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When is Your Sabbath?

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Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

(Aug. 10, 2010) - When I became IMB President 17 years ago I was overwhelmed by the comprehensive responsibilities. There was no time of transition as I stepped immediately into the demanding role of administration and constant speaking engagements both internally and publicly. I had never owned a computer or had a secretary, so I encountered a steep learning curve and major adjustments.

The reports and briefings from staff were extensive; correspondence was massive from everyone in the Southern Baptist Convention who had suggestions about how we should be doing missions. The meetings were endless, email and phone messages accumulated and obligatory travel began to change my lifestyle. Not having had a routine preaching role previously, I was ill-prepared for the preparation and forethought needed to speak sometimes up to a dozen times a week.

As I became stressed over 15-hour work days and the time-consuming responsibilities, wondering how to cope, where is the margin, how to find time to prepare messages and be nurtured spiritually, I thought of an experience early in my field assignment in Indonesia. The Chinese commercial community was an easy target of evangelism compared to the dominant Muslim population. They would readily respond and receive Christ, but I wasn’t very successful in getting them to close their business to worship and become involved in church on Sunday. I tried to convince them that God would bless and prosper their business in six days if they would honor Him with a Sabbath rather than by working seven days a week, but they seldom took me up on that suggestion.

Categories : IMB, Leadership, Spiritual Discipline, missions

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Tribute to Avery Willis

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Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

(Aug. 4, 2010) - It would be impossible to grasp on this side of eternity the kingdom impact of Avery Willis and the people who have been influenced by his life and ministry. His funeral on Tuesday was truly a God-glorifying tribute to his walk with the Lord; it barely scratched the surface in celebrating the scope of what God chose to do through his 76 years upon this earth.

Many have been his personal friends and colleagues over the years, but I am one of those who had the rare privilege of knowing and working with Avery in the four stages of his ministry. God was able to entrust a unique vision and passion to Avery because Jesus was truly Lord of his life. He was in love with Jesus and absolutely serious about following Him as an obedient disciple. Many who worked with him would have issues of disagreement when it came to programs and planning, but no one would question his spiritual depth, devotion to prayer and genuine commitment to a Spirit-filled life.

His calling to reach a lost world led him to Indonesia as a church planter in 1964, at a time God was moving in a phenomenal ways following a time of social upheaval after an aborted communist coup. His family spent their first term in Bogor, south of Jakarta, then moved to East Java to open work in Jember. They were there for only 10 months when health issues of their growing family made it advisable for him to move to Semarang to teach at the Indonesian Baptist Seminary.

Categories : IMB, Leadership, SBC, missions

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Mission Beginnings

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Saturday, July 31st, 2010

(July 31, 2010) – There is some irony in the fact that the first event I find myself attending upon retirement is a reunion of Indonesian missionaries. Held every other year, this gathering of former missionaries, missionary kids who are now adults and their children, along with a few current personnel on stateside, is a nostalgic time of fellowship, reflections and reminiscing. Other responsibilities and scheduled commitments have allowed me to attend this reunion only occasionally, and my children, who grew up in Indonesia are attending for the first time.

We were young and naïve when Bobbye and I went to the field in 1970 with a 2-year-old toddler and 10-month-old infant. Meeting us at the airport were seminary friends Marvin and Linda Leech who had preceded us to the field by six months, along with Jakarta missionaries Bill and Liz Corwin and Leon and Anne Mitchell. Bill and Leon are now deceased, but the Leeches, Liz and Anne are here at Windermere Conference Center for the reunion. Also attending is Mary Alice Ditsworth, still vibrant and engaging at 80; as veteran language advisor, she held our feet to the fire in learning to speak Indonesian. When her visa was canceled years later, she became my administrative assistant in Singapore.

It is a joy to be with Von and Marge Worten—I learned most of what I came to know about church planting in Indonesia on the back of Von’s motor scooter. Then there is Fred and Linda Beck, Charles and Barbara Cole, Hal and Carol Jacks, all senior missionaries who had a part in mentoring and encouraging us as novices. It was a joy to see Drs. Don and Sarah Duval, Oliver and Virginia Harper, Ken Hinton and Merm Misner, medical personnel who cared for us over the years at our Kediri Baptist Hospital.

Categories : IMB, Leadership, missions

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Trends, Trials and Triumphs

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Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

(July 27, 2010)-The following is a transcript of my final address to the IMB Board of Trustees last week in Richmond, Virginia.

A time of transition is a time to look back and reflect on the rich legacy of our past, to celebrate the present and to renew our vision for the future. Enough has been said about the past in IMB reports and commendations on the occasion of my retirement. I give God the glory for the growth and global impact we have seen; it far exceeds what any of us would have imagined just a few years ago. However, being in a position to have a global overview has given me some insight regarding possible trends, trials and the triumph of the future.

