Associated Baptist Press - 6/11/2008

Associated Baptist Press
June 11, 2008 (8-59)

IN THIS ISSUE:
Establishment candidate Johnny Hunt wins SBC presidency on 1st ballot
SBC officials reject idea of sex-offender database
SBC business items include bids to re-join BWA, oust churches
Baptists to have place to worship, baptize near historic Jordanian site
Volunteers in missions: Short-term workers make long-term impact
Volunteers in missions: Texas church’s reach extends to Macedonia’s families

Establishment candidate Johnny Hunt wins SBC presidency on 1st ballot
By Robert Marus and Lonnie Wilkey

INDIANAPOLIS (ABP) – Atlanta-area pastor Johnny Hunt was elected Southern Baptist Convention president over five contenders on the first ballot June 10, returning control of the 16 million-member denomination to its fundamentalist establishment.

On the first day of the 2008 SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga., received 3,100 votes (52.94 percent) out of 5,856 ballots cast. His vote thwarted a runoff that many SBC watchers had expected in the record field of candidates.

“In the context of uniting, my heart as president would be more in the context of holding high the flags of what really represents Southern Baptists,” he said, in remarks to reporters immediately following the announcement of his election. “And so I hope to unite our hearts around the things that we believe that Christ is most committed to.”

Hunt said he hopes to represent that view of Southern Baptists to the broader public as well. He lamented that, in their support for conservative issues in the “culture war,” Southern Baptists “oftentimes … come across as only what we’re against.”

Hunt will replace South Carolina pastor Frank Page, who won an upset victory to the first of two one-year terms in 2006 as the candidate favored by reform-minded bloggers and younger pastors.

Hunt was widely expected to win that election but pulled out of the contest at the last minute. His triumph this year reflects a return to a pattern that began in 1979, during which the establishment candidate won election in 25 of 27 years. The reformers who supported Page did not coalesce behind a single candidate this year.

The other candidates Hunt defeated were:

-- Frank Cox, pastor of North Metro First Baptist Church in Lawrenceville, Ga., who received 1,286 votes (21.96 percent).

-- Avery Willis, retired vice president of the SBC International Mission Board, who received 962 votes (16.43 percent).

-- Bill Wagner, a former missionary and president of Olivet International University in San Francisco, who received 255 votes (4.35 percent) and was nominated by Wade Burleson, leader of the younger conservatives.

-- Les Puryear, another blogger-pastor from Lewisville (N.C.) Baptist Church, who received 188 votes (3.21 percent).

-- Wiley Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., and a former SBC second vice president, who received 45 votes (0.77 percent).

Many of the reformers -- including Burleson -- had complained about what they consider an unnecessary narrowing of the parameters of cooperation in Southern Baptist life.

Hunt, widely hailed for his mentoring programs for younger ministers, said he would like to reach out to more young SBC leaders. But, at the news conference, he said that he had not heard complaints about disillusionment with the SBC from the young pastors he sees at conferences.

“I’ve never had one to ask me about the issue of tongues, women in ministry -- I think those are the things that our convention dealt with back during the conservative resurgence -- and the ones that really held to that found a real home in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship,” he said, referring to the moderate group that broke off from the SBC in the 1990s.

Nonetheless, he encouraged Southern Baptists not to dwell on what has divided the convention in the past. “If we keep our hearts on what has united us, it will lead us to our best days in the Southern Baptist Convention,” he predicted.

But Southern Baptists must be realistic, Hunt continued, noting that last year the convention baptized fewer people -- with a membership of 16 million -- than the convention did in 1950 with six million members. “What’s wrong with this picture? We have a larger army [today]. We ought to be taking more territory.”

When asked why the convention is showing a decline -- including a slight decline in overall membership -- Hunt said pastors must step to the plate and take responsibility. “We can’t blame God. We can’t blame our denominational leaders.”

“What we [pastors] find important, our people find important,” he observed.

