By Robert Dilday
One of the most revolutionary changes in global missions engagement is the new centrality of congregations in the movement, members of the Mid-Atlantic Cooperative Baptist Fellowship were told March 18.
Outgoing MACBF moderator Kasey Jones (left) and newly-elected moderator Cameron Edgar (right) talk with CBF global missions coordinator Rob Nash after his comments at the annual meeting.
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“About 18,000 people participated in church-sponsored mission trips in 1988,” said Rob Nash, global missions coordinator for the national CBF. “In 2012, we expect 4 million to do that.”
“When you see that kind of change, you can rest assured that there is a movement of the Spirit taking place that is grounded in the mission of God in the world,” he said.
Nash was keynote speaker at MACBF’s annual meeting March 18 at Montgomery Hills Baptist Church in Silver Spring, Md.
The MACBF, one of the CBF’s regional affiliates, is a network of about 50 churches in Maryland, the District of Columbia, Delaware and West Virginia.
Nash said the growing prominence of local churches in missionary activity is one of at least three dramatic changes in missions engagement. Also noteworthy is that the missionary movement is no longer the domain of Christian groups in the West — the global church now has a seat at the global missions table.
In addition, “the gospel is moving from everywhere to everyone,” he said. “It’s amazing to see how Europeans are in South America, South Americans are in Africa, Africans are in Asia and Asians are in North America.”
Nash cautioned that while “we live in revolutionary days, in which the Spirit of God works powerfully across … boundaries,” challenges to the missions engagement remain.
“The localization of missions is something to celebrate,” he said. “But what we do with that, how we nurture it, channel it, is something we’re all trying to figure out.”
A proposed multi-church mission trip to Haiti sponsored by the MACBF reflects the new missions paradigm, said Kasey Jones, the group’s outgoing moderator.
“There’s been a history in this region of sponsoring mission opportunities,” said Jones, pastor of National Baptist Memorial Church in Washington. “We want to sponsor a mission to Haiti. As a body, we want to put our money and our labor where our mouth is.”
“We know some churches may not be able to engage in mission trips by themselves, so we want to create an opportunity to combine resources.”
Jones said a date for the trip has not yet been set, but that $4,000 for expenses is allocated in the MACBF’s 2012-2013 budget, which the group later adopted.