Virginia Baptists have been passionate about missions ever since they received visits in the early 1800s from Luther Rice, the pioneer missionary. Staying in homes and speaking in churches, Rice planted a missionary seed and watched it take flower. He was even present in 1823 for the first annual meeting of the Baptist General Association of Virginia. His missionary spirit soon took hold of Virginia Baptists.
In the 19th century there were numerous mission societies among Virginia Baptists. In these local societies Baptists gathered, prayed and gave to aid the missionary movement.
Fred Anderson
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It was not long before Virginia Baptists were giving their own sons and daughters to missions work. In 1835 Henrietta Hall Shuck and Lewis Shuck went to China as pioneer missionaries and their correspondence back to Virginia continued to create interest in missions.
In 1846-47 Virginia entertained the first international missions guest. He was a Chinese minister named Yong who had been the language teacher for the Shucks. He also became their first convert and soon he became a minister. Dressed in his native attire — skull cap, long gown and shoes that curled up on the end — Yong was an exotic figure and captured the hearts of missionary-minded Baptists. He represented the untold number of potential Christian converts waiting for a missionary to present the gospel.
In 1845 the new Southern Baptist Convention authorized the establishment of its Foreign Mission Board and located its headquarters in Richmond. The presence of “the Foreign Board” in Virginia’s capital city sealed the interest of Virginia Baptists in missions. They watched the parade of missionaries who came and went from the headquarters. They prayed for the missionaries; and when the annual Christmas offering was established, they gave even sacrificially.
By the early to mid-20th century there was no doubt that Baptists in the South were obsessed with missions. But the pattern had been set of calling out and sending forth career missionaries. The role of the people in the pews seemed restricted to praying and giving. The Brotherhood of Virginia (later called Baptist Men) about 1960 offered some of the earliest hands-on missions opportunities for laymen.
By the late 20th century a new phenomenon developed. No longer were people content with remaining in the pews. They wanted to use their hands and to let their hearts be warmed by helping others. Volunteer partnership missions became an avenue for the man and woman in the pew to actively participate in missionary work.
By the opening decade of the present century, thousands of Baptists had experienced some form of hands-on missions. Virginia Baptists had performed so many partnerships and volunteer missions projects that Baptists were losing count of the number. The work of the coordinators employed by the Virginia Baptist Mission Board — Charles Bryan, Tom Prevost, John Upton, Jerry Jones — needed to be recorded for posterity. It was time to pause and compile a history before some of the work was forgotten.
Ray Allen, the grandfather of volunteer missions among Virginia Baptists and pastor emeritus of Blacksburg (Va.) Baptist Church, where he served as pastor from 1974-95, collected first-hand accounts from those who participated in partnerships. His typescript was gathering dust until the Center for Baptist Heritage & Studies proposed to publish the history. Arms Reaching Around the World will be released at the BGAV annual meeting to be held Nov. 13-14 in Roanoke.
There were other writers who contributed to the book. Rolen Bailey, the long-time executive director of the large Roanoke Valley Baptist Association, led his association to become engaged in a sister relationship with an association in Vermont and, thereby, built relationships with Baptists in New England. The Virginia Baptist Mission Board tapped him to lead their stateside partnerships and he has told that story.
Charles W. Bryan was a full-time missions professional who was a missionary in Costa Rica and Peru and advanced to the position of a vice president for the SBC’s International Mission Board. Reginald McDonough, former executive director of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board, employed the skilled executive to establish partnership missions work for Virginia Baptists. Bryan died in 2003 but, ever the professional, he had written a brief history of partnerships and a copy was safely kept at the Virginia Baptist Historical Society.
Lynn Yarbrough, the Lottie Moon of our time as the Virginia Baptist ambassador to China who led Virginia’s prayer ministry with Chinese Christians, paid a visit to the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and learned of the forthcoming publication. While in Richmond, she wrote an account of the treasured relationship between Virginia Baptists and Chinese Christians from her own unique perspective.
Two more writers were engaged. Each year the Heritage Center appoints outstanding Bap-tist college students as Heritage Fellows and they are given a topic to research. Sloan Gutkin and Matt Robinson, who were active in Baptist collegiate ministry at Virginia Tech, interviewed individuals who had participated in partnerships and their papers have been included in the new book. Both of these Tech students were themselves engaged in overseas missions trips.
Arms Reaching Around the World was edited and designed by Barbara Jackson. For 20 years she designed numerous publications of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage & Studies. The partnership missions book would be her last. She emailed on Saturday, Sept. 8, to report that the book was finished. The next morning, before daybreak on Sunday, she had died. Her last computer entry on the book showed that she had put the final touches on it at 11:58 p.m. that Saturday. The book is a fitting memorial to a talented and giving person.
Fred Anderson ([email protected]) is executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage & Studies. Arms Reaching Around the World can be ordered for $24, including tax and shipping, from the Center for Baptist Heritage & Studies, P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.