RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) — A high-ranking Southern Baptist Convention International Mission Board employee resigned May 5 because he disagrees with policies governing missionary qualifications.
Rodney Hammer, IMB's regional leader for Central and Eastern Europe, cited disagreement with policies disallowing missionary candidates because of disagreements about their mode of baptism or the fact that they practice a “private prayer language.”
In a personal letter to missionaries in his region, Hammer noted he also disagreed with the IMB's “unnecessary, extra-biblical narrowing of parameters for Southern Baptist cooperation in the Great Commission they represent.” Former IMB trustee Wade Burleson of Oklahoma posted the letter on his blog.
In 2005, board trustees adopted policies that ruled out appointment of candidates who practice either speaking in tongues in public or as a private devotional act. They also determined that candidates must have been baptized in a Southern Baptist church or in a church of another denomination that practices believer's baptism only by immersion, and without regenerative or sacramental connotations. The policies were revised in 2007 and called “guidelines.”
In his letter, Hammer affirmed the Baptist Faith and Message, the Southern Baptist Convention's doctrinal statement. However, he added, board trustees should not exceed those doctrinal parameters.
According to an IMB press release, Hammer and his family began a stateside assignment on May 5, and they plan to be reassigned to a field assignment as missionaries after finishing their domestic service.
Hammer was appointed in 1990 as strategy coordinator for China with Cooperative Services International, the IMB's former relief and development arm. He served in that position until 1996. Trustees named him leader for Central and Eastern Europe in 1999.
Before joining the IMB, he was a pastor and church staff member in Missouri. He earned degrees from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo.
-30-