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SBC officials reject idea of sex-offender database
By Drew Nichter

INDIANAPOLIS (ABP) -- Citing Baptists’ “belief in the autonomy of each local church,” a Southern Baptist Convention official announced May 10 that the denomination’s Executive Committee would not support the creation of a database of sexual offenders in SBC churches.

“Southern Baptists believe that the local church in New Testament times was autonomous, and thus our local churches are autonomous,” Executive Committee President Morris Chapman said in his address to messengers at the SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis.

The announcement was greeted with disapproval from some Baptist child-abuse activists.

The move came in response to a motion, passed nearly unanimously by messengers to last year’s SBC meeting, asking officials to study the database idea. Oklahoma pastor and former International Mission Board trustee Wade Burleson requested a feasibility study for such a registry “in order to assist in preventing any further sexual abuse or harassment” in Southern Baptist churches, as stated in the motion.

However, in its report to messengers, the Executive Committee noted, “it would be impossible to assure that all convicted sexual predators who ever had a connection with a Baptist church would be discoverable for inclusion on such a list.” The report also stated that a Baptist-only database would likely omit sexual offenders coming to SBC churches from other denominations.

But one Baptist child-abuse activist said that was a strange rationale.

“Interesting objection -- that not all perpetrators could possibly be included,” said Dee Ann Miller, an Iowa mental-health and former Southern Baptist missionary. “I'm sure people in every state could argue the same, yet names of convicted offenders are readily available to the public. So why would 100 percent be expected of any list? That's like saying: ‘Don't arrest any murderers because you might miss some!’”

The committee recommended that SBC churches use the Department of Justice’s national sex-offender database, calling it the best resource for protecting congregations against employing known abusers.

But Miller said that list is incomplete as well, and could best be used in conjunction with other databases.

“The limitations concern me far more than the fear that some perpetrators will be missed. My experience in listening to Baptist stories, along with many, many more in other denominations over the past 15 years, is that MOST will be missed,” she said, in e-mailed comments. “So why not have a convention database, make it readily available, and have a preliminary note warning people that they should also consult the government database?”

Burleson asked a similar question. He noted that a reporter asking him about the recommendation showed him two names of registered sex offenders who are on a database the Executive Committee currently maintains -- a list of Southern Baptist ministers.

“If we’re going to have a database with information about who’s a Southern Baptist pastor, then it would seem to me we ought to clean that database up and take off anybody who’s a sexual predator, or have some kind of notation on it, or not have it at all.”

By and large, the Executive Committee stood on the position that the autonomy of the local church superseded any jurisdictional authority the convention may have to create its own database, explaining that there are numerous SBC entities and resources already in place to assist churches in thwarting sexual predators.

“The convention’s role is to encourage, empower and educate local churches as to how to best do their local work to protect our precious children,” Chapman said, in an impassioned address on the broader issue of child sexual abuse.

The committee’s action came nearly a month after a staff minister at a prominent Dallas-area Southern Baptist megachurch. Prestonwood Baptist Church Minister to Married Adults Joe Barron was arrested and forced to resign over his alleged involvement in an online underage sex sting.

In his report, Chapman referred to the incident, and applauded Pastor Jack Graham’s swift action on the matter.

Likewise responding to critics who suggest that the Executive Committee’s action on the sex-offender database is insufficient, Chapman cited SBC resolutions passed in 2002 and 2007 supporting thorough punishment of sexual predators.

“Never let it be said … that we are anemic in the fight against sexual abuse,” Chapman said. “To say so is a false accusation.”

One of the most prominent activist groups on clergy sexual abuse released a statement saying that the recommendation was an insufficient response to Burleson’s original motion, asking, “Where’s the study?”

“I hope Southern Baptists will hold their leaders accountable and insist on a real, honest-to-gosh study,” said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors’ Network of Those Abused by Priests. “Baptist officials could start by at least setting aside a designated budget for a real study, and they could hold hearings with experts from other faith groups.”

But Burleson said that, although he may disagree with the decision not to recommend the database, he believed the Executive Committee studied the matter seriously.

“I think they gave the investigation due diligence,” he said. “Anybody who heard Morris Chapman speak cannot say that he didn’t take the issue seriously.”

