I appreciate your perspective. As to how much the Trustees understand about our missionaries, I was trying to defer to the inside knowledge they receive in the briefings. I have heard numerous times that M’s would like for Trustees (and pastors, and lay people) to come live with them for a while instead of doing “fly by” visits. I am glad for your perspective and agreement with my conclusion, though.

Alan,

Thanks for your post. I think it is deep and relevant. Feel free to say such things here.

My opinion is that some will. But, that will only happen among the informed and those whose consciences are stricken by these activities. Most will see it as no big deal and will go on with business as usual. They will continue to support the IMB because good work is being done and because that’s what good baptists do and these things don’t affect them directly. That perspective is ingrained in us. I think that the BoT uses the latter perspective as permission to do what they want because they really don’t think it will affect anything. But, I think that perspective is deadly to actually carrying out the Great Commission, because it enforces passivity within the churches.

If the IMB does not reverse these decisions, it is my opinion that, over time, most baptists will just resign themselves to it and go on with life. Many will agree with the policies. But, the detriment to world evangelism will be huge, yet invisible to us. We will never see how we missed God and we will never know the loss of effectiveness that we will incur, not just from losing missionaries that are directly affected by the baptism and PPL policies, but by the residual affects of heading in this direction. Our “leaders” will lead an organization that will become more and more ineffective and irrelevant over the years and no one will even really notice until it’s too late. All the while, they’ll look for more enemies to blame because it couldn’t possibly their fault. It’s kind of like what is happening in our churches today all across the U.S.

This grieves me, because up until this point, the IMB has been the bright shining light of the SBC and is filled with incredible people who are doing great things for God. If we keep going down this road, I really do see that changing for the worse. Maybe I’m wrong and I hope that I am. But, that’s just what I see happening. I’m sure that many, if not most will disagree.

Art, sorry for writing a book here. I was just thinking . . .

You said, “Let me be clear at this point. I know that every Trustee knows far more about the perils facing our missionaries than I will ever understand. So why are we still caught up in power plays?”

First, allow me to differ, somewhat, with you on the first part of your statement…except for the briefings that Trustees receive, I do not think that, as a group, they are that informed. Speaking to fellow missionaries, we often lament how pastors from a church, or denominational/seminary administrators, who have been elected to the BoT, know very little about what we do or think. Why else could extra-Biblical policies be passed? One thing we on the field wish for is for Trustees to come where we are, live with us for a while (not those two day “flying” visits, staying in the better hotels), experience our world, know our hearts, ask us the “hard” questions, but be ready for “hard” questions in return. And do not use what we say to punish us.

But, I totally agree with the second part of your statement. Why all of the power plays? Does that advance the Kingdom? If so, someone tell us lonely missionaries how.

Thus, CP giving will fall and the # of missionaries commissioned through the IMB will be less than it might have been. Remember, though, that we aren’t talking about a lot of people; the policies were passed to “fix” a problem that did not exist.