Texas Baptists Committed Convocation, Houston, Texas, July 9–10, 2004

WorldconneX
By Bill Tinsley

Peter introduced missions at Pentecost when he quoted from the prophet Joel: “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel,” he said. “In the last days I shall pour out my spirit upon all flesh“…. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams … both men and women … they shall prophesy.” From that moment forward, missions has always advanced based on God’s vision given to God’s people. Texas Baptists were born out of this kind of vision. No one can read Z. N. Morrell’s Fruits and Flowers in the Wilderness without being impressed with the vision that compelled this Texas Baptist pioneer. When he arrived in Texas in 1835, not a single Baptist church existed, but he envisioned spiritual fruit and flowers that would flourish in this wilderness.

Within fifty years, his vision had become reality. God was on the verge of catapulting Texas Baptists into world missions through a ninety pound young woman who stood barely five feet tall, the daughter of the President of Baylor Female College at Independence. In October 1880, Texas Baptists met at First Baptist Austin. While the women met in the basement to form Texas Baptist WMU, the convention voted in the sanctuary to appoint Ann Luther as their missionary to Brazil. Texas Baptists had already voted to guarantee support to send William Buck Bagby to Brazil when they met in Ennis in July.

Within a month, William Buck Bagby resigned as pastor of First Baptist Church, Corsicana to marry Ann. A. T Hawthorne and B. H. Carroll divided up the associations of Texas and went about raising funds to send the Bagbys to Brazil. Within a year the WMU had formed 325 Ann Luther societies to support the young couple.

Appointed by Texas Baptists with funds secured from churches, associations and individuals, the Bagbys were off to Richmond for appointment by the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. After examining Bagby, the Foreign Mission Board decided to send the young couple to China. “The Bagbys responded that they would go to Brazil even without the board’s financial help.”1

One hundred years later there were 3,000 Baptist churches in Texas and Texas had become a mission base for world missions. Texas Baptists gave birth to the Cooperative Program for missions through the leadership of George Truett and, in the twentieth century, sent more missionaries around the world than any other state convention. Texas Baptists closed the twentieth century with six thousand churches and twenty-three universities, hospitals and child care centers. All of these institutions have some type of international connections.

WorldconneX joins the Texas Baptist family as the newest entity. Our assignment is to help Texas Baptists build on the best of missions in the past while addressing the challenges of the 21st century. Simply put, “we connect God’s people for God’s vision.” We first ask: “What is God’s vision for your life?” “What is God’s vision for your church?” “How can we help you make the connections to fulfill God’s vision?”

We are aware that many churches desire to send people from their church for short-term and long-term service in new ways. They want to do it strategically and cooperatively. Our goal is to help churches do this by connecting them to the unprecedented resources and opportunities now available in the 21st century.

It is essential for our churches to be aware of the new realities of doing missions in the twenty-first century. We have identified seven key realities that aid in understanding the new methods and approaches now necessary to disciple the nations.

First, we live in a 24/7 global village. The Internet, satellite transmissions and other technology allow real time worldwide communications. When William Carey left England for India in 1793, the voyage required three months by ship. Turn around for letters of communication was six months. A two-transaction communication (message sent, message received, reply sent and reply received) required a full year. A century later, when William and Ann Bagby left Texas for Brazil, the time for travel and communications were essentially the same.

Today, communications are instantaneous via email and cell phone. Our daughter, Allison, is currently in Guatemala serving in orphanages through Buckner International Childcare. In virtually every town she can find an Internet café from which she sends and receives email. While at the Baptist World Alliance meeting in Seoul, Korea, my wife and I will be able to communicate with Allison in Guatemala through the Internet.

Missionaries who previously returned to the United States every four years for furlough are now connected by email and cell phone. Air travel has become so accessible and affordable that they often host friends, family and volunteers for visits and can return to the United States for personal needs. Business leaders and professionals are able to engage in missions as a part of their global responsibilities.

A second new reality is that we are witnessing the greatest population migration in human history as people are moving from rural to urban areas. In the words of urban missiologist Ray Bakke, “God is re-wiring the world.” In 1900, only 8 percent of the world’s population lived in a city. Now more than half the world’s population lives in an urban area.

These cities are also multi-cultural centers. Sao Paulo, Brazil boasts a population of sixteen million. One million are Japanese. The Polish population in Chicago is larger than the population of Warsaw. The public school system in Houston, Texas has more than 100 distinct language and ethnic cultures.

The third reality is the emergence of global economies. The world is increasingly defined more by the economies of Tokyo, London, and New York than it is by national governments. Corporations are no longer national, they are trans-national. This creates unprecedented employment opportunities world-wide for Christians to be on mission worldwide using their professional and business kills. Often, they are able to serve in places where traditional missionaries do not have access.

When I taught a church planting class at Logsdon, one of my students was a young nurse at Hedrick Hospital in Abilene. As we introduced ourselves the first day of class she said, “I’m a nurse and I am called to missions. I probably won’t graduate from this seminary before I go to the mission field.” Another student had an engineering degree from the University of Wisconsin and was working for the city of Abilene. His comment was, “I don’t need anyone to send me to the mission field. I can find a job as an engineer anywhere in the world.”

