April 22, 2002
Virginia convention's vision calls for appointing 'glocal' missionaries
___By Robert Dilday
___Virginia Religious Herald
___RICHMOND, Va. (ABP)--Virginia Baptists will meet May 10 in a rare special session to vote on a new missions vision designed to expand and strengthen the Baptist General Association of Virginia and position it for the 21st century.
___The Virginia Baptist Mission Board unanimously affirmed the vision April 10, saying it would send a signal to the 1,400 BGAV congregations and affiliated agencies that "everyone has a place at the table."
___Tentatively called "Kingdom Advance," the still-evolving plan would fund and administer missions workers in Virginia, the United States and around the world; aggressively start and rejuvenate churches; identify and develop a new generation of leaders; and empower pastors and other church staff to minister more effectively.
___The vision will be presented as a still-developing process at a called meeting of the BGAV May 10 in Charlottesville, Va. The meeting's location--First Baptist Church of Charlottesville--carries symbolic weight for most Virginia Baptists as the congregation that baptized Southern Baptist missionary pioneer Lottie Moon in 1858.
___It will be the first called meeting of the BGAV since 1986, when the General Association was asked to buy what is now the Virginia Baptist Resource Center in Richmond.
___The impetus for Kingdom Advance came from John Upton, who on March 1 became executive director of the BGAV and the Mission Board, which functions as the BGAV's executive body. He had spent the previous six years as a board staff member, coordinating Virginia Baptists' mission endeavors.
___He said the initiative would require about $1 million annually in new money.
___"This is a moment of great opportunity for Virginia Baptists," Upton said. "This is a time when churches and pastors are hungry for God-sized ministries. ... And the context in which Virginia Baptists minister demands boldness."
___Details of Kingdom Advance are intentionally incomplete, Upton said, because this vision "has to bubble up from the grassroots."
___"Virginia Baptists need to have their hands all over this vision," he said. "This isn't a package we're presenting; it's a process."
___But he said his "dream" would be to begin funding the initiative this fall and to have two missionary couples commissioned by Jan. 1, 2003--one in Europe to coordinate work with the BGAV's mission partners there and another to minister among the growing Muslim population in the Washington suburbs of Northern Virginia.
___Although introduction of the initiative comes on the heels of controversial actions by the Southern Baptist Convention's two mission agencies, Upton said his vision for Virginia Baptists' future was not motivated primarily by recent decisions of the International Mission Board and North American Mission Board.
___NAMB earlier this year announced it will no longer endorse ordained women as chaplains, while the IMB now requires its missionaries to sign an affirmation of the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message statement. SBC moderates have criticized both actions.
___"I know the context we live in," Upton said. "You can't avoid the political dimensions."
___But Upton said his vision emerged from conversations with hundreds of pastors and other Baptist leaders in the state.
___"What's amazed me is that I've heard the same comments in every discussion," he said. "People tell me: 'Please help us find a way out of the denominational mess we're in.' 'Is there a place for us (all factions in Baptist life) at the table?' 'We need something to belong to that's bigger than us.'"
___As presented to the Mission Board, Kingdom Advance has four components, each with a "grassroots" council to assist the board staff in administering it:
___ Empowering leaders. This includes developing a more effective staff placement process that does not infringe on congregational autonomy and "assimilation" of new ministers into Virginia Baptist life.
___ Courageous churches. This calls for starting more churches, rejuvenating existing churches, offering customized discipleship and Bible study curriculum and helping with conflict resolution.
___ Emerging leaders. This proposes a deliberate program of leadership identification and development that begins with children and continues through young people, college and seminary students and adults.
___ "Glocal" missions. Coining a term to encompass both global and local missions, Upton declared: "What we need is a mobile mission force that can connect with the 70 percent of churches outside our borders and partner with them in sharing the gospel."
___He proposed several categories of mission workers, including two-year specialists, five-year "ambassadors" and a group of young adults to serve one-year terms as "first responders."
___Missionary candidates who can in good conscience sign the SBC's faith statement ought to serve with the IMB, Upton suggested. And missionary candidates who are called to serve in the 10/40 Window, the most under-evangelized area of the world, also have options for service, he adeed.
___"But what happens when you can't sign the statement or if you're not called to the 10/40 window?" Upton asked. "Are we going to raise up emerging leaders and offer them nothing?"
___Funding options for the new initiative, he said, include a modified special statewide missions offering, a combination of funds from a special offering and from the World Mission 2 track of the BGAV budget, a new World Mission 4 budget track or designated gifts and endowments.
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