The Future Of Independent Baptist Missions: 10 Predictions

[Dan Burrell]

You can’t just lay this little gem on the sidewalk and not offer us some context for your conclusion: “In my view the Christian Day School movement has sucked the gas out of missions.” Can you please unpack that a bit?

Answer: Follow the $$

• The CDS movement is the new missions - training the next generation
• CDS takes beaucoup resources (even if not done right!)
• Anecdotally over 40 years (my lifetime as a Christian) the ‘time to the field’ (deputation time) has risen dramatically coinciding with the rise of the CDS movement
• If you are in a Church with CDS dig deep into the budgets. The church will spend resources on plant (capital outlay) plus underwrite much of (if not all) of the utilities and maintenance. Compare and contrast that spending with the missions’ budget.

My experience at a church which ran a CDS mirrors Jim’s observations. The church wanted to make Christian education a priority for its members so it began subsidizing tuition for active church members. The problem is, the Christian education became more Christian than education and many of the non-members pulled their kids out because of the poor education their children received. This exodus led to the church having to pour more money into the school to keep it funded and to pay its teachers sub-minimum wages.

Funny … Jim is a member of a church WITH a CDS. I don’t think our CDS is “sucking the life” out of our missions program.

Are there weak churches? Yes! Are there weak missionaries? Yes! Are there sorry CDSs? Plenty of them!

Are there “big and bulky” mission agencies? Who? Mission agencies I know are lean and careful with the Lord’s money.

Sure EBM failed … should we look with suspicion of all boards?

Sure ABWE 30 yrs ago failed and even 10 yrs ago and maybe even … we live in a sin-cursed world. So let’s just throw the baby out with the bath water!

How about someone putting forth a serious alternative that will get the job done. It’s easy to carp. It’s much harder to craft a positive solution.

We are broken so everything we do with be broken! Solutions please nopt carping.

Wallace’s observations are pretty anecdotal as presented- there may be some substance behind things, but he doesn’t cite anything to demonstrate that. As presented, it is opinion (and not radically different than some of the things I hear talking to other pastors, to be frank). There are some things to consider in what he says, but the perspective is not especially radical or helpful in offering solutions. It makes some predictions based on a perceived trend. And some things he talks about, like support by individuals, sound good at first, but when you start to think about it, become quite muddled. Who are these individuals? People the missionaries knew before (like family or classmates)? How many of them are new contacts made in churches on the deputation trail, and if so, how exactly is that going to “change” the way we do missions? Are people going to commit to supporting monthly someone who solicits a donation via Facebook?

As far as the Christian School movement- that movement has lost a lot of steam (at least in IFB circles) compared to the 1980s. There are some churches that have them, true- and they are large expenses. At the same time, many of them depend on tuition from people other than church members for a portion of what they do- and, if the churches didn’t have them, a great percentage would either have to send them elsewhere and pay, or reduce income and homeschool (therefore reducing what they potentially contributed financially to the church). I don’t know as if that is a major factor one way or another as far as national trends go- certainly no more significant than rising fuel prices, fluctuating currencies, and so on.

Another factor that doesn’t get talked about much are health insurance and retirement expenses. Individual American missionary expenses are more significant than they were a generation or two ago because of those things. Most mission boards require those things of their missionaries, which is probably a good thing. At the same time, missionaries of an earlier age went out without some of those things (I know, because we continue to support some who are retirement age and didn’t save). Like I said, its a good thing to require, but in a way, it’s not easy when missionaries come looking for support and the pastors they are contacting for meetings are bi-vocational, or on government healthcare programs, and can’t afford to contribute to retirement programs like the ones raising missions support can. We support missionaries, for example, who have come back to the US from South America with family every year for several years to pursue doctoral studies. That’s an admirable thing, but I know of a fellow pastor here going through the same program who pastors a church, leads another Bible study with a group in a different town, and works at the local grain elevator to pay the bills and keep food on the table.

We’re trying to resurrect our Missions Committee (Pastor was doing it all himself) and this thread has given me a lot to chew on. My church is hoping to add a new missionary this year, and I can tell you flat out that if we were supporting a school, there would be no money at all for a new missionary. It might also put the fiscal position of the church in a bad spot if we couldn’t at least break even.

We had a good sized surplus in the missions budget last year due to the return of one missionary from the field, and by the time we gave COLAs and Inflation adjustments that surplus was something like fifty dollars. That was something that I’d never run into before and was glad that we were in an position to do so, even though we had initially planned on adding a new missionary to replace the one we lost.

I would lean far more towards supporting one individual missionary directly right now (or partnering with a couple of churches) than I would to pay a missions board directly. Unfortunately, the odds of that happening in my lifetime are essentially nil.

[Jeff Straub]

Funny … Jim is a member of a church WITH a CDS. I don’t think our CDS is “sucking the life” out of our missions program.

