KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — While Baptist missiologists are declaring church-based missions the future of global outreach, some pastors are saying it is already here.
Although evidence is largely anecdotal, many Baptists believe church work overseas without the help of mission boards, agencies or parachurch organizations is on the rise. The trend began with congregants taking short-term mission trips, but it has shifted toward churches looking to send members to the mission field for longer periods of time.
First Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tenn., followed that pattern. It began as a partnership with Croatian Baptists that focused on support, then gradually moved to taking short-term mission trips and now there are plans to send students to serve in Croatia for several months at a time.
The congregation is helping to “plug the holes in the dike” left by denominations in Croatia, Pastor Bill Shiell said.
“We cannot find another denominational entity that is willing to send missionaries to this part of the world because they have other priorities,” he said. “We wanted not only to send our own missionaries but also be connected to the people there.”
The relational aspects of this kind of mission work are key attractors for the churches doing it. Ministers want congregations to feel connected to where the church is serving, which requires more than just sending money to a mission board.
“We're sharing life with them,” said Ben Dudley, community minister at University Baptist Church in Waco, Texas. “We know these people. We know their names. We know their faces.”
University Baptist Church has partnered with Baylor University to work in Kenya, particularly in an orphanage there. Once the church built the relationship, it started empowering students to serve there for several months at a time.
First Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, and Cottonwood Baptist Church in Dublin, Texas, have partnered to start the Global Connection Partnership Network, a program to help congregations train and send missionaries.
Cindy Wiles, executive director of the network, believes her organization can help facilitate congregations that want to assist members in working in missions.
“There are no rules,” she said. “Churches are looking to do what they feel God calling them to do.”
The increase in direct mission work is forcing many state and national conventions to re-evaluate their mission efforts. Critics of the increase argue that there is little coordination of efforts, which leads to unneeded duplication of ministry. They also say direct mission work takes money from traditional Baptist cooperative funding channels.
Wiles, Dudley, Shiell and others believe their direct efforts get more people involved in mission work and raise more mission funds, since individuals tend to give more than normal to support direct missions.
Proponents of direct mission work also argue that their churches look for partnerships in the areas they serve. They learn what groups in a given area are doing and look for ways to coordinate efforts with them.
“I've never seen people respond to a project like this, because there's such ownership,” Shiell said of his church's work in Croatia.
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— This story is part of a four-part series on missions.
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