|
SBC Insists on Terminating Missionaries, Refuses to ‘Grandfather’ Them In
All missionaries in the SBC have been asked to affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message (BF&M) under threat of losing their places of service. Some have resigned. Those who refuse to sign the creed are being terminated. Rick and Nancy Dill have served the IMB for more than twenty years. They were the first IMB missionaries to move into East Germany following the fall of the Berlin wall in 1992. Now on furlough in Arkansas, the couple has been informed that the IMB will not let them return to service unless they sign the creed. The Dill’s have refused and are awaiting formal notice of their termination.
The Dills said "serious theological changes ... made in the 2000 document disturb us greatly and for that reason we cannot sign." They outlined four reasons:
"The center of our faith is Jesus Christ," they said in a written statement. "He certainly is the criterion by which the Bible is to be understood and interpreted."
"The authors of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 seem to mistrust or minimize the importance of the personal experience of the individual believer and his personal responsibility before God," they wrote. "God speaks to each and every individual. We are called to be His priests. His Spirit works within us individually (as well as corporately), and finally, we will be called to account for our lives as His servants."
"There is no question that Paul was stressing the mutual submission that should be a part of every marriage relationship (Eph. 5:21-22)," they wrote, pointing out verse 21, which says, "husbands love your wives," was not included in the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message. "It is a perversion of the marriage relationship to reduce it to a question of power and control."
"Such a statement does not belong in a statement of faith," the Dills said. "It is not central to the question of faith or orthodoxy. ... I do not find a clear scriptural basis for denying women any office of service in the church.
"One thing that I certainly cannot understand is the IMB forcing missionaries to sign a statement that denies women the right to be called of God as pastors (and denying service to those who belong to a church that has chosen to call a woman as pastor) and yet says that one of the growing missionary callings of women is that of church planter," they wrote.
"Church planters are pastors. How can we deny that God calls women to pastor and at the same time send them out all over the world to serve in that capacity?"
Pointing to their own faith, the Dills said, "We are not heretics. We are conservative Christians. We are Baptists. We are Southern Baptists. We have served faithfully on a foreign field for over 20 years and want to continue that service for another 15. But we cannot in good conscience sign a document that we feel in several ways reflects neither the truth of scripture nor the heritage that Baptists hold so dear."
The Dills are not alone among missionaries in rejecting the 2000 BF&M. Chris and Karen Harbin have been missionaries to Brazil for the past seven years. Chris was fired for teaching contrary to the 2000 BF&M. Karen was forced to resign. The IMB tried to buy their silence by refusing to pay transportation costs to bring their belonging back to the U.S. if they spoke openly about their termination. (For detailed documentation regarding the Harbin’s termination click here.)
Firing missionaries is clearly unpopular with most Southern Baptists, but SBC leaders refuse to be accountable to the people in the pews.
In June, when the SBC met in St. Louis, two motions were made to ’grandfather in’ the missionaries who were commissioned under the 1963 BF&M. At the first business session Bruce Prescott, of FBC Norman, introduced the following motion:
At a sparsely attended second business session, the Committee on the Order of Business informed the messengers that this motion and a similar motion made by Bob Casey of Florida were both being referred to the trustees of the IMB and NAMB. In effect, killing the motions.
Well before the IMN began terminating missionaries, Prescott wrote letters to the IMB and the NAMB requesting permission to appear before their boards to discuss the merits of the motion he made on the floor of the convention. The request was ignored by the NAMB and denied by the IMB.
In the letters, Prescott complained that, “Had they been allowed to vote on this issue, I believe the messengers would have sustained my motion,” and said:
The next time the SBC passes the offering plate, conscientious Baptists should reflect on the willingness of SBC leaders to be “accountable” to the people in the pews .
A Christmas offering to the Missionary Transition Fund being supported by Mainstream Baptists and administered by Texas Baptists will assist SBC missionaries who are being terminated and will send a clear signal of your dissatisfaction with SBC leaders.
|
|
Online since April 7, 1999
E- mail questions or comments about this web site to bprescott@mainstreambaptists.orgCopyright © 1999-2003 MAINSTREAM OKLAHOMA BAPTISTS P.O. Box 6371 Norman, OK 73070-6371 (405) 329-2266.
|