wfn.org | ABCUSA: Summit Produces Call for Global Baptist Mission Agency

["SCHRAMM, Richard" <Richard.Schramm@abc-usa.org>]

American Baptist News Service (Valley Forge, Pa. 5/27/03)--The recent
"Summit on Baptist Mission in the 21st Century" produced a proposal for an
international Baptist mission agency that would send and support Baptist
missionaries from the two-thirds world who feel called by God to missionary
work beyond their own borders but lack the financial resources to do so.

That call was presented by the Rev. Dr. Denton Lotz, general secretary of
the Baptist World Alliance, which sponsored the event held May 5-8 in
Swanwick, England.

The need to help missionaries from what is now described as the new "South"
was underscored in the "Call to Mission" issued during the gathering.

That statement noted that as Baptists "called, invited, commanded and
empowered, we offer our lives once more to the task of making Jesus known in
word and deed.	This we affirm is the task of all disciples of Christ...." 

American Baptist participants who helped craft the statement were the Rev.
Dr. Aidsand F. Wright-Riggins III, executive director of National
Ministries, who represented General Secretary the Rev. Dr. A. Roy Medley;
the Rev. Dr. John A. Sundquist, executive director of International
Ministries; the Rev. Charles H. Jones, area director for Africa,
International Ministries; the Rev. Stanley D. Slade, Mission Explosion team
leader, International Ministries; the Rev. Benjamin S. L. Chan, area
director for East Asia and India, International Ministries; Francesca Crane,
International Ministries missionary in Bolivia; and Lauran Bethell,
International Ministries global service missionary.

The "Call to Mission" in part states:

"We recognise that models of mission used in the past will not be wholly
adequate for the new era that has dawned with the startling speed of modern
technology.  Notions of sending and receiving are unhelpful if we assume
that it is the role of some simply to send and others simply to receive.
Mission is 'from everywhere to everywhere' but such movement requires
resourcing and too often resources are held in the hands of the few.  We
plead for a global, as well as a local, interpretation of Acts 4:32 ("All
the believers were one in heart and mind.  No-one claimed that any of his
possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.")  Strategic
partnerships can energise the mission of the whole church.  Issues of mutual
trust, responsibility and accountability will need to be addressed with
respect and understanding....  

"We commit ourselves to address the problems of those who suffer - 

"We grieve for the lost innocence of childhood taken from those who are the
victims of war, of physical, sexual and mental abuse, and of inadequate
access to basic health care and education....

"We grieve over the fate of vulnerable women, those mutilated and disfigured
by acts of violence, exploited for sexual gratification and consigned to
lives of untold suffering....

"We grieve for all who are deprived of basic human rights regardless of
creed, race, gender or national origin.... 

"We grieve for those who suffer religious persecution, denying them the
inalienable right of humankind to worship God.	We especially call our
churches to pray and take action on behalf of those of our own family who
are suffering persecution because of their faith in Jesus Christ....

"...We call upon our churches to rededicate themselves to the mission that
reaches out with the healing and restoring love of Jesus Christ.  

"We call upon Baptists in all nations to explore creative means of being
peacemakers in a world increasingly torn asunder by divisions.	We believe
that war is always an indictment of humankind's failure to resolve problems
in a Christ-like way.	We advocate the gospel ministry of reconciliation to
overcome the sinfulness of racial enmity, ethnic conflict and tribal
wars....   We long for a peaceful resolution to the many conflicts around
the world, and especially to the pain and struggle of the peoples of the
Holy Land.  We pray that every effort towards peace will be made in the days
to come....  

"We commit ourselves to live in the light of a purposeful history, toward
the time when Jesus will return and a new heaven and a new earth will be the
inheritance of all God's children."   

At the summit, American Baptist International Ministries medical missionary
Dr. Gustavo Parajon testified about his involvement in health care to the
poor in Nicaragua.  Parajon is the founder of the Nicaraguan Council of
Evangelical Churches, an interdenominational relief committee begun in 1972
to aid earthquake victims, and PROVADENIC, a health clinic. "When I returned
from my medical training in the United States," he said, "I went to a
village to observe some work and a mother brought her child to me.  The baby
had diarrhea.  I gave some treatment but when I returned two weeks later the
baby had died.	I started thinking I must do more to help people help
themselves." 

When Parajon began the health clinic more than 30 years ago 250 babies out
of 1000 were dying.  Today the mortality rate been reduced dramatically
because of the training of village women in basic health care and of
involvement of many churches and more than 5,000 pastors, who provide a
strong witness to their communities.

K/2003ABNS/03ABN75

American Baptist News Service: Office of Communication, American Baptist
Churches USA, P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851; (800)ABC-3USA x2077
/ (610)768-2077; fax: (610)768-2320; www.abc-usa.org;
richard.schramm@abc-usa.org