The International Mission Board decision to reduce the number of missionaries on the field

On August the 27^th 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.