In other Executive Committee-related business, messengers:

-- Approved the 2008-2009 SBC operating budget, which included a line item for “Global Evangelism Relations.” When asked about the item from the floor, Bob Rodgers, an Executive Committee official, said it was a new initiative born out of the SBC’s withdrawal from the Baptist World Alliance in 2004. Rodgers said the initiative’s goal is “to continue to develop relationships and fellowship with Baptists around the world.”

Chapman later introduced former SBC President Bobby Welch as strategist for the initiative. Welch called the program an “iron-clad demonstration” of the SBC’s obligation to make “global relationships for the future.”

He also emphasized that the new program is not intended to interfere with the work of the SBC’s North American Mission Board or International Mission Board. Global Evangelism Relations “will always have a view to be a complement and encouragement” to both entities, Welch said.

-- Approved a recommendation to encourage all SBC entities, churches and new church plants to involve, engage and create more ministries for people with disabilities.

-- Approved a 2008-2009 Cooperative Program allocation budget of $205,716,834, an increase of more than $5.1 million from the current budget.

-- Approved three future convention sites: Nashville, Tenn., in 2013; Baltimore in 2014; and Nashville again in 2019.

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-- Greg Warner and Robert Marus contributed to this story.

SBC business items include bids to re-join BWA, oust churches
By Marv Knox

INDIANAPOLIS (ABP) -- The Southern Baptist Convention will consider rejoining the Baptist World Alliance, removing churches that hire women pastors and restricting agency heads from serving as SBC president.

Messengers presented those and 20 other motions during the SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis June 10-11. Motions request the convention to take action, and the vast majority of them are usually referred to pertinent SBC agencies for consideration and report to the following year’s annual meeting.

In Indianapolis, messengers referred 10 motions to the Executive Committee, ruled six motions out of order, sent five to various agencies or committees, saw one withdrawn and affirmed, but took no action on another.

Motions referred to the Executive Committee included proposals to:

-- Reconsider the SBC’s 2004 decision to withdraw from the Baptist World Alliance, composed of more than 200 Baptist conventions and other organizations around the globe.

At the time, SBC critics charged the worldwide umbrella group of being “too liberal,” echoing a refrain from the schism that split the SBC in the latter decades of the 20th century. More recently, the SBC has sought to build an organization of conservative groups worldwide. That has included apparent attempts to siphon some Baptist unions, particularly in parts of Eastern Europe and Asia, from the BWA.

Larry Walker, a messenger from First Baptist Church in Dallas, proposed the SBC-BWA reconciliation.

In an interview, Walker stressed that many small Baptist conventions and unions -- many of them located where Baptists and other Christians face daily persecution -- need the support and encouragement of the SBC, the world’s largest Baptist denomination. And, he noted, the SBC would benefit from relationships with faithful Baptists who bravely and humbly persist in the face of overwhelming odds.

-- Amend the SBC’s constitution to disallow affiliation by “churches which have female senior pastors.”

This proposal would modify the denomination’s governing document, which regulates convention membership. The convention’s Baptist Faith and Message doctrinal statement asserts, “the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.” However, it is not binding on local churches, and several SBC-affiliated churches have female senior pastors.

-- Change SBC bylaws to disqualify presidents of SBC agencies and institutions from serving as president of the convention.

In the early part of the 20th century, agency heads frequently led the convention as president. The only living institutional head who simultaneously served as SBC president is Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and one of the architects of the ultra-conservative movement that gained control of the SBC in the 1980s and ’90s.

Early this year, Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., planned to run for president. But an illness and springtime surgery forced him to withdraw.

-- Declare Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, to be not “in friendly cooperation” with the SBC. The church has engaged in a highly public dispute regarding whether or not homosexual couples could be pictured together as families in the church’s directory. The church ultimately determined to publish a historical booklet with directory information, but it would not include photographs of families.

Since the church did not send messengers to the Indianapolis meeting, the order-of-business committee determined the convention did not face a credentials issue. But it suggested compliance with the SBC’s policy against affiliating with churches that “affirm, approve or endorse homosexual behavior” merits study.

