Length and Breadth of American Baptist Mission Work

Last weekend, the GRR Mission Conference was held at Cherry Hills Baptist Church.  Mission conferences are deep in our American Baptist heritage.  American Baptists (indeed, most surviving Baptist groups!) are descendants of those who fought so hard in support of the mission enterprise in the 19^th Century.

While the mission enterprise was birthed by world/foreign/international missions (what I like to call “apostolic missions”), it quickly broadened to include “home” missions.  John Mason Peck, was appointed the first “home missionary” in the early 1800’s.  He came to the heathen West we now know as the Great Rivers Region!

One thing that really pleased me was that this year’s Conference clearly demonstrated the depth and breadth of American Baptist mission work. 

First of all, it demonstrated how the network of laity, clergy, churches, and denomination functions in mission.  It is fashionable to denigrate and discount denominations today.  But it is clear that healthy churches (that keeps coming up, doesn’t it) network with other churches, institutions, and resources to effectively carry out the Great Commission.  A denomination is simply such a network.  The stories we heard at the Mission Conference made me proud that the “network” I am part of is the American Baptist Churches.

The conference also demonstrated the great variety of forms that mission work may assume.  Kim Brown talked about medical work in Thailand.  Polly Sedziol talked about distributing books in Nigeria.  Raul Torres talked about starting a new church in Elgin. I was especially gratified by the inclusion of Raul Torres as a representative of new church planting.  Church planting is a major part of mission work at the Region level.  (Did you join ABCD?)

In addition to the diversity in form, it was hard not to notice the diversity in location of mission and in personality of missionaries.  Mission work is literally from our doorstep to the ends the earth.  Also, our missionaries included women, men, Anglos, Blacks, and Hispanics.  Pentecost is here!

A more subtle demonstration was that mission work includes both volunteers and full-time missionaries.  Kim Brown is a professional nurse.  Raul Torres is a fulltime church planter.  The Sedziols are a retired lay couple in the Montgomery Community Baptist Church (Cincinnati), who received an unusual “call” to missions.  They are seeing that pastors, seminaries, and lay leaders in English-speaking Third World countries get books and teaching materials.  (Incidentally, an “offering” of about 3000 pounds of books was received at the Conference.)  They like to brag:  “Like the bumper sticker says, We’re spending our children’s inheritance, but we’re spending it on missions!  What a challenge to that growing cadre of retired American Baptists.

All this was tied together by Dr. Robert Roberts, Associate General Secretary for World Mission Support among American Baptists.  This is probably Dr. Roberts’ last year in that position.  So he brought a wealth of experience and reflection to the conference as he talked about the changing face of missions.

With obvious passion he spoke of the Great Commission given to each and every one of us.  With enthusiasm he advocated for mission work to the ends of the earth.  And with longing (and perhaps a little pain) he described America as the greatest mission field we face today.

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