September 17, 2001
IMB trustees extend BF&M policy
___TULSA, Okla. (BP)--Trustees of the Southern Baptist International Mission Board elected a regional leader for work in West Africa, broadened the agency's missionary apprentice program and honored a retiring executive during a Sept. 6-7 meeting in Tulsa, Okla.
___Trustees also appointed 35 career missionaries and slightly modified board policy on the Baptist Faith & Message.
___Bill Bullington, vice president for overseas services, was elected to lead IMB efforts in West Africa. An Arkansas native, Bullington and his wife, Evelyn, served as missionaries to West Africa from 1966 to 1987. He served as area director for West Africa and then vice president for Africa until 1993, when he assumed leadership of the overseas services section.
___Bullington, 65, follows Bill Phillips, who resigned from that position because he said he could not sign the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message as required.
___Trustees honored Don Kammerdiener, who is retiring as IMB executive vice president after 40 years of missionary service. A succession of speakers praised Kammerdiener as a man who in every way lives out the spirit of Jesus Christ.
___IMB President Jerry Rankin announced that the new multipurpose building at the board's Missionary Learning Center in Rockville, Va., would be named in Kammerdiener's honor.
___Trustees approved significant changes in the board's missionary apprentice program, which creates overseas service opportunities for people who lack the ministry required for appointment as career missionaries.
___The changes lowered the minimum age from 24 to 21 and adjusted the education requirements so students can use the program to complete requirements for certain seminary missions degree plans. The changes also will make the program more accessible to professional laymen who haven't taken seminary classes.
___Trustees also slightly adjusted their policy on the Baptist Faith & Message.
___The policy, adopted in January, requires asking missionary candidates to state whether they are in agreement with the Baptist Faith & Message and to explain any area of difference. It requires new missionaries and elected leaders to sign statements affirming their agreement with the recently revised Baptist Faith & Message and committing themselves to carry out their responsibilities "in accordance with and not contrary to" the statement of faith.
___Trustees voted to include IMB associate vice presidents in the policy because of their leadership responsibilities, even though they are not under the selection authority of the board. Trustees also voted that they themselves would sign the same statement being required of missionary candidates.
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