November 18, 2002
Rankin says 'myths' about IMB are misguided
___DALLAS--Trustees of the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board met in Dallas Oct. 31-Nov. 3, adopted a $290.1 million budget for 2003, appointed 95 missionaries and made personal pledges to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.
___Trustees also heard from IMB President Jerry Rankin, who told them "self-serving spins" from media are causing some people to get the wrong impression of the agency.
___"Attempting to communicate the truth of what God is doing through the IMB and the integrity of our motives and decisions is not always welcomed and applauded by the conventional thinking of our post-modern society, nor is it necessarily respected by those among Southern Baptists who are not supportive of the conservative direction of the denomination," he said.
___Spreading and believing myths is nothing new for those who have opposed the conservative swing of the SBC since 1979, Rankin said. "It is often said that the conservative resurgence is all about power and control rather than theology. Theological positions and practices being advocated by factions that readily depart from the clear teaching of God's authoritative and infallible word indicate otherwise."
___Rankin quoted philosopher William James, who said, "Nothing is so absurd that if repeated often enough will be believed by the masses."
___Such is the case facing the IMB today, said Rankin, who insisted critics of the IMB's policies and theology are clinging to "distorted perceptions."
___He cited five myths about the IMB:
___ That the board is no longer interested in seminaries, hospitals and other institutions and is mandating that all missionaries leave these assignments to be church planters.
___Critics both within and outside the IMB have said Rankin's New Directions strategy has put such a priority on a particular brand of church starting that it has prematurely ended long-standing institutional relationships with national Baptists.
___"The purpose of our mission task is to bring a lost world to saving faith in Jesus Christ," Rankin said, adding that the best way to accomplish that goal is through "evangelism that results in churches."
___"Whatever the assignment of missionaries, the ultimate purpose is to be a witness to the lost and bring into existence indigenous, multiplying churches," Rankin told trustees. "Social ministries, medical work, publications, theological education are all assets, if not essential, to effectively evangelizing a lost world. They not only have an inherent value in their ministry but are platforms for accessing lost populations and discipling and strengthening the churches."
___Contrary to critics' assertions, the IMB today is "appointing more seminary teachers, medical personnel, teachers and social workers than ever before," he said. "But they are not continuing in roles that would propagate patronizing dependence of historic mission institutions, as some would advocate, but are using their calling and skills to push back the last frontier of an unevangelized world."
___ That New Directions has led to unilateral decision making in Richmond that cuts out leadership by missionaries on the field.
___Critics have complained that councils of missionaries on the field, groups called "missions," have been removed from administrative oversight, replaced by IMB administrators sent to work in regional offices.
___"The large bureaucratic mission organizations were replaced by localized people-group teams in which frontline missionaries shared ownership of strategies and were accountable to each other rather than to a hierarchy of leadership," Rankin said. "Administrators in Richmond cast the vision, but never has decision-making been so decentralized and missionaries had more freedom to fulfill their calling."
___Rankin compared the old system to "the rebellious children of Israel" and said that has been replaced with "servant leadership that will give direction, maintain focus and create an organizational environment of synergy and passion for the main thing."
___ That the IMB has changed its way of counting missionaries to inflate statistics and now emphasizes short-term missions over career missionaries.
___Categorization of missionary personnel preferred by IMB leaders has changed, shifting emphasis from "career" missionaries to "long-term" missionaries, a category that includes career missionaries and others appointed to serve two years or more.
___"We are counting missionaries the way they have always been counted," Rankin insisted. "While the percentage of career missionaries has declined, this does not represent a decline in the number of long-term missionaries."
___Although the majority of the IMB's growth in missionary personnel in recent years has come through non-career categories, more people are inquiring about career service, he said.
___Rankin praised those serving in non-career tracks as "enabling us to vastly multiply our witness and also to free up career missionaries for cutting-edge assignments."
___He asked: "How long does one have to live among people to be an incarnational witness?"
___ That the SBC is more interested in doctrinal conformity than missions and that the IMB is looking for churches to support its bureaucratic programs rather than serving the churches.
___"It is hard to understand how such a distortion would be believable by anyone willing to recognize and acknowledge the facts," Rankin said.
___He cited record numbers of missionary appointments and strong financial contributions to SBC missions causes as evidence that "Southern Baptists have realized this kind of missions and evangelistic impact can only be made, not by embracing diversity and theological relativism, but by adhering to the doctrinal foundations of our faith."
___Further, Rankin said, the IMB exists to enable churches in their quest to fulfill the Great Commission. "We have been saying to churches for years, 'Tell us what God is leading you to do, and we will help facilitate that to have a more effective result through providing personalized ownership of the mission task and working in partnership.'"
___ That the IMB has unlimited reserve funds that it refuses to spend while appealing for massive gifts to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.
___"This is apparently a result of deliberate or uninformed reading of our audit and balance sheet," Rankin said. "Reserves are not identical with investments, nor are they endowments such as those accumulated by our educational institutions. The IMB invests every dollar that flows through our books in a stewardship of resources provided by Southern Baptists."
___The $300 million identified as reserves or investments on the IMB's audit, he said, represents $38 million already obligated to mission budgets, $42 million in global capital to provide housing and cars for missionaries, $18 million in self-funded medical coverage, $26 million in life insurance provisions, $109 million as the actuarial value of post-retirement benefits required, $50 million in contingency funds and $34 million in endowment restricted by donors to specific purposes.
___"Contrary to the awareness of many, we have spent more than $60 million over the last four years from reserves to expand our Missionary Learning Center, provide for technological needs into the 21st century and to continue sending out more new missionaries than the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and our allocation from the Cooperative Program would cover," Rankin said. "With these expenditures, and the current decline in the stock market, the International Mission Board has no margin of reserves that are available for any purpose beyond a $10 million operating reserve maintained by board policy."
___The 2003 Fiscal Resources Strategy Plan adopted by IMB trustees at the Dallas meeting proposes the IMB's largest budget ever, but leaders said it also represents a severe tightening of expenditures.
___The budget anticipates a $6.5 million increase in giving through the Cooperative Program unified budget. It also plans for a $21.3 million increase in Lottie Moon Christmas Offering receipts.
___Last year, Southern Baptists gave $113.7 million to the Lottie Moon Offering, more than $6 million short of the offering goal.
___The budget covers a net increase of only 150 new missionaries in 2003, but IMB leaders expect that number to be 400 or more, said IMB Executive Vice President John White.
___The trustee meeting concluded with an appointment service for 95 missionaries at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano.
___At the Dallas meeting, trustees received the resignations of 32 missionaries and acted to terminate three missionaries.
___By the IMB's count, six of the missionary resignations were due to Rankin's request that missionaries sign an affirmation of the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message. The IMB reports a total of 32 missionaries have resigned rather than sign the affirmation. That count is based on missionaries who specifically cite the issue in their letters of resignation and therefore is not considered a complete count of missionaries leaving the IMB's service over the mandate. The count also does not include missionaries who have taken retirement earlier than planned rather than sign the revised faith statement.
___Trustees also approved a partnership with Wycliffe International to speed up Bible translation for the benefit of unreached people groups.
___The IMB will appoint missionaries to fill needs for translators, share more information about church starting and translation projects and coordinate strategies for taking the gospel to unreached people groups.
___As many as 400 million people speak languages for which no one is even trying to translate the Scripture, said John Watters, Wycliffe International's executive director.
___Wycliffe's 5,000 missionaries have helped translate the New Testament into more than 500 languages and currently have another 1,400-plus projects under way.
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