July 15, 2002
BGCT listening sessions hear appeal
for networking churches on mission
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___Texas Baptists churches want the Baptist General Convention of Texas to help them "network" with other churches around the state that share their passion for missions.
___That was one of the clearest messages heard in listening sessions held at 15 sites throughout Texas in recent weeks. More than 1,000 Texas Baptists from at least 250 churches attended the regional meetings, sponsored by the networking initiatives subcommittee of the BGCT Missions Review & Initiatives Committee.
___At each session, conveners asked participants to tell about how their churches are involved in missions. Then they asked how the BGCT could help churches achieve their missions vision.
___"We found a strong sense of local churches wanting to assume their appropriate responsibility in missions," said Keith Parks of Richardson, chairman of the networking initiatives subcommittee.
___ At the same time, we heard an emphasis on how we might meet needs that cannot be provided by the local church in terms of coordination, communication and networking.
___"I was impressed by the high level of involvement and missions interest among those who participated, as well as by their enthusiasm for sharing with each other."
___Parks attended listening sessions in Waco, Midland, Arlington, San Antonio, Houston and Dallas.
___Noting that the meetings drew a cross-section of larger and smaller membership churches, Parks said he was somewhat surprised that churches of all sizes echoed the call for networking.
___Larger churches asked how the BGCT might do more to help them develop strategy and train volunteers for hands-on missions. Smaller churches, noting that they lacked the resources to "do their own thing," asked how they might be able to partner with other churches in mission projects.
___"There seems to be a real groundswell of support for networking," Parks observed. "Churches are saying, 'Help us coordinate what we are doing and have a more effective missions strategy.'"
___A significant number of participants also called on the BGCT to encourage and expand missions education in local churches, to recognize the missions value of community social ministries and to present a missions vision around which all Texas Baptists can rally.
___In several listening sessions, participants asked the BGCT to create and maintain a database that would allow churches to form links with other congregations with similar missions interests.
___"There's a real desire for networking," said committee member Stan Allcorn, pastor of Pioneer Drive Baptist Church in Abilene. "They said, 'Tell us what other churches are doing.' If a church has a real burden for a particular country or unreached people group, they want to know, 'Who else is going where we're going? How are they getting there? What have they learned?'"
___Many Texas Baptists are involved in hands-on ministry and missions, and they are eager to see others join them, said Allcorn, who attended listening sessions in Abilene, Amarillo and Plainview.
___"When it comes to missions, Texas Baptists are no longer content just to pay and pray. They are going and doing," he said.
___Those missions activists draw few distinctions between working at a local community ministry and serving on a remote overseas missions project, he noted. "They see it all as missions. A lost person is a lost person regardless where he lives."
___Clyde Glazener, pastor of Gambrell Street Baptist Church in Fort Worth and chairman of the BGCT Missions Review & Initiatives Committee, attended the Amarillo listening session.
___"I was impressed by the multiplicity of missions expressions by the people there," he said.
___Baptists in the Panhandle who are active in community ministries pinpointed one specific need, Glazener noted. Several Baptists who are involved in missions outreach to a transient population said they need long-term financial support for those ministries.
___"They said it's easy for us to start a work, stay three years and then pull out. But in some areas, because of the nature of the ministry, they may never become self-supporting. They need continued support," Glazener observed.
___Conveners noted that with only a couple of exceptions, the listening sessions stayed focused on missions issues rather than denominational controversy. A notable exception was Midland, where a few pastors confronted BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade with criticism of the BGCT and the Baptist Standard.
___A Baptist Press reporter who is employed by the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia Convention was present at that session and wrote three stories that were widely distributed by the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
___In several sessions, participants expressed the desire for Texas Baptists to "move beyond" denominational differences and to focus on missions, Parks noted. They called for a compelling and inclusive missions vision that could capture the imagination and attention of all Texas Baptists.
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