervene.”

The networking approach, with its emphasis on churches becoming missions sending entities, did not originate with the BGCT committee, Stroope emphasized. The committee just recognized the direction in which churches already are moving.

“The amateurization of missions is a real trend. The task of missions is being taken away from professionals and assumed by churches,” he said. “They are doing it. Let’s help them.”

Stroope sees this as a corrective measure away from a highly centralized approach that delegated missions only to a few highly trained professionals.

“People want to know their lives count for something much more,” he said. “The stage of world missions is one they know they want to be on. They want to participate, and they want to witness what God is doing in the world.”

The trend is not limited to megachurches with big budgets and abundant resources, Stroope emphasized.

”In fact, it may be the small- to medium- sized church that is able to move to this quickly, with a singleness of mission.In a smaller church, the whole church is able to move together into this missional approach as a common task,” he said. “There’s something spiritual about it. It is not by money and not by might. God is able to work through common people.”

This is a trend that cuts across denominational lines, Anderson noted. “The general trend in all missiology is a movement back to the local church as the basic sending body, instead of turning that responsibility over to societies and boards.”

While Anderson applauds increased involvement by missions volunteers, he said he remains committed to the notion of career missionaries who invest their lives in other cultures. “The cross-cultural communication of the gospel needs specialists,” he said. “I guess I’m of the old school on that point, since my generation did it that way.”

O’Brien agreed that any world missions network would need to relate to some field personnel who live within other cultures and speak other languages. “There will always be a role for the career missionary, if by that we mean an incarnational presence working cross-culturally,” he said.

Stroope agreed that there will continue to be a place for career missionaries, but“what is changing is their role,” he said. “We need people to pioneer, who can develop innovative strategies. We need people who will be there for long-term relations. But their role will be to open doors and invite others to come through.”

Anderson said he still would hate to see missionaries become nothing more than facilitators for visiting short-term missions volunteers. “I prefer the player-coach idea,” he said, casting the missionary as both a participant in direct missions ministry and an equipper of others.

Anderson added that he hopes the world missions network can provide the BGCT a means to help IMB missionaries who are no longer able to serve the agency that sent them overseas because they are unwilling to affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message.

All three missiologists emphasized that it is imperative for the world missions network to work closely with Christians in the nations where churches send missionaries. The Missions Review & Initiatives Committee criticized the IMB for “distancing” itself from national conventions and unions of churches.

“National leaders everywhere respond beautifully to anybody who invites them to come sit down with them as partners. If the network succeeds in doing that, it will be a breath of fresh air to Christian brothers and sisters in positions of leadership around the world,” O’Brien said.

He also emphasized the importance of the world missions network being able to relate to all Great Commission Christians, particularly as the center of Christian activity shifts to the Southern Hemisphere.

“For years, I have been advocating more collaborative strategic planning with the larger body of Christ around the world,” O’Brien said. “I believe the last frontier in missions is the frontier of cooperation and collaboration with Christian bodies around the world.”

October 2002