Sign BF&M or don't return to field, furloughing missionaries told by IMB

October 21, 2002

Sign BF&M or don't return to field,
furloughing missionaries told by IMB
___By Charlie Warren
___Arkansas Baptist News
___ARKADELPHIA, Ark. (ABP) --A Southern Baptist missionary couple has been told they cannot return to the mission field from furlough unless they sign an affirmation of the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message.
___Rick and Nancy Dill, missionaries to Germany for more than 20 years, received a phone call Oct. 10 from Avery Willis, senior vice president for overseas operations with the International Mission Board. Willis told them that following their furlough, which ends in May, they would not be permitted to return to the field as IMB missionaries unless they sign the doctrinal statement.
___"I don't feel comfortable signing a fallible man-written document as the statement of my faith," said Dill, who along with his wife is a missionary in residence at Ouachita Baptist University. During their furlough, the Dills also are leading the college ministry at Park Hill B

Rick & Nancy Dill, missionaries in residence at Ouachita Baptist University.

aptist Church of Arkadelphia.
___Before the call from Willis, the Dills were among an unknown number of IMB missionaries who chose not to comply with a request by IMB President Jerry Rankin that missionaries sign the affirmation of the SBC's revised faith statement, which has been rejected by the Baptist General Convention of Texas and others.
___"Baptists have always said the Bible is the only thing we live by as God's Spirit unfolds it for us," Dill said. "I have to stick by that. The insistence of the IMB that all missionaries sign the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 has been a disturbing development in the politics of the SBC. We wrote immediately to say that we could not in good conscience sign the document."
___IMB officials, however, deny that the Dills are being terminated.
___"Rick and Nancy Dill have not been terminated," Willis said. "They are fine missionaries, and we would hate to lose them. We have asked them to decide whether they will demonstrate their doctrinal accountability to Southern Baptists by affirming the current version of the Baptist Faith & Message. Documents on the subject written by Jerry Rankin and Don Kammerdiener (retired IMB executive vice president) have been sent to them. We are hoping they will decide to affirm the Baptist Faith & Message before the time comes for them to be released to return to the field in May."
___The Dills, however, say they have repeatedly told the IMB they never will sign the statement, nor do they intend to resign as missionaries.
___In a prepared statement to the Arkansas Baptist News, Willis said: "Southern Baptists deserve to know that their missionaries serve in sympathy with the deeply held convictions they have expressed in the Baptist Faith & Message. For 157 years, Southern Baptist missionaries have been expected to affirm that their beliefs are consistent with the beliefs of the churches that support them. It is a reasonable expectation. Just as new missionaries are expected to affirm their sympathy with Southern Baptist beliefs before being sent overseas, missionaries on stateside assignment are expected to express their affirmation before being returned to the field."
___The Dills, like all other IMB missionaries, underwent doctrinal examination by IMB trustees and staff before their appointment in 1981. The current impasse has arisen because the SBC's faith statement has been changed since their appointment.
___In a recent letter to missionaries who have so far refused to sign the new doctrinal statement, Rankin wrot

"It's almost like they don't care what you believe, just so you sign it. Which leads me to believe that the whole issue is not doctrine at all. It's adherence to a political party." --Missionary Rick Dill

e: "Allowance is provided for stating areas of disagreement. However, there cannot be flexibility in being unwilling to be doctrinally accountable and assure Southern Baptists that we will work in accord with our confession of faith and not contrary to it. To do so would erode the credibility and support of the IMB and bring into question your colleagues around the world."
___Rankin added, "It is not an issue of your faithful and effective service or your adherence to doctrinal positions stated when you were appointed. You are now serving in the 21st century, and it is important to recognize and support the organization and positions of the denomination with whom you serve, even if there are some areas of personal disagreement."
___Dill, however, said he is concerned that notations of personal disagreements with the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message apparently aren't recorded. He was told, he said, that those comments are not sent by the regional office to the IMB office in Richmond, Va. Only the signed statement that the missionary will operate within the parameters of the Baptist Faith & Message is sent to Richmond.
___"In other words, you can believe whatever you want, it doesn't really matter, just so you sign," Dill said. "We must as Southern Baptists maintain doctrinal integrity and the truth of Scripture, but that's different from saying, 'Sign it now.' It's almost like they don't care what you believe, just so you sign it. Which leads me to believe that the whole issue is not doctrine at all. It's adherence to a political party.
___"Our conscience will not allow us to sign a document saying that we will teach something that does not reflect the truth of God's word."
___Even though they cannot continue to serve through the IMB, Dill said he and his wife intend to return to their work in Germany, where they have served since their appointment. They were the first IMB missionaries to enter the former East Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall and have been starting churches in the East since that time.
___"We went into a place where there were 11 people in a little group in a town of 67,000 to start a church," Dill said. "We thought it would be like pulling eye teeth, like it normally is in Germany, but instead, we've just experienced an outpouring of God's power and his Spirit."
___Now the church has 170 members and has baptized more than 150 people.
___"That's just unheard of in Germany," Dill said. "God is up to something there. We just happened to get to play a part in that. We baptized 22 people just before we left. We want to return there because that church wants to start three new churches."
___The church in Germany may partner with them to pay part of their support, and they will attempt to find support from Southern Baptist individuals and churches.
___"We think God will bless that because we feel God has called us to return there," Dill said. "We have always planned to spend our whole lives there."
___The decision not to sign the doctrinal statement was a moral issue, he said.
___"We are not heretics. Not at all. In fact, we are very conservative. Many of the Southern Baptists we know agree fully with us."
___Dill believes a small group put pressure on Rankin to force missionaries to sign the faith statement drafted by a select committee of SBC leadership.
___"A small group of really vicious people are the ones who are making policy at the board," Dill charged.
___The Dills outlined four concerns they have with the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message:
___ Removal of the statement: "The criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus Christ," from the 1963 version.
___"The center of our faith is Jesus Christ--God who became man, born of a virgin, crucified as atonement for our sin, raised on the third day, ascended to the right hand of the Father," they explained. "All Scripture comes from him and can only be understood through him."
___ Use of the expression "priesthood of believers" instead of "priesthood of the believer."
___"Each of us stands individually before God," Dill said. "We are called to be his priests; his Spirit works within us individually as well as corporately, and finally, we will be called to account for our lives as his servants."
___Loss of that concept, not liberalism, is what killed the Christian movement in Europe, according to Dill. "The priesthood of the believer was denied and taken away, and the clergy decided what you believe, what you do and when you believe it. They took the experience with God, that the Bible insists upon, completely away. That's the most dangerous thing that is facing us as Southern Baptists."
___ Insertion of language that a wife should "submit herself graciously" to her husband, while ignoring "the injunction of Paul to submit to each other."
___ Insertion of a statement that "the office of pastor is limited to men."
___"In China, women pastor a majority of the churches," Dill said. "In Germany, we have a number of women who are Baptist pastors and do an exemplary job of service. ... Does this mean all of these women are serving out of God's will?"
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