March 10, 2003
139 missionaries have contacted BGCT
___By John Hall
___Texas Baptist Communications
___The Baptist General Convention of Texas missionary transition fund has supported 21 missionary families who resigned or were terminated after refusing to affirm the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 during the past year.
___The BGCT dispersed $415,300 in financial assistance to missionaries since the BGCT Executive Board started it in February 2002. Pledges and gifts to the fund total more than $1.3 million.
___Fifteen missionaries currently are receiving financial assistance from the account.
___As of Feb. 20, 139 career missionaries have contacted a BGCT transition team to voice their concern about the Southern Baptist Convention's requirement that all International Mission Board missionaries and new North American Board missionaries sign the revised faith statement.
___This number includes 47 Southern Baptist Convention International Mission Board career missionaries who have resigned, 10 pending resignations from the IMB and seven IMB retirements.
The transition fund "provided for all our needs because we had nothing to fall back on. We had given everything on the field."
--Ron Gunter
___Also included are two terminated IMB missionaries, two SBC North American Mission Board missionaries who resigned and two terminated NAMB missionaries.
___The remaining missionary contacts include people serving in the United States and overseas. Almost 200 individuals have contacted the transition team's e-mail address.
___The money has provided a cushion for missionaries who sacrificed their jobs on principle with no other position waiting for them, said Ron Gunter, who received funds for six weeks.
___"We came back with nothing waiting in the wings for us," said Gunter, now a BGCT regional representative in Houston. "We had no idea what we were going to do, but we knew we could not stay with the IMB."
___The transition fund "provided for all our needs because we had nothing to fall back on. We had given everything on the field. It was our livelihood."
___Frank Dudley, who resigned from the IMB while on furlough in the United States, received money from the fund for several months before becoming director of Howard Payne University's Harlingen extension center.
___The BGCT monetary support helped pay bills, but it also served more as a symbolic reminder that others understood Dudley's stance and supported him, he said.
___"It meant more in terms of moral support than financial support," the former West Africa missionary said. "It told us somebody in Texas knew who we were, approved of the choice we had made."
___Missionaries can be marked for the duration of their ministries for choosing not to sign the Baptist Faith & Message 2000, Dudley said. He said he knows missionaries who are struggling to find a new position after refusing to sign.
___"We recognize we probably had the easiest journey of anyone we know," Dudley said. "We are very fortunate."
___Gunter said he is grateful for the "tremendous" blessing of the fund and believes it is a credit to the character of Texas Baptists.
___"Texas Baptists are great people," Gunter said. "Texas Baptists are my kind of Baptists. They're what I call true Baptists."
___Both former missionaries encouraged missionaries in similar situations as theirs to consider the fund if God leads them in that direction.
___"Our decision was made on principle and integrity," Gunter said. "We're just thankful (support) was there."
___
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