I am not a prophet and do not have the ability to discern the future, but being in a position to have a global overview of what God is doing around the world, I have been able to recognize the trends of a dynamic world of accelerating change that will radically impact how missions is done in the future. In the 1980s we had a Global Strategy Group that was responsible long-range planning. These were the visionaries and strategists who attempted to anticipate the future. Yet as they outlined goals for the end of the century, no one envisioned the possibility of missionaries in what was then the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. No one even dreamed that one day we might have personnel back in China. Our tendency is to become entrenched in current realities; the result is to become marginalized as global paradigms change.

As we forecast and develop scenarios based on what the world could look like in the coming years, consider these possible future realities:

Categories : GCR, IMB, Leadership, SBC, missions

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Reflections on the Journey

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Friday, July 23rd, 2010

(July 23, 2010)–This past week has been a whirlwind of activity and emotion, the culmination of a couple of months of events that have served to accent the finality of my role as IMB president. There was the final appointment of new missionaries (after 101 such services), final orientation of new personnel, final stateside conference, final staff chapel, and now the final board meeting.

People had a lot of nice things to say about my tenure as we reflected on what God has done and from where we have come. I am the first to admit that I was ill-equipped to step into a global leadership role and a position of denominational leadership after 23 years overseas. In fact, I had not even attended a Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting until the year prior to my election. My calling was overseas, and I never desired to return to the States or to a leadership role that would pull me off the field.

I was resistant at that time to allowing the search committee to even consider me, but recognized it would not have happened had God not been in the decision. It was and continued to be a steep learning curve, but the most notable impression as I look back on these 17 years is an awesome sense of God’s providence. He was at work throughout the world to fulfill His mission; He is sovereign over the nations and didn’t need Jerry Rankin. He didn’t need the IMB or Southern Baptists. We were just given the privilege of joining Him in the task of reaching the nations.

Categories : IMB, Leadership, SBC, missions

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Leadership Lessons

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Thursday, July 15th, 2010

Although I had carried some leadership responsibilities on the mission field during the 23 years we served overseas, becoming president of the Foreign Mission Board (as we were still called) in 1993 was a challenging leap. I still feel like a novice after 17 years of leading an SBC entity and the largest missionary-sending organization in the world.

I had always been reluctant to move into each sequence of expanded leadership responsibility. Nothing could be more fulfilling than the church planting assignment we had among people who did not know our Savior. To be the first to share the good news with those who had never heard, and to see lives changed and churches begun…well, it just doesn’t get any better than that! After all, this is what God called us to do many years ago.

Why would one leave that to work with other missionaries and take on a burden of responsibility for something over which they have no control? If leadership is about status, power and reputation, I guarantee you, it is not worth it! Often in times of disappointment, criticism or personal attacks I have come to the point of saying, “I don’t have to put up with this; I’m out of here.” But invariably there is a still, small voice that says, “No you’re not.”

Somewhere along the way I learned obedience to wherever God chose to lead me and to whatever He called me to do. It made no sense to me to be placed in a leadership role for which I was unqualified and ill-equipped, but it has always been evident that I wouldn’t be in this position had it not been for divine manipulation of the process. My wife’s perception is unequivocal in that leadership roles have continued to be a series of demotions from the highest call of personal involvement in cutting edge ministry in order to serve others.

Categories : IMB, missions

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Make Disciples!

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Monday, July 12th, 2010

These final months leading up to my official point of retirement have been times of reflection on my personal pilgrimage and the amazing things God has allowed me to be a part of. It has been awesome to be in a position to have a global overview of what our sovereign God is doing around the world these last 17 years. However, the fondest memories go back to our initial years in Indonesia before God led us into a sequence of leadership roles.

We were assigned to church planting on the eastern tip of Java in an area of 5.5 million people, several hours from other missionary colleagues. Each year as we gathered for our annual mission meeting, each one would report on their work. It was a time of celebration as each missionary unit shared testimonies of the churches that had been planted, the number of new believers baptized and new mission points opened. Reports flowed into discussion as we shared methods and learned from one another.

I’ll never forget the year one of my smart aleck colleagues asked each church planter following their report, “How many disciples did you make this year?” It wasn’t an easy question to answer. I knew better than to suggest the number was equivalent to those who had been baptized. In fact, I’m not sure any of the typical church members gathering to worship in village house churches demonstrated Christlike character and kingdom attitudes I would identify as a disciple.