I recently met a businessman in his fifties who spent thirty-five years in the oil and gas industry. A native Egyptian, he spent nine of those years in Indonesia. A committed believer, he recently started his own corporation to employ Christians in the oil and gas industry who can minister in countries around the world.

The fourth new reality, the shift of the center of the Christian faith from the Europe and the United States to South America, Africa and Asia, is one that is often difficult for Christians in the western world to grasp. According to author Philip Jenkins in his best selling book, The Next Christianity, “by the year 2050 only one Christian in five will be non-Latino and white, and the center of gravity of the Christian world will have shifted firmly to the Southern hemisphere.”

I recently sat down with Bernard Mwangi, Director for the Theological College in Kenya. He spread out a graph on the table that reflected the growth of churches in Kenya in the last fifteen years. After decades of slow growth, the graph turned almost straight up!

Many are praying for the Back to Jerusalem movement by which Chinese Christians are carrying the gospel back up the silk road from Xian, China to Jerusalem, retracing the east-west trade routes through China, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Syria.

Brazilian Baptists now send missionaries around the world. The early seed sown by Texas Baptists and the Bagbys are bearing fruit in the twenty-first century with significant strategic importance.

When I attended the American Missiological Society meeting almost all the presentations by leading missiologists were from the Southern hemisphere including Brazil, Kenya, and the Philippines. The conference theme spoke volumes: “Collaboration, the Missing Link in the World Christian Mission.””

A fifth new reality is the proliferation in recent years of mission entities, agencies and resources with the latest figures indicating over 3,000 mission agencies worldwide. Our churches are already working with such organizations as Wycliffe, Youth With a Mission, New Tribes, Frontiers and Pioneers among many others in addition to the International Mission Board of the SBC and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

In January of this year, just as WorldconneX was becoming operational, Heather Herschap called on my cell phone. I listened to her frail voice as she said, “My name is Heather. I am a student at Truett Seminary and I have cerebral palsy. God has called me to India. How can you help me?”

Our staff began to pray for connections that would enable Heather Herschap to go to India and fulfill God’s vision. Shortly after her call, God crossed our path with Chip Kingery who established Pro-Vision Asia, an organization based in Bangalore, India focused on helping people with physical disabilities. I drove to Waco and visited with Heather. We called Chip and made the connection. Pro-Vision Asia and Greater Good Global Support Systems (G3S2), another service ministry, are now working with Heather to plan her mission service in India in the summer of 2005.

Today, when people and churches look for ways to be involved in missions, there are multiple options, not the traditional one or two approaches. The key is listening to God and finding the connection God had prepared for His vision to be fulfilled. WorldconneX exists to help make those connections.

The sixth new reality is that churches are moving to the front line in missions. Connecting with the world through instant communications and rapid transportation, churches are increasingly engaged with mission teams around the world. A growing number are deploying their own missionaries to serve where God has given them a passion and a vision.

Some months ago, our staff went to lunch at Southside Grille, a diner that caters to those who work at the Dallas Police Station across the street from the WorldconneX office. I noticed a young man eating alone. He bowed his head and prayed. As we were leaving, I asked him if he was a Christian. He said he was, and in the course of our conversation, I discovered Nate was a worship leader at First Baptist Church, Irving. Later, Nate introduced me to his pastor, John Durham, the son of one of my college classmates, Ron Durham. In talking with John, I learned that their church had started a non-profit corporation six weeks earlier called Salvation Safari. Their goal is to outfit backpacking teams who can carry the gospel into remote regions of unreached people groups.

Ellis Association, which includes churches in and around Waxahachie and Ennis, has created and funded a staff missionary who will lead church planting efforts in Honduras. They are currently praying and searching for God’s person for the work.

I recently visited with Kyung Kim, pastor of the First Korean Baptist Church in Flower Mound. He told me of the Korean missionary their fellowship supports in Guatemala and the volunteer medical teams they are sending to work among the indigenous Mayan Indians of that country.

Churches are no longer content to adopt missions as a percent of their budget and emphasize a mission offering and prayer one week each year. They want to go and they want to be invested. They will need help so that their energies and their investments are strategic and effective.

The final new reality is that we are witnessing a radical release of the laity in missions. God is giving men and women of all ages a passion and a vision to serve him around the world. Some are like my son, Jonathan, in Rapid City, South Dakota. Married with three children, he never finished college, but he has thirteen certifications in Microsoft. When God recently called him into missions, he resigned his job and started his own company, Christian Computer Consultations. His immediate goal is to make a living as a computer consultant two weeks out of each month so he can spend two weeks a month serving as a volunteer in missions. With his computer skills, he is discovering, he can invest his life in missions in any number of places where Microsoft has become the software standard.

Every generation has had to discover the ways and means to carry out the vision God gives to serve Him. WorldconneX is a 21st century response to the age-old question “What is God’s mission vision for you?”

Endnotes

1 Lancaster, Daniel B. The Bagby’s of Brazil, Eakin Press, a Division of Sunbelt Media, Inc. PO Box 90159, Austin , Texas 78709. 1999. p. 24.

August 2004