November 4, 2002
Veteran missionary joins Medical/Dental Fellowship staff
___By Marv Knox
___Editor
___MEMPHIS, Tenn.--Veteran medical missionary Fred Loper has been named associate executive director of the Baptist Medical/Dental Fellowship.
___"This is a fantastic step forward for the Baptist Medical/Dental Fellowship," said Executive Director Jim Williams. "He personally has been responsible for helping to start about 200 faith-based health clinics across the United States. ... It's a fabulous ministry, and he wants to continue with us."
___For the previous 16 years, Loper, a physician based in Oklahoma City, has been a national medical missionary with the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board. He and his wife, Lavada, were the only medical missionaries appointed by the board.
FRED LOPER (right) and Bill Sisson, director of the Oklahoma City Baptist Mission, take time to check the medication supply in the center’s pharmacy. (Photo from OnMission Magazine by Kent Haruille)
___The Baptist Medical/Dental Fellowship involves physicians, dentists and other health-care professionals in mission activity worldwide, Williams said. Volunteers treat patients' physical needs but also tell them about Jesus Christ and his care for their spiritual condition.
___Loper's addition to the staff is a "strategic move," Williams added. "It is a result of the implementation of a new vision. Over the last three years, we have been planning and implementing changes to become a much more diverse and comprehensive resource for Baptists interested in medical/dental ministries. ...
___"Fred Loper is known throughout the Southern Baptist Convention. He is respected by fellow missionaries and association and state missions leaders. We want to provide a platform for him to have an enlarged and fruitful ministry with our Baptist family."
___Loper expressed excitement about broadening the Baptist Medical/Dental Fellowship ministry--both in scope of projects and personnel.
___"What's exciting about this is it's a real expansion of the Baptist Medical/Dental Fellowship vision," he said from Oklahoma City, which will continue to be his base.
___While affirming the 25-year history of the organization, Loper noted it has been "narrowly focused on international missions" and has not succeeded in involving ethnic health-care professionals, such as Chinese-, Filipino- and Hispanic-Americans.
___"Many guys begin (their missions experience) with overseas trips" coordinated by the Baptist Medical/Dental Fellowship, he said. "After one or two or three trips, they come home and say, 'Gee, we could do that here.'"
___A key component of his job will be helping them to do just that--start medical/dental clinics in poor regions and inner-city neighborhoods where people don't have access to solid, affordable health care.
___And he'll work to involve ethnic professionals, he added. "We've done a poor job of reaching them. ... I'm very excited to have this opportunity."
___Loper left the North American Mission Board for the Baptist Medical/Dental Fellowship for several reasons, he said.
___"The tip of the iceberg was the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message statement," he said. "In good conscience, I didn't feel I could sign it the way they wanted me to."
___The mission board recently required all its previously appointed national missionaries--which included the Lopers--and new appointees to affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message.
___Some Baptists, such as the Baptist General Convention of Texas, have refused to affirm the statement, noting it functions like a creed and distorts several key Baptist doctrines.
___But the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message played only a partial role in the Lopers' decision, he added.
___"We have felt a restlessness from God for a number of years," he said. "God has been preparing us to do something new. This is the time in Baptist life for organizations that have a particular calling to missions to be involved. We're doing missions in a new way. God is in the midst of it all."
___Start-up funding for Loper's new position is provided by grants from the Baptist General Convention of Texas and Mainstream Baptists of Oklahoma, Williams said.
___Some of the money comes from the BGCT's missionary transition fund, to which Mainstream Baptists of Oklahoma contributes. The fund was established for SBC missionaries who could not in good conscience continue in their appointments because of the SBC mission boards' requirements that they affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message.
___Financial support also is provided by the two state organizations' partnership missions funds, Williams said.
___"The Baptist General Convention of Texas is happy to be a partner in this project," said Charles Wade, executive director of the BGCT. "Our churches are committed to ministry to hurting people as we share the good news of Jesus Christ."
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