-- Change the terms of service for SBC agency trustees. The proposal would eliminate multiple terms of three and four years, limiting each trustee to a single seven-year term.

-- Set new eligibility requirements for service on SBC committees, commissions and boards. Nominees would be required to “give evidence of having received Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior,” hold membership in a church that supports the SBC Cooperative Program unified budget, be in good standing with a local church, abstain from using alcoholic beverages and recreational drugs, and “support all the principles” in the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message doctrinal statement.

-- Change SBC election procedures so that, if no candidate receives a majority vote on the first ballot, the two candidates with the most votes would face each other in a second round. Currently, in a multi-candidate ballot, all candidates who make it into the top 50 percent on the first vote are entered in the run-off. Some observers had anticipated a run-off election for the SBC presidency this year because of a broad six-candidate field.

-- Create a “standardized form” on which the SBC’s six seminaries would report their enrollment and other data.

-- Amend SBC bylaws to direct convention agencies and institutions to “accommodate other events that support the work and mission of Southern Baptists” during the week in which the annual meeting is held each summer.

-- Study how to improve cooperation with other denominations and “work with all men of goodwill to improve society and the establishment of righteousness rooted in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and his word.”

Messengers referred one motion to all 12 SBC agencies and institutions. It asked the SBC organizations to be “more child-friendly and family-oriented” when they plan events in conjunction with the SBC annual meeting.

LifeWay Christian Resources, the convention’s publishing house, received referrals of two motions. They asked the convention to:

-- Print the Baptist Faith & Message in the five most dominant languages represented within the convention’s congregations.

-- Provide technology that will allow churches and associations the capability to videoconference and/or teleconference through their websites “in a secure and Christian environment.”

The SBC Committee on Order of Business received two motions. They suggested:

-- When a candidate is nominated for SBC office, either the candidate be presented on stage or his picture be shown to messengers on video screens.

-- After the SBC president calls the annual meeting to order, the American flag would be posted in the meeting hall, accompanied by an honor guard composed of representatives of the five U.S. armed services.

Messengers agreed with the order-of-business committee and President Frank Page in declaring six motions out of order. Primarily, these motions failed to pass muster because they sought to instruct convention trustees or other groups -- an action beyond the messengers’ scope of authority. They urged the denomination to:

-- Forbid program personalities at SBC annual meetings from reading from or citing LifeWay Christian Resources’ Holman Christian Standard Bible “or any translation that questions the validity of any Scripture or verse.” Messenger Eric Williams of Belle Rive, Ill., claimed editors of the Holman Christian Standard Bible “believe that there are verses in the [biblical] text that do not belong in the Bible.”

-- Instruct the six SBC seminaries to charge students who take classes over the Internet the same tuition rates they charge on-campus students.

-- Mandate that “all colleges, universities and seminaries that receive Cooperative Program support be responsible to report … that they teach creation science in their science programs as the true beginnings of life on earth as recorded in Genesis.”

-- Provide at-cost compact discs of the sermons preached at the SBC Pastors’ Conference and the annual meeting.

-- Accommodate hearing-impaired messengers to the annual meeting by providing amplification devices and/or closed captioning. Hearing devices already are available.

-- Provide direct financial support for Watseka Baptist Church in Watseka, Ill.

One motion was withdrawn by its maker. Messenger Rick Reeder asked the convention to receive a love offering to support disaster-relief efforts provided by the State Convention of Baptists in Indiana in the wake of floods that ravaged southern Indiana the weekend before the annual meeting. The order-of-business committee countered that collecting such an offering would be difficult logistically. It also suggested the best method for helping flood victims was being implemented through the SBC North American Mission Board’s disaster-relief program.

President Page urged messengers and other Southern Baptists to support the NAMB disaster-relief program by contributing online through the NAMB website. Reeder then agreed to withdraw his motion.

A final motion generated no specific action, but received a strong endorsement from Page. The motion called on the SBC Executive Committee to “lead our SBC to repentance and a new emphasis on biblical holiness and godly living.”

