February 3, 2003
IMB confirms calling missionaries on BF&M
___Last week's Baptist Standard carried a story about International Mission Board missionaries receiving phone calls from IMB Vice President Avery Willis. The story reported that Willis is notifying missionaries who have not signed an affirmation of the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message that they must do so or not return to their fields of service after furlough.
___The Baptist Standard made repeated attempts over three full days to get a response from IMB officials. As the story reported, no response was received by press time.
___Twenty-four hours later, however, a response was issued to the Standard simultaneous with the release of an IMB-written story through Baptist Press.
___IMB spokesman Mark Kelly confirmed: "Yes, Avery is making phone calls to some missionaries who have not yet affirmed the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message. He is reiterating what we said back in October that, like new workers, missionaries on stateside assignment will not be returned to overseas service until they decide how they are going to respond to Dr. (Jerry) Rankin's request a year ago to take the initiative and affirm the current Baptist Faith & Message."
___Willis' phone calls "are not being made to inform people that they are being fired," according to Associate Vice President Clyde Meador. Rather, he suggested, Willis is "seeking to counsel missionaries and persuade them to make the affirmation."
___"We want this to be a decision the missionaries make for themselves," Meador added. "We want to give every missionary sufficient time and opportunity to consider their response. If a missionary decides he cannot affirm it and therefore cannot continue serving through the IMB, we regret that but appreciate the integrity of conscience it demonstrates."
___Kelly said he could not provide exact numbers of missionaries who have not yet affirmed the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message.
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