Loss of 43 Missionaries in a Day Called IMB Record
By Mark Wingfield
Managing Editor, Baptist Standard

The loss of 43 missionaries — including 13 who were fired — represents the largest mass exodus in the history of the SBC’s International Mission Board.

“We’ve never had anything close to this,” said Alan Lefever, director of the Texas Baptist Historical Collection. “They’ve never had a controversy in the IMB like this.”

The 43 missionaries who parted ways with the IMB May 7 joined at least 34 others who previously had resigned or retired rather than sign an affirmation of the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message as mandated by IMB President Jerry Rankin.

Names of the 13 terminated missionaries were not released by the IMB, but the list has been compiled by direct confirmation with the missionaries. (See page 5.) The identities of all missionaries who have resigned or retired rather than sign the faith statement have not yet been ascertained.

Critics of the revised faith statement question its blanket prohibition against woman pastors, consider it to weaken the traditional Baptist doctrines of the autonomy of the local church and priesthood of the believer, and contend it places the Bible in higher esteem than Jesus as a guide to biblical interpretation.

But the primary conflict cited by missionaries is a feeling that signing any faith statement amounts to affirming a creed — something historically anathema to Baptists.

That concern is exemplified in a letter written to a regional IMB leader April 28 by Don and Angie Finley of Brazil, two of the missionaries whose resignations were accepted by the IMB May 7.

They declared they were “not resigning because we have a problem with grassroots Southern Baptists” or “because we have done anything wrong or have something to hide.”

“When a Baptist missionary sending agency demands doctrinal accountability on the basis of a man-made document rather than on the basis of Scripture, something is wrong,” they asserted. “When unnamed critics are taken seriously when they make vague, generalized and unsubstantiated accusations against doctrinally sound and spiritually committed missionaries, ... something is wrong.

When denominational politics takes precedence over mission priorities, and missionaries themselves are made pawns in a denominational political game, something is wrong.” News of the IMB trustees’ action also drew an expression of sadness from a subcommittee chairman of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Missions Review & Initiatives Committee. Dan Malone, an El Paso attorney, chaired the subcommittee that studied relations with the IMB last year.

“Of the many disappointments and frustrations since the so-called ‘conservative resurgence,’ the firing of God-called missionaries is far and away the saddest day of all,” Malone said. “I am particularly alarmed that it was President Rankin’s request to his IMB trustees to take this action, because he had previously promised that missionaries would never be obligated to sign a doctrinal statement as long as he was president. The pressure placed on him and other IMB leaders must be intense.”

The 13 missionaries who were fired all were long-tenured personnel and represent a combined total of 273 years of service to the IMB.

Rankin and other IMB officials have downplayed the impact of the firings, resignations and retirements, noting that 98 percent of the agency’s 5,500 field workers have signed the affirmation.

That is a valid statistic, but it may not address the issue of what motivated the missionaries to sign, according to Bill O’Brien, former executive vice president of the IMB and global missions strategist now living in Birmingham, Ala.

Stating a yes-no count “doesn’t judge the motivation of those who signed or how deeply they agreed with the revised Baptist Faith & Message,” O’Brien said. “We’ve talked with numerous missionaries who basically said, ‘God called me here, and I’ll sign in order to keep doing my ministry.’ Additionally, you have ‘yes’ responses ranging from ‘This is a wonderful statement of faith’ to ‘I can live with it.’”

The IMB faces a potential negative impact on morale and unity on the field between those who signed in order to protect their ministries or careers and those who embrace the statement fully, he predicted.

Earlier statements by missionaries confirm O’Brien’s assessment that not all who have signed did so out of convictional agreement with the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message:

Rick and Nancy Dill, among those fired, wrote to Rankin in April noting, “The truth is, many missionaries have signed against their conscience because it was imposed upon them.”

The Finleys, in their April 2003 resignation letter, noted “there are those who have encouraged us to sign ... so we can continue to fulfill our call.”

Jan and Tim Webb, at a November 2002 meeting in Virginia after they had resigned as missionaries to Mexico, said they considered signing so it would “secure” their ministries and they could “go on with their lives” and that they knew other IMB missionaries who also disagreed philosophically with the statement but were planning to affirm it in order to avoid ending their ministries.

The revised SBC doctrinal statement was the sole issue surrounding the firings. No criticism of the ministries of the dismissed missionaries and no suggestions of immoral or unethical behavior were offered by the IMB.

November 2003