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Missions organizations

Discussion in 'Evangelism, Missions & Witnessing' started by zrs6v4, Dec 20, 2011.

  1. zrs6v4

    zrs6v4 Member

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    I am doing some research on missions organizations such as the IMB. I was hoping to get some feedback on some good reputable mission organizations. I would like you to give your favorites and answer the following:

    1. Why do you like this organization/s?

    2. If you were going to make a long-term commitment to full time missions why would you choose this organization?

    3. What makes a mission organization a good organization in your view?

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Bonus Question: What is your philosophy on international and local missions?
     
  2. David Lamb

    David Lamb Active Member

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    My favourite is Grace Baptist Mission. My answer to your three questions would be the same: "Because Grace Baptist Mission is local church based, unlike many other missionary organisations (at least in this country)." If you go to GBM's website you will see that its motto is: "Helping churches support their missionaries worldwide."

    You will also see from the website that GBM is 150 years old this year.
     
  3. John of Japan

    John of Japan Well-Known Member
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    My favorite is Baptist World Mission (www.baptistworldmission.org), which I have been privileged to serve with for 34 years. BWM represents the local churches and does not act unilaterally. It has a spotless reputation, an excellent financial set-up, leaders and workers in the home office with integrity, over 330 church-planting missionaries all over the world. It puts the missionaries first over the needs of the home office, so our administrative fee is one of the lowest of all boards.
    The policies are good, the goals are evangelism and church planting (we don't do institutional missions), and it acts as a good liaison to the local churches which support the missionaries.
    Its policies RE the missionary, its financial setup, its policies RE the sending churches and their relationships to their missionaries, its concern for obeying the Great Commission and not getting sidetracked on peripheral matters such as starting institutions or meeting physical needs.
    First of all, as laudable as charity may be, missions are not about that. And as necessary as institutions may be, missions is not about that.

    Secondly, the cause of world missions (both foreign and home) is obedience to the Great Commission (in Matt., Mark, Luke, John and Acts), nothing more and nothing less. Any effort that skirts this for charity or institutionalism is failing our Lord Jesus Christ and not fully obeying the Great Commission.

    Thirdly, this must be accomplished by the indigenous policy, which is that the ultimate goal of the missionary's work must be that the nationals of the country must take over the work as soon as feasible. This is accomplished by having the "three selfs" (first formulated by missionary Henry Venn) as our goals: self propagation, self government and self support.
     
    #3 John of Japan, Dec 21, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 21, 2011
  4. zrs6v4

    zrs6v4 Member

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    Thanks guys,

    John of Japan, I read about the two mission styles on Paul Washers website where he defined indigenous missions. I agree with your answers.

    What is your (anyone on here who wants to chime in) view of the IMB?
     
  5. glfredrick

    glfredrick New Member

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    The IMB is one of the most successful agencies to send missionaries into the world that has ever existed. That does not mean that it is without struggle or trial -- we are all yet humans in need of God's grace -- yet, internationally, the IMB has aided the spread of the gospel into many lands and people groups.

    One caveat concerning the IMB. One cannot simply "select" them as a missions agency. Rather, one must be "selected" by the IMB, which is a process that starts in the local church with a realization that one is called into international missions. One must also be of the Southern Baptist Convention, for the IMB (International Mission Board) is a Southern Baptist entity.

    As a side note, I know the President, Dr. Tom Elliff, very well. He is my "spiritual daddy" in the ministry. He is a past president of the SBC, and I had the distinct honor in assisting him with his doctoral dissertation where he outlined his plan to overhaul the theological training of IMB appointees. The man he selected to head up this effort worldwide is another close friend of mine, Dr. Chuck Lawless. Elliff found that IMB missionaries were sometimes inadequately prepared to articulate a sound theological position once on the field. That can possibly stem from a lack of training, a lack of coherence, or other outside influences on the individual missionary (all documented) whereby some of the practices of individual missionaries did not reflect well on the overall direction of the SBC. I'll not go into details, but in general the issues were with "prayer language," "inclusivism," and a few other doctrines.
     
  6. John of Japan

    John of Japan Well-Known Member
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    Actually there are 3 methods in view here.

    (1) The denominational method, in which churches send their mission money to a central board which disburses the money as salary to individual missionaries. This is the IMB method.

    (2) The faith missions method, in which individual churches support individual missionaries directly through a mission board. All of the money from the supporting churches (we have 44) then goes to the individual missionary except for a nominal administration fee. I believe this method follows the Biblical pattern, since the Apostle Paul was directly supported by the churches at Corinth, Thessalonica and Phillippi. In this method, the missionary has close contact with the supporting churches, and 100s of believers pray directly for the missionary's needs and may even correspond with him.

    In this case what my board calls "the indigenous policy" is where the cross cultural missionary (me) directly trains the nationals (the Japanese) to be self supporting, self propagating and self governing, with the goal of the church he is planting becoming completely national (Japanese) with no more need to lean on the missionary. (For the best discussion of this, see Planting Churches Cross Culturally, by David Hessalgrave--a big book but worth it.) So I have trained Japanese believers and pastors in various ways over the years, and a number of men I taught in Bible school are now pastors of indigenous Japanese churches.

    (3) What Washer is calling "indigenous missions" is where Americans send money to support a national pastor or evangelist sight unseen. Washer's organization appears to be above board (I don't know the man), but this method has had problems going all the way back to the "rice Christians" of 19th century China, and in particular an otherwise great missionary named Karl Gutzlaff. (For my critique of an indigenous mission, see the recent thread "Gospel for Asia" right here on the BB.)
     
  7. preachinjesus

    preachinjesus Well-Known Member
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    I do like the IMB...it is a purposes organization intent on promulgating the Gospel.

    There are others we support but this is the one I'm most familiar with.

    It is the most focused and the one part of the denomination in which I was raised.

    They are organized, with purpose, to further the Gospel in the world.

    Too broad of a question to answer in this space. :)
     
  8. gb93433

    gb93433 Active Member
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    Missions is too general. Your choice should depend on your passion and where you will be located. Wycliffe is probably the best when it comes to translation and going to new people groups.
     
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