September 18, 2000

North American Mission Board
shifts focus on social ministries
___ALPHARETTA, Ga.--The Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board has cut five jobs from its social ministries and interfaith witness units in order to create five other positions involved in more direct evangelism.
___As a result of the changes, NAMB will no longer have any staff member solely devoted to immigration ministries and will be left with only one national missionary assigned to work nationwide training literacy missions workers.
___Positions added in the swap will focus on Internet evangelism, welfare-to-work initiatives, women's evangelism and prayer evangelism.
___In the current year, NAMB had allocated $3.69 million--less than 3 percent of its $129.5 million budget--to Christian social ministries, which it now calls "ministry evangelism."
___Ministry evangelism is one of the least-funded programs of NAMB, which was created in 1996 by a merger of the SBC's Home Mission Board, Brotherhood Commission and Radio & Television Commission.
___By comparison, $17.3 million is budgeted this year for evangelism, and $25.3 million is budgeted for church starting.
___The $3.69 million to be spent by NAMB in Christian social ministries this year is about one-fourth the amount budgeted for Christian social ministries by the Home Mission Board during its last year of existence.
___The latest changes caught workers, including ministry-team heads, by surprise. An Aug. 23 letter announced the positions were being eliminated effective Aug. 31.
___No report of the changes was issued outside NAMB's Alpharetta, Ga., staff until a reporter for the Alabama Baptist made repeated calls to NAMB seeking information about rumored staff reductions.
___The positions eliminated include:
___ A national literacy missionary, half the NAMB staff devoted to training literacy missions workers nationwide. National missionary Kendale Moore was slated to lose his job, but his colleague Gayle Leininger subsequently announced her retirement for later this year, allowing Moore to have the one remaining literacy position.
___ A national interfaith missionary, one of four working nationwide to educate Baptists about evangelization opportunities with people of other faiths. No name was given for this lost position.
___ An immigration ministries specialist, the only person working with NAMB on a nationwide scale in helping Baptist churches resettle immigrants. This work, previously done by Richard Robinson, will be assigned to a staff person who also handles domestic hunger and migrant ministries.
___ A support position in special ministries.
___ A support position in multi-cultural evangelism.
___Elimination of these five positions will allow creation of five new positions in NAMB's evangelism team. New national missionary positions will focus on evangelism over the Internet and through welfare-to-work opportunities. A current staff position in women's evangelism is being elevated to national-missionary status. Two other staff additions are planned in prayer evangelism.
___Shifting more of NAMB's financial resources to these evangelism positions is in line with the agency's objectives, two spokesmen said.
___The changes reflect a "commitment to keep our structure and resources in line with our strategies," said John Yarbrough, vice president for evangelization.
___"This is a change in strategy," said Marty King, director of convention relations. "It didn't have anything to do with budget, but everything to do with strategy ... the most effective way to do missions.
___"It does signal a change in priorities," King added. "Does it mean that with less attention (social ministries and interfaith witness) will have a lower priority? Probably true. But it does not mean that they are not important.
___"We are not abandoning anything," King said. Those ministries "just don't have the resources they once did."
___The changes were sharply criticized by the Alabama Baptist leader responsible for literacy missions in that state.
___"I am very disappointed in the reduction of the emphasis in both literacy and immigration resettlement," said Richard Alford, associate in the associational/cooperative missions office at the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions. "Both of these are significant needs in the state and across the nation.
___"This reduces NAMB's ability to serve the churches, the associations and the state conventions. This will severely affect us."
___With immigration on the rise nationwide and illiteracy not declining, Alford said, "there is a great need" to reach out and minister. "But at the same time, we are saying nationally that we are reducing our forces."
___Based on an Associated Baptist Press report

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