“A Holy Ghost revival is the only hope we have,” Page said. “Any call like this comes from the heart of God.”

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Baptists to have place to worship, baptize near historic Jordanian site
By Vicki Brown

WASHINGTON (ABP) -- Baptist visitors to Jordan will soon have a place to worship near the historic spot traditionally viewed as the site of Jesus’ baptism.

King Abdullah II bin Al Hussein of Jordan has conveyed a plot of land to the Baptist World Alliance for a Baptism Center to be constructed on the bank of the River Jordan, alongside many other church buildings being built in the area.

The Baptism Site Commission, an independent board of trustees appointed by the king, will own and manage the center, expected to be completed and opened next spring.

According to the commission’s website (www.baptismsite.com), the site, known as Bethany Beyond the Jordan, is a “legally protected National Jordan Park.”

BWA president David Coffey and King Abdullah II first discussed a possible center for Baptists in September. Discussions continued with the king’s special envoy and personal advisor, Prince Ghazi Bin Mohammed, who also chairs the commission. The pair reached an agreement during Coffey’s visit to the site May 26.

As part of the agreement, an inscription will be placed at the center’s entrance: “The Commission of the Site of the Baptism of Jesus Christ welcomes here in particular foreign visiting pilgrims from the member churches of the Baptist World Alliance.”

Baptist pilgrims to the site will be able to worship and be baptized at the center.

“We are greatly honored that King Abdullah has granted the global fellowship of the Baptist World Alliance the privilege of using the Baptism Center as a place of worship and pilgrimage,” Coffey said in a June 2 press release from the Washington-based BWA.

“I know that many Baptists and other evangelical Christians will visit the site as pilgrims and some will choose to confess their faith in Jesus Christ in the waters of baptism.”

Coffey noted that he and Prince Ghazi discussed several issues at the May meeting, “including the distinctive meaning of Christian baptism for Baptists and the boundaries of religious liberty.”

Also attending the May session were Nabeeh Abbassi, immediate past president of the Jordan Baptist Convention; its current vice president, Bahij Aqeel; and Nabil Costa, executive director of the Lebanese Baptist Society and Middle East representative for the European Baptist Federation.

“This is an act of appreciation for Christian presence in the region and a celebration of existing bonds between Arab Christians and Muslims,” Costa said. “Baptists of the Middle East are grateful for His Majesty’s invaluable gesture, and we welcome worldwide Baptist pilgrims to come and experience Middle Eastern hospitality.

In other BWA news, Coffey has been named to a three-year term on the Tony Blair Faith Foundation advisory council.

Former British Prime Minister Blair launched the foundation on May 30 to promote respect, friendship and understanding among major religions and faith as “a force for good.”

The advisory council includes other Christian leaders, such as Baptist pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California, and representatives from other faith traditions, such as Judaism and Islam.

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Volunteers in missions: Short-term workers make long-term impact
By Jenny Pope

COLUMBIA, Mo. (ABP) -- Kevin and Naomi Scantlan of Columbia, Mo. feel called to international missions.

But as integrated technology services analysts at University of Missouri Health Care and church lay leaders, committing to years abroad really isn’t feasible.

That’s why they’re planning their second mission trip to Kenya, along with eight fellow members of Memorial Baptist Church, to provide medical services and teach vacation Bible school to orphans and at-risk children supported by Buckner International. The Texas Baptist agency operates several benevolent ministries.

The Scantlans are among the 2-3 million Christians from the United States engaging in short-term missions work around the globe annually today, according to Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Global Missions Coordinator Rob Nash. In 1984, that number was 18,000.

“This is a profound and revolutionary shift,” Kevin Scantlan said.

“For much of the 20th century, the only U.S. Christians engaged beyond the United States were missionaries, diplomats and military types. With jet planes and globalization, this reality [has] shifted dramatically.”

Buckner International President Ken Hall remembers growing up in a Baptist family and struggling with the “call to missions.”

“For too long, we were led to believe that being called to missions meant 30 or 40 years in Africa,” he said. “That led to a lot of guilty feelings, but it also provided a good excuse for not becoming a missionary.”

