JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (ABP) — Career missionaries have started to cut out the middleman when it comes to generating money, they say. And while denominational agencies and mission partners will not be left completely out of the picture, their roles have already changed.
Larry and Sarah Ballew serve in Macau as affiliates in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's “As You Go” program. As participants, the Ballews raise their own financial support, relying on relationships with churches and individuals in the United States in order to stay in Macau.
The Ballews had already been in Macau several years before working with CBF, but they chose to become affiliates because “it enables more people to serve.” Many of their colleagues don't see themselves as ‘missionaries' but as people in business who offer a Christian witness, Larry Ballew said.
Bill O'Brien, former vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Foreign Mission Board (now the International Mission Board) feels the move to a more societal brand of missions is already occurring. He called the change quasi-societal or functional associationalism.
“The local church is taking back the initiative,” he said. “Many still cooperate with missions agencies, but churches are discovering each other and cooperating with each other.”
Like the SBC's Cooperative Program proved, “churches know they can do more together than they can separately, but due to all the problems the last 25 to 30 years, they are finding other ways,” he said.
The change is part of the cycle of missions, Keith Parks said. Parks, who served as coordinator of CBF's Global Missions and president of the Foreign Mission Board, said it is pretty clear that national organizations are weakening. He attributes this to cultural trends.
“Younger adults tend to be hands-on. They want to be more involved,” he said. “We have to adapt and change our methods, or we will lose support or numbers.”
Many people believe the denomination method is the way missions always has been, Parks said. But Harlan Spurgeon, a retired CBF staff member and vice president of the Foreign Mission Board, said modern missions began with societies.
“William Carey was supported by a group of committed friends who shared his burden for the lost world,” he said. “American Baptist foreign missions was an extension of this method and has continued to this day. In fact, it would be fair to say that the majority of missions historically has been done in this way.”
Though the method can be beneficial to the local church and missionaries, it can also cause difficulties, especially in a world still linked to denominations. Churches sometimes assume that because a missionary is partnering with a missions agency, their funds are provided.
As the Ballew family knows well, that is not the case.
“Giving needs to be above and beyond, in addition to money given to global missions funds,” Larry Ballew said. “We have good months and bad months in terms of support. Some churches or individuals will give for a time; then they are done. We have to trust that the Lord will provide what we need.”
-30-
— This story is part of a four-part series on missions.
Read more:
The Great Commission: Technology affects missionaries in different ways (7/6)