Updated Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Group opposes IMB guidelines

By Norman Jameson and Steve DeVane

BR Staff

Several N.C. Baptists are among a group of 37 former Southern Baptist missionaries, former International Mission Board (IMB) trustees and Southern Baptist pastors calling for the IMB to reverse "guidelines" enacted in 2005.

The guidelines prohibit the appointment of any candidate with a "private prayer language," a practice to which IMB president Jerry Rankin ascribes. They also require candidates to be baptized in a Southern Baptist church, discounting even believer's baptism by immersion in another evangelical church.

"We express our concern over the restrictions that have been put in place in the form of additional 'guidelines' concerning a missionary candidate's private prayer life and baptism," said a statement from the group released June 2. "Our conviction is that these guidelines stray far beyond the parameters set forth by our denominational confession of faith, the Baptist Faith and Message."

The group said in its statement that those restrictions amount to "intrusive scrutiny into the sanctity of the personal prayer closet" and "dictating to local churches what constitutes a legitimate Christian baptism."

The result of adopting those "guidelines" - with no evidence they were needed - was that "otherwise worthy candidates" for missionary service are unnecessarily rejected and "valuable, faithful IMB personnel" are leaving the field at a time when the overseas missions harvest is greater than ever, the group said.

Allan Blume, the president of the Baptist State Convention (BSC) Board of Directors and pastor of Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Boone, and his wife, Pam, are listed as contacts for the group. Pam Blume is a former IMB trustee.

Steve Hardy, associate pastor for missions at Calvary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem and a member of the BSC Executive Committee, is also listed as a contact person. He is also a former IMB trustee.

Allan Blume said the guidelines go beyond the Baptist Faith and Message and are extra-biblical. They are keeping "dozens" of potential missionaries from applying for service and killing morale on the field, he said.

Blume said the restrictions initiated by IMB trustees in 2005 are distinct signs of "Landmarkism" in IMB trustee leadership and reverse the appropriate relationship of Southern Baptist churches to their entities.

While IMB trustees say the candidate simply has to be baptized again, Blume said such a requirement "trivializes" baptism.

"We know of dozens" of candidates who would be required to undergo such a baptism, said Blume, who helped draft and distribute a news release and letter asking the IMB to reconsider the policies. "We know as many are not considering applying because of these guidelines."

Mount Vernon Baptist Church is among the top 50 churches nationally in giving to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for Foreign Missions and one year led the nation in per capita gifts. Current IMB trustee Donna Nealy is a member of Mount Vernon but has not participated in the discussion, adhering to the self-imposed gag order of trustees.

"We are appealing as gently as we know how," for the IMB to reverse these guidelines, said Blume, who has a dozen missionaries from Mount Vernon and who personally knows 100 others. Mount Vernon has at least one team ministering internationally every month, and it is not uncommon for three teams from the church to be ministering on three different continents at the same time.

"Not one (missionary) has said these guidelines are inconsequential to a sinking morale on the field," Blume said.

While former IMB regional representative Rodney Hammer's resignation was one trigger for the petition by several dozen pastors and former IMB trustees, he is not the focus of the action and is not mentioned by name.

Blume emphasized, as do the documents, his support for the International Mission Board and for the missionaries it supports.

Although personally Blume does not adhere to a private prayer language, he is concerned that by adopting and dictating policies that are extra-biblical and beyond the scope of the BFM, the IMB has reversed its appropriate relationship to the churches. The IMB should adhere to the standards of the churches that send missionaries and not refuse candidates based on guidelines the churches did not adopt, he said.

Michael Barrett and Paul Brown, both former IMB trustees from North Carolina, also signed the statement. Other signers include N.C. ministers C.J. Bordeaux, church administrator for Village Baptist Church in Fayetteville, J.D. Greear, pastor of The Summit Church in Durham, and Chris Hilliard, pastor of Newell Baptist Church in Charlotte.

The group said their opposition to the "guidelines" should not be read as a lack of support for IMB missionaries, staff or administration. They "commend the obedience and commitment to God's call of the more than 5,000 dedicated brothers and sisters who have been appointed, sent, and supported by Southern Baptists to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth" and declare that they "enthusiastically support our IMB missionaries through their praying, giving, and going."

The group also affirms that the IMB's candidate approval process "has been fair, thorough, and complete, producing a dedicated, well-trained missionary force" that meet the criteria set out by the SBC Constitution that "all missionaries appointed by the Convention's boards must, previous to their appointment, furnish evidence of piety, zeal for the Master's kingdom, conviction of truth as held by Baptists, and talents for missionary service."

The group calls on Southern Baptists to "hold the entities of the SBC accountable to the direction of the convention's churches, not the churches to the sentiments of their entities" and "strongly urge(s) Southern Baptists to seek the removal of these controversial and superfluous guidelines from use in the candidate approval process."

The group has created a web site at imbchange.info to "encourage appropriate principles and guidelines for missionary service through the International Mission Board of the SBC."