Hall believes all Christians are called to be missionaries and that the Bible mandates it in Matthew 28:18-20, when Jesus issued the Great Commission.

“First-century missionaries were not so much vocational missionaries as professionals with a vocation that went on missions,” he said.

“Paul was a tentmaker … he didn’t stay in one place. The book of Acts records Paul’s three missionary journeys. In reality, Paul was a short-term missionary.”

Wendy Norvelle, associate vice president in the office of mobilization at the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board, sees volunteers as involved not only in hands-on ministry, but also in strategic planning.

“We are seeing a new generation of volunteer missions, where churches are becoming strategically involved with particular teams or people groups overseas and in longer-term relationships. Churches and those who go on short-term mission trips are at the table in developing mission strategies. It’s a brand new strategic environment,” Norvelle said.

“In a sense, we’re moving away from the word ‘volunteers,’ and instead are using ‘short-term mission teams.’ We really do see that the [local] church has a strategic role in fulfilling the Great Commission and in being a significant partner in reaching people groups.”

Many critics question the effectiveness of short-term missions, but Hall sees their impact on children and families every day.

Buckner sends about 4,000 volunteers on short-term mission trips each year to minister to orphans, at-risk children and families in the United States and nine countries around the world.

These volunteer missionaries travel to support indigenous Christian staff employed by Buckner to provide follow-up evangelistic work in orphanages, distribute humanitarian aid, train and support foster families and network with Christian churches to provide sustainable ministries to aid children and families in need.

“Short-term missions workers can have an impact,” Hall said. “But that impact is far greater when we work with people inside the country, who prepare for our trips and help us work in a culturally sensitive and effective way.”

Norvelle agreed. “If [short-term and long-term mission workers] are together in developing strategy, it’s an asset. The key is that the strategy is one that everyone buys into,” she said. “The longer-term missionary perhaps has an insight into the culture and the beliefs and worldviews [of a region] which a church at the beginning would not have, though a church can learn it. But the energy and creativity of short-term mission teams can enhance” the work of long-term missionaries.

The Scantlans may be organizing their first church trip to Kenya, but they’ve already seen a huge response among members through fundraising and prayer support. Although future plans have not been made, Kevin Scantlan expects his church will continue to support the work they’ve started.

“One church cannot support a whole area,” he said. “But if you get a number of churches who do that and partner together … maybe not so much with each other, but through an organization like Buckner, you can make a bigger impact.”

Building relationships and making the missions experience personal “can be a life-changing thing for someone,” Naomi Scantlan said. “And not just for us, but for the whole church. If we don’t get involved ourselves, then it doesn’t change us.”

Personal involvement changed Dallas Baptist University student Chris Holloway’s life. He said he’s seen his passion for people and for international mission work grow since he took two short-term mission trips to Guatemala with Buckner in 2007.

“These trips really opened my eyes to see that God is not just the God of America, but the God of the whole world,” he said.

Though he currently works as resident director on DBU’s campus, Holloway said he’s entertained the idea of moving to Guatemala to pursue full-time mission work with orphans.

“These trips have given me a deeper heart for missions and for the need for missions,” he said. “So whether or not I end up as a businessman or a full-time missionary, I know that I will definitely be involved in missions for the rest of my life. … It’s a passion.”

Jeff Byrd, associate pastor for missions at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas, has seen a domino effect in his church of Christians growing as leaders after participating in short-term missions.

“The church body is strengthened by this faithful obedience and by participating in God’s plan,” he said. “We have numerous examples of individuals that have experienced this transformational power in their lives and gone on to become church leaders, mission-team leaders and missionaries. … They’ve become more active in every aspect of the church’s ministries because they went on a mission trip.”

Park Cities takes an average of 10 international mission trips each year to Guatemala, Cuba and Kenya -- five of those through Buckner.

Byrd stresses that, while the impact of short-term missions is effective, it does not outweigh the importance of long-term missionaries or “career” missionaries.

