HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (ABP) — The International Mission Board will no longer appoint Southern Baptist missionaries who use a “private prayer language” — a controversial practice related to speaking in tongues and previously practiced by IMB president Jerry Rankin.
The Southern Baptist Convention agency already excludes people who speak in tongues in public worship from serving as missionaries. But IMB trustees voted Nov. 15 to amend its list of missionary qualifications to exclude those who use a “prayer language” in private.
The restriction of “prayer language” — widely understood as a private version of the charismatic practice of tongues-speaking — was approved by a vote of 25-18, according to the IMB's website. Some trustees did not vote on the issue during their Huntsville, Ala., meeting, the agency reported.
The policy guideline, which applies only to new appointees, states: “In terms of general practice, the majority of Southern Baptists do not accept what is referred to as 'private prayer language.' Therefore, if 'private prayer language' is an ongoing part of his or her conviction and practice, the candidate has eliminated himself or herself from being a representative of the IMB of the SBC.”
The policy interprets New Testament passages dealing with glossolalia (the Greek word for speaking in tongues) as talking about a spiritual gift enabling the bearer to speak a language that “generally is considered to be a legitimate language of some people group,” and adds that a “prayer language as commonly expressed by those practitioners is not the same as the biblical use of glossolalia.”
It also notes that the apostle Paul's “clear teaching is that prayer should be made with understanding.”
This is not the first time trustees of the agency have addressed tongues-speaking. When Rankin was elected in 1993 as president of the agency (then known as the Foreign Mission Board), there was a small controversy over reports that he had engaged in such private prayer practices.
At the time, Rankin reportedly acknowledged he has “prayed in the Spirit” privately. He also interpreted, or translated, a message spoken in tongues at a public worship service in Singapore, where he served as a regional missions director for the agency prior to his elevation to the top spot.
In 1995, two years after he was elected, Rankin and the IMB fired missionaries Charles and Sharon Carroll of Singapore for promoting charismatic practices — despite the fact Rankin condoned the Carrolls' speaking in tongues when he was their Singapore-based supervisor.
Rankin said in 1995 that the Carrolls' practices — which grew to include being “slain in the Spirit” — simply went too far. The Carroll's termination was considered an early test of Rankin's leadership and his openness to the charismatic movement.
IMB spokesperson Anita Bowden declined Nov. 29 to comment further on Rankin but said the new policy was “obviously not connected to him in some way.” She said Rankin was on vacation and likely not reachable for comment.
Bowden added the prayer policy will not apply to IMB missionaries appointed before Nov. 15. It also will not apply to Rankin or other non-missionary personnel at the agency's Richmond, Va., headquarters, she said.
Another agency spokesperson told Associated Baptist Press that a full copy of the new guideline was not available Nov. 29 because it had been adopted as a framework. “A work group was assigned to work on the final wording of the policy,” Van Payne said.
According to an ABP report on Rankin's election in June 1993, trustees fully aired the issue of Rankin's prayer practices in an executive session before voting on him. “He spoke forthrightly on the charismatic issue and convinced a majority of trustees that he is not charismatic and is opposed to the modern charismatic movement, but is very interested in being filled with the Holy Spirit,” said Leon Hyatt, a trustee from Louisiana at the time and a member of the search committee that picked Rankin.
Hyatt, who is currently pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Pineville, La., confirmed that account Nov. 29 as “accurate,” but said he would not elaborate because the committee's discussion of Rankin's prayer practices “was confidential, and I don't think that even after this period of time I should comment on it.”
Hyatt said he had not spoken to Rankin about the issue in the 12 years since his appointment.
Joel Gregory, who was chairman of the search committee and pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas at the time, said Rankin had convinced the panel that his past prayer experiences “would not fall into the category of unknown charismatic utterances.”
Gregory, who is now a visiting professor of homiletics at Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University, confirmed that account Nov. 29. He also noted that the 12-member search committee “represented quite a spectrum, really, at that time — from very moderate people from Virginia to people on the other side of the aisle” — and that all members were satisfied with Rankin's answers on his prayer practices.
Also on Nov. 15, IMB trustees elaborated on their policy for the forms of baptism acceptable for missionary candidates.
The new policy declares that candidates must have been baptized in SBC-affiliated churches or have received believer's baptism by immersion in another denomination or non-denominational church. If the candidate received baptism in another tradition, it must be viewed as symbolic rather than sacramental or regenerative. Also, the church or denomination in which the baptism took place must adhere to the doctrine of the “security of the believer,” or the belief that one cannot lose one's salvation.
The vote to approve the baptism policy was approximately two to one, according to the IMB website.