ROACH, Mo. (ABP) — The Baptist General Convention of Missouri has entered into a three-year partnership with WorldconneX, a missions network launched by Texas Baptists in 2004.
The purpose of the partnership, which took effect March 31, is to encourage and help Missouri Baptist churches and their members to engage in missions.
Approved unanimously by the Missouri group's executive board in March, the partnership is the first collaboration between the Missouri convention and the Baptist General Convention of Texas. According to the agreement, staff from the Missouri and Texas conventions will meet for annual joint strategy sessions where they will collaborate on strategic initiatives and resource development.
A fellowship of 125 churches, the Baptist General Convention of Missouri developed in recent years after fundamentalists gained control of the Missouri Baptist Convention.
The Southern Baptist Convention refused contributions from the fledgling Missouri convention, cutting it off from representation at the SBC annual meeting. Five institutions affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Missouri are also embroiled in a prolonged legal dispute with the Missouri Baptist Convention.
Now, WorldconneX leaders think the partnership can overcome past setbacks for the young convention of Missouri moderates.
“This opens the door for us to provide the same opportunities to Missouri Baptists that we already provide to Texas Baptists,” said Bill Tinsley, WorldconneX leader.
Such opportunities include the development of “affinity groups” through which churches and institutions work together as they focus on specific people groups, nations, regions or missions approaches. Some Missouri Baptists are already involved in the Guatemala team that was developed by WorldconneX during the past two years.
Other international missions opportunities will also be available through the partnership.
“We are developing diplomatic connections in hard-to-reach parts of the world, and Missouri Baptists will be welcome to join alongside Texas Baptists as we move into those areas,” Tinsley said.
BGCM churches also will be eligible to take advantage of the “front-line sending services” being developed by WorldconneX to help churches send their own missions personnel. Those services include cross-cultural training, strategy consultation, and ways for churches to handle insurance, annuities and international money transfers for people they send overseas.
WorldconneX will also provide conferences for clusters of BCGM churches. The conferences center on what Tinsley calls the “seven new realities” that have changed the world and missions in the 21st Century.
In addition to working with churches, WorldconneX will also help individuals embark on short-term and long-term missions.
Gary Snowden, BGCM missions mobilization leader, said the convention has already begun to benefit from its relationship with WorldconneX.
“WorldconneX facilitated our involvement with the Guatemala affinity group and a face-to-face meeting with the different entities and the leadership of the Guatemala Baptist Convention in Guatemala City in January,” Snowden said. “That, in turn, has led to the establishment of a three-year partnership agreement between the BGCM and the Guatemala Baptist Convention.”
“We anticipate that the relationship with WorldconneX will enable the churches affiliated with the BGCM to strengthen their direct involvement in missions at many levels,” Snowden said.
The partnership with Missouri fits well with the overall strategy of WorldconneX, Tinsley said.
“While WorldconneX focuses on services to Texas Baptists, it was created to relate to evangelical missions entites and others outside Texas,” Tinsley said. “From the outset, WorldconneX has recognized that while our primary base is Texas Baptists, we are not limited to Texas and not limited to Baptists.”
The WorldconneX board is largely composed of Texas Baptists, but includes members from Virginia, Indiana and Florida.
As part of the partnership, the BGCM committed 10 percent of the world missions portion of their budget to WorldconneX.
-30-