“Short-term volunteers cannot be effective without a recipient infrastructure,” he said.

Victor Upton, vice president of missions resource for Buckner, said that employing in-country Christian personnel is the key to the agency’s work abroad.

“Long after we’re gone, the indigenous personnel are the ones who will carry on the work,” Upton said. “Whether it be feeding programs, group homes, foster care, kinship care…they are the true missionaries. We’re just there to support.”

When violence broke out in Kenya following its presidential election early this year, Buckner staff was in the field caring for children, working with churches and talking with public officials, he said.

“Many of the long-term U.S. missionaries had to leave, but we were in constant contact with [staff]. We were still able to sustain operations.”

Nash thinks that the focus of any ministry efforts, in the United States or abroad, has to be on mission sustainability.

“I’m glad that many short-term responders grasp the fact that a single mission trip that lasts a week can make a real difference in the lives of both the participants and the people to whom they minister,” he said.

“I’ve seen a short-term responder’s life absolutely revolutionized because of the experience. But the greatest transformation comes in a long-term engagement that is strategic and sustainable.”

Karen Hatley, a former missionary in the United Arab Emirates, agrees.

“The problem with short-term missions is that people often look at them as, ‘Oh, this is great for me’ … but their work should definitely be part of a long-term goal or commitment, whether to a certain area or people group or ministry,” said Hatley, who works with WorldconneX, the missions network of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Using short-term mission volunteers, global Christians and long-term missionaries would be the ideal situation for maximum impact, she said.

“But it takes a lot of work to collaborate and work together and listen to each other,” she added. “It’s important for Americans to come in as the learner, helper and supporter.”

Nash thinks the global church will play the most critical role in missions in the 21st century.

“The global church has joined the U.S. church in a dramatic way,” he said. “In many instances it’s much more spiritually and missionally vital than the U.S. church.

“It is important that we connect these Christians who serve effectively around the world and that we bring them into partnerships with each other so that all of us are more strategic as we share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

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-- Robert Dilday contributed to this story.

Volunteers in missions: Texas church’s reach extends to Macedonia’s families
By Patricia Heys

PRIDDY, Texas (ABP) -- Their church building may be small and unassuming, but members of one tiny Texas church are making a powerful impact on children living in the ghetto of Skojpe, Macedonia.

A few years ago, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field personnel Darrell and Kathy Smith spoke at Priddy Baptist Church, about 25 miles east of Brownwood, Texas.

The Smiths told the congregation about their ministry in Macedonia -- the languages, culture, ethnicities and the needs. The Smiths, who have served with the CBF since 1996, have been involved in environmental sustainability projects and ministering to children and families living in poverty.

Priddy Baptist Church -- with about 30 members and half that number in average attendance -- was moved by the Smiths' stories of Macedonian children living in poverty. A few months later, the church invited the Smiths to speak again.

“When we were invited back, the church wanted to know more about the kindergarten project,” Darrell Smith said. “The kindergarten had touched the heart of this church and given them a vision for where God was working.”

Macedonia has no state-sponsored kindergartens or preschool programs, but children still are required to pass a test before they can start first grade. The kindergarten started by the Smiths and CBF field personnel Arville and Shelia Earl provides a free education to children living in the ghettos of Skopje, who otherwise might not have access to education.

In addition to annual contributions to missions, Priddy Baptist members gave $17,000 last year to support the Skopje kindergarten, and have pledged to do the same again this year.

“We are a very small church, and contact and support for this project gives us a sense of contributing to a cause outside and greater than ourselves,” pastor Butch Pesch said. “We love the Smiths and the Earls and are thrilled to have a small part in what God is doing in Macedonia.”

The church’s funds have provided educational opportunities for 40 children, paying for the kindergarten's expenses for half the year -- utilities and rent, plus backpacks and school supplies.

“Just as hope came into the world as a small child, so hope has come to the families of the kindergarten through the efforts of a small church,” Kathy Smith said. “Though they might never meet each other, Priddy Baptist has changed the lives of these children and their families. Only God knows how these seeds of hope that have been planted will sprout and grow.”

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