February 10, 1999
PAUL PRESSLER, an International Mission Board trustee from Houston, leads a dedicatory prayer during an IMB appointment service for new missionaries at First Baptist Church of Houston Jan. 24. The service was held in conjunction with an IMB trustees meeting in Houston. (BP photo by Bill Bangham)
IMB won't change divorce policy
___HOUSTON (BP)--A policy prohibiting divorced individuals from appointment as career missionaries will not be changed by the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board, trustees decided during their Jan. 26-27 meeting in Houston.
___However, the mission board determined to be more aggressive in another arena of recruiting missionaries, announcing plans to more aggressively pursue African-American candidates.
___The vote on the divorce issue came in response to a request made at the 1998 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Salt Lake City. A messenger asked that the IMB study its current policy that allows people who have been divorced to serve only as International Service Corps personnel for periods of two years or less.
___Though discussion on the floor was limited, Oklahoma trustee Alan Day said the divorce issue created "the potential for divisiveness like I've not seen on the board." Day has been a trustee five years.
___A motion to cut off debate on the divorce issue passed 32-24, then trustees voted 46-12 to affirm the present policy. Later, those who opposed the reaffirmation asked that the issue be brought back to the floor so they could vote with the majority and make it unanimous. The final recorded vote showed a unanimous endorsement of the current policy.
___Trustees agreed without a vote to revisit the issue at a later time.
___African-American missions involvement is not increasing as fast as Hispanic and Asian Southern Baptist involvement, officials said. The number of African-American IMB missionaries currently stands at 16, the highest this century. But that rate remains low compared to other groups, trustees were told.
___To help counter this problem, trustees approved a relationship with Shalom, a ministry that, among other things, mobilizes African-American Southern Baptists to be on mission around the world.
___Shalom founder and leader Julian Dangerfield is an African-American layman who lives in Dale City, Va., a suburb of Washington.
___He said several years ago God moved him to help churches become more aware of the Great Commission mandate to carry the gospel throughout the world. His own awareness began with a volunteer mission trip to Uganda.
___In other news, trustees learned that missionary resignations and deaths in 1998 amounted to 4 percent of the missionary force. That is the lowest percentage in four years and is in line with rates throughout the 1990s.
___IMB officials said the report, presented annually to trustees, should help answer questions about whether the board's "New Directions" philosophy of taking the gospel to the whole world through aggressive church planting was creating an exodus of missionaries from the more traditional mission fields.
___In 1998, the IMB appointed a record 885 new missionaries--up nearly 40 percent from previous years--bringing the year-end total of career and short-term missionaries in service to 4,570.
___In his report, IMB President Jerry Rankin said if the growth rate seen last year continues, the agency likely will meet the Bold Mission Thrust goal of 5,000 missionaries by the fall of 2000.
___Frontpage / Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!