On August the 27th the IMB ‘senior
leadership’ led by our IMB President, Dr. David Platt, presented their plan to
put the IMB on a more stable financial footing for the future. The plan
includes reducing mission’s staff and personnel by 800 either through
attrition, voluntary retirements, or ‘transitioning’ people from roles within
the IMB to roles outside of the IMB (aka seeing people go to work for churches,
other missions sending agencies, or wherever) over the next several months. In
2009 Southern Baptists had 5,600 missionaries and this proposed reduction will
lower that number to about 4,200; a loss of 1,400 in six short years. I find
this unacceptable in an age when there are 7 billion people on earth, over ½ of
which live in unengaged unreached people groups, which means there are less
than 2% believers in their people group and there is no effort being made by Christians
and or missionaries at this time to engage them with the gospel. But at the
same time I think it is equally unacceptable that the IMB has been forced to spend
$210 million more than it has received since 2010. With 80% of what the IMB
spends being spent on personnel costs, it is obvious that personnel costs must
be part of the solution. Trust me when I say that it is not because our
missionaries are getting paid exorbitant salaries and getting rich that these
costs are high; our missionaries sacrifice much to stay on the field. But the
IMB does a great job providing for the insurance and retirement needs of our
missionaries as well as housing, transportation, and so many other things while
they serve on the field; things that other missions agencies either don’t
provide or the missionary must constantly be coming home to help raise part of
their support for.
In my mind there are three things that must happen for
Southern Baptists to be as effective as possible in getting the gospel to all
peoples.
1.
Stewardship
– I think what is happening with the IMB is reflected on a much smaller
scale in the local church. I truly believe that God has supplied Southern
Baptists with more than enough resources to take care of not just the missions’
personnel we currently have but to greatly increase that number. The problem is
that money is still in the pockets of the average Baptist and in the checkbook
of the average church. Having been a pastor for 25 years spread over 4 churches
of various sizes, I have come to understand the percentage that is given to
their local church by the average Baptist sitting in the pews on Sundays; let’s
just say it is far less than what I think honors God. In so many of our
churches 15-20% of the people are carrying 80% of the financial costs while
80-85% of the people either ‘tip’ God or completely ‘free load’ on God’s church
and God’s people. Our sacrifice in giving and going should be nothing less than
the sacrifice the Lord was willing to make for us. If I understand Galatians
2:20 correctly, I died in 1978 when I gave my heart to Christ. It is now no
longer about what Tom James wants but what Christ wants to do as He lives His
life in and through Tom James. As Christ lives through us I am pretty positive
that He would give more than 1% to His church and would certainly not ‘free
load’ on the people of God; enjoying the pleasures and blessings of the local
church all while doing nothing to support the work going on there. But the
problem does not just rest in the lap of God’s people; a good part of the
problem is found in the lap of God’s pastors and pulpits. Recently as KBC
President I had opportunity to hear what many of our KBC churches give to the
Co-Operative Program; I was dismayed. For a church to have a $300,000 budget
and give 1% to missions or a multi-million dollar budget and give not a dime to
missions is completely unacceptable. God’s man must do a better job of leading
God’s people to see the need of making sure the gospel gets to the ends of the
earth. I think if pastors did a better job of teaching, preaching, and
promoting missions in the local church we would not even be having this
discussion today. As a pastor has I think part of the solution to this dilemma
is stewardship.
2.
New paradigm
of missionaries – As pastors I think we must call our people to a more radical
obedience. Southern Baptists numbers of missionaries could explode in just a
few years if we led our people to think outside the box while understanding
their responsibility to ‘Go’ with the gospel. So many of our church members
serve in careers where they could easily find a job overseas be it as an
educator, banker, businessman, musician, etc...; the types of jobs available
overseas is almost endless. If we would begin to dream of a businessman or
teacher going overseas to serve in the field drawing their financial support
from the ‘secular’ work they do while not depending upon a mission board to
take care of much of the financial cost of their living overseas, if they did
this with the ultimate goal of living among people who need Christ, almost
every country in the world could come into play as a possible landing spot for
a Southern Baptist who saw their role as being one of taking the gospel to the
peoples of the world. We must learn a new paradigm while convincing our people
that being a missionary is not for the ‘professionals’ only; that God has
called us all to be missionaries and witnesses (Acts 1:8). The question is not
whether we will be a witness or not, that was decided when we came to Christ;
the question has now become what kind of witness will we be.
3.
Personal
Involvement – I can testify that our churches missions giving went up
exponentially when we began to engage more of our people in actual missions.
Eastwood currently has 8 mission’s partnerships going on 5 continents. For a
church our size this stretches us thin. But with increasing the number of
people going on an annual basis by 1,500% over the past ten years it seems
logical that our giving would go down as people are using their available
mission’s dollars to go themselves. But just the opposite has happened. Our
giving has increased from $14,000 ten years ago to $80,000+ this past church
year. This on top of increasing C/P giving by 3% over that time to 12.25% now.
I recite these numbers not to ‘brag’ but simply to say that our God is not ‘logical’
in the sense of how we think He will work. Rather He chooses to bless those who
are obedient to pray, to give, and to go.
Pray for the 800 missionaries, families, and staff that will either
accept an early retirement offer or be downsized over the next several months.
Pray for our IMB leadership to have wisdom as decisions are made. But I’d ask
you to pray especially hard for the 16 million Americans who say they are Southern
Baptist, that God would grip their hearts to where their commitment to Him, His
causes, His Church, and the gospel greatly increases.
