June 11, 2001

Still no answer on NAMB's numbers
___ALPHARETTA, Ga.--How many full-time missionaries does the North American Mission Board fully fund?
___The Southern Baptist Convention's domestic missions agency still isn't saying, despite questions about the matter being raised by a Texas Baptist study committee and being reported widely in the press.
___Difficulty understanding the way NAMB reports its number of missionaries was one of six concerns cited by the Baptist General Convention of Texas Missions-sending Agencies Study Committee report.
___NAMB says it supports more than 5,000 missionaries, but most of those are only partially funded by NAMB in cooperation with state Baptist conventions or are volunteers, the Texas report stated.
___This is confusing, the Texas committee said, when compared with the reported number of missionaries supported by the SBC International Mission Board, most of whom are fully funded by the IMB.
___The Texas committee said it asked NAMB officials how many missionaries are fully funded by NAMB and never got an answer. The committee noted estimates that the number is about 40.
___NAMB President Bob Reccord has issued several statements in response to the BGCT committee's report and recommendations, but neither he nor any NAMB official has answered the question.
___A May 25 story in Baptist Press quoted Reccord extensively, including assertions that the Texas committee's claim that NAMB had not answered all their questions was wrong.
___Regarding the missionary count, Reccord said: "We answered this question as part of a 15-page letter sent to the committee in February."
___The BP story did not report a number of fully-funded missionaries, however.
___The term "fully-funded missionary" cannot be used in conjunction with NAMB, Reccord asserted, because NAMB partners with state conventions to jointly support missionaries.
___However, NAMB does have three categories of missionary service, he said:
___ Appointed missionaries are those who receive "virtually all of their support from NAMB and its mission partners," the BP story said. "Mission partners" presumably means state conventions and associations. Appointed missionaries comprise about one-third of NAMB's missionary count, Reccord said.
___ Approved missionaries are those who "receive a stipend from NAMB and its mission partners, often for a limited period of time, having other sources of income," the BP report explained. This group constitutes another third of NAMB's missionary count, Reccord said.
___ Mission Service Corps missionaries are volunteers who serve at least 20 hours a week for more than two years and receive no funding from NAMB. This group represents the other third of NAMB's missionary count, Reccord said.
___Nearly half of all NAMB's Mission Service Corps missionaries come from Texas and are resourced by the BGCT's Mission Service Corps office.

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