Categories : Discipleship, GCR, IMB, missions

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In the Secret Place

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Thursday, July 8th, 2010

For many years it has been my practice to begin my morning quiet time with the Lord by reading a Psalm. This wasn’t an intentional formality, and even when I tried to get away from the pattern for the sake of variety and freshness in devotional reading, I would find myself drawn back to the Psalms. It seemed something was missing in proceeding with a study of other portions of the Bible or praying without first having that focus on the worship passages of Psalms. They seemed to bring to my awareness the majesty and power of God the Father. They reminded me of His sovereignty and loving-kindness. Reading a Psalm first thing in the morning seemed to put me in touch with the Father’s heart and give me a sense of His presence as I unloaded my burdens, interceded for others and desperately sought His wisdom and will for the day.

I grew up being trained as a child to practice “daily Bible readings.” It was something to which my parents held me accountable as much as taking out the trash, brushing my teeth or doing my homework. As I grew in my relationship with the Lord and began to formulate personal values as a teenager, a disciplined “quiet time” of Bible study, reading devotional books and systematic approaches to prayer became a regular practice, though done more often as a habit and formality than from a motivation and desire to know God more intimately.

With each ensuing responsibility of ministry that emerged in adulthood, culminating in missionary appointment and, later, demanding leadership roles, I recognized a greater need for God’s power and blessings, and I consciously determined to get more serious about my prayer time. The busyness and demands of juggling a multiplicity of tasks with limited time, demands of travel and irregular schedules always made my resolve short-lived to the point of resorting to grabbing a few brief moments to read a few verses and say a quick prayer before getting on with the more important and pressing agenda of the day. I came to the point of realizing at that moment that if I wanted the assurance of God’s hand upon me and my ministry, I had to have a heart for Him that would be reflected in a disciplined time of prayer and fellowship with Him.

Categories : Books, missions

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The Challenge of Missionary Support

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Thursday, July 1st, 2010

Why are more Southern Baptist missionaries going to the field independently and through other agencies than through the IMB? I don’t have the statistics, but that is my distinct impression. There are a variety of reasons.

In our accountability to the convention, our board of trustees is conscientious about sending those who are doctrinally sound, spiritually mature, physically healthy and fulfill established criteria of education and experience. Because our medical coverage is self-funded (there is no way we could pay exorbitant premiums that underwriters would demand for where our people go), we do not send those who represent high health risks and a potential liability. Many candidates do not have a college degree or seminary hours that are considered basic qualifications.

There are also those who cannot affirm personal doctrinal positions compatible with what Southern Baptists who support them believe. Then there are additional criteria, as mentioned in the last post, of a private prayer language, divorce or judgment regarding who administered baptism. However, for many it is a matter of wanting the IMB to support them to go where they feel led to go to do what they want to do.

The IMB has always had a global vision and strategy for reaching the whole world. Every missionary is expected to be involved in evangelism, discipleship and planting churches. Yet this is done through very diverse and comprehensive roles. In fact, doors that are closed to traditional missionaries make roles in media, medicine, agriculture, social work and other platforms more prominent than ever. Priority is given to getting the gospel to those who have never heard, although many personnel are still being assigned where churches have been established.

Categories : IMB, SBC, missions

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Dilemma of the Missionary Call

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Monday, June 28th, 2010

It is obvious that God is calling more and more Southern Baptists to give their lives in missionary service. I have been a firm believer that the call to missions is for every believer and every church; it is a call to the people of God, and no one is exempt. We all have a place in fulfilling God’s mission.

Everyone should be willing to go rather than dismissing the responsibility of reaching the nations on the basis of not being called. In an era of post-WWII growth when the number of foreign missionaries tripled in 15 years, FMB President Dr. Baker James Cauthen used to challenge people to assume God was calling them to go until He closed the door, rather than assuming they were to stay until they received a mystical call. As I meet former college and seminary classmates, they remind me of how obnoxious I was in discussing this issue. I felt the call to a lost world so strongly I would question their call to the ministry—and perhaps their salvation—if they had not considered a call as a possibility for going overseas.

It is evident God is stirring a younger generation with a passion to make a difference in the world. We have consistently seen 5,000 to 8,000 high school and college students engaged in mission projects around the world each year. Journeyman applications have continued to grow, and the Hands-On project was started to give students an opportunity to spend a semester or year on the mission field before they graduated. As they encounter a lost world, see God at work and recognize the potential in their own lives, these students are responding to offer their lives for missionary service. I believe God is raising up this younger generation to finish the task of evangelizing the world.

However, students graduating from college and seminary, as well as others who are willing to leave a stateside ministry or put their professional career on the shelf to share Christ with those who have never heard are facing a serious dilemma. How are they to go? In the past the IMB has consistently had up to 2,500 candidates in the missionary appointment process. Because of the increased interest, we could easily have processed and sent a thousand short-term missionaries through the Journeymen, ISC and Masters programs each year if the financial support were available.

Categories : IMB, SBC, missions

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