Re:

• “Jim is a member of a church WITH a CDS.” Response …. yes … I joined 4th 8 or 9 years ago. I don’t believe this is any kind of startling news … it’s on my S/I member profile
• “I don’t think our CDS is “sucking the life” out of our missions program.” Response. I did not say that did I?!

I am regularly hearing that missionaries are now raising 5-8k monthly! That is 60-96k per annum. It will naturally take longer to raise this kind of money. If you are going to minister on some fields, this is what it will take, like it or not. This is an area where financial stewardship is essential—for churches and missionaries.

[Joel Shaffer]

Bi-vocational church planting is a topic that is beginning to generate a lot of attention as the future of church planting. For instance, this article on 9 marks has generated a lot of discussion http://www.9marks.org/journal/math-doesnt-work-why-future-church-planting-bi-vocational

Joel:

The article you linked to is a great read and I think it captures the trend for church planting especially in urban areas where either people move in and out more quickly, where there is no strong core group to begin with which is usually the case, and where there are great economic challenges.

We have two church plants in two very different areas of Philadelphia. The West Philly church is in an area called University City, a very nice area near Univ. of Penn and other institutions. People come for graduate work, research projects, etc. but few stay long. No one with us now was with us 3 years ago when we launched. Economically it is a dynamic area. But students rarely can give much in way of offerings, and it takes time for new believers to be taught and then to practice biblical giving. Although with all the transitions we regularly run 70-80 in attendance, near capacity for where we meet, it will take time and people committed to staying in the city for the church to become self-supporting. We rent from an Episcopal Church for afternoon services and pay $1500 a month. We do not have access at other times except for special occasions. After 3 years we have yet to find a suitable building to buy or to rent for Sunday morning services. There is of course no land to buy. So you settle in, do the work of the ministry, and trust God.

The second more recent church plant in North Philly was a replant which came with a building, parsonage, etc. and all the expenses of maintaining an old building. That neighborhood has more economic challenges, higher unemployment, more serious crime, dirty streets, and many people stay because they can’t move out. That church also runs 70-80 but is more stable in some ways since people tend to stay longer. However for the church to be able to support a pastor full time is not likely in the near future.

For my part I am bi-vocational but do receive a stipend from the church for housing. My wife has two part-time jobs. I kid her that if she finds a third job I can cut back on my hours in the prison. She doesn’t think it’s funny :-) We have one lead pastor, at this time over both churches, with 5 elders including myself. The churches provide about 50% of the support needed for the two churches. God raised up some faithful individuals who give generously to the ministry. We have one or two EFCA churches that provide some support, and one church in Brooklyn that sends support, a church plant itself. My brother John and I moved into the city in 2009 expecting to work. Thankfully he has been supported full time for the past three years and has been able to give himself to the ministry of the word and to others. We also have several interns from different seminaries some for whom we provide a small stipend and look for God to use these men in urban ministry.

So for prospective urban church planters I would say. Be prepared to work. Acquire some skills that make you marketable. You may have a hard time finding decent job if all your degrees are in theology. Understand that your wife might need to work as well. Thirty years ago we planted a church in Philadelphia with a core group that became self-supporting within a year. The times were different then. It was rare then and rarer now.

Blessings,

Steve Davis

p.s. We are always looking for men to come into the city and plant churches with us.

[Jeff Straub]

This all might be an argument FOR tent-making. AGREED, but tent-making is only useful in some countries. Plus, every hour one makes tents is a potential hour lost doing ministry. Granted that some tents can be ministry oriented … (I once worked for a pastor who sold Filter Queen vacuums to do ministry calling!)

As a pastor who is tri-vocational, I agree that work can actually be complimentary to ministry. That is really true for me now, but it was even true for me when I worked at the hotel. It is humbling, but rewarding.

I must be getting old! If Steve agrees with me!

Of course one can be bi,tri, quadri-vocational and have effective ministry—at least at times. But one cannot counsel or study or prepare for Sunday while one is serving coffee or making tents. Many years ago I worked as an EMT in northern Alberta. It was an excellent way to get into the community in a non-pastoral way. I visited every bar in town picking up people injured in brawls. I could occasionally witness to my ambulance riders. Emphasis on “occasionally.” It’s awkward trying to turn pages in your Bible while doing CPR. Bi-vocational has its limitations. For this reason Paul suggested that it was not only good but I think preferred to “live of the Gospel.”

Frankly, I know bi-vocational men that are not good at either vocation because they do not put enough time in either. My good friend Steve is bi-vocational, by choice to plant a church in the inner city. And he has some interesting opportunities … in jail.

Not for naught did Paul admonish men to not be entangled with the affairs of this life. Bi-vocationalism is an option but not always a good one and many men who start off that way long to devote their full attention to The Lord’s work and many a congregation after hearing a rather weak Sunday sermon wish their pastor had more time for ministry.

As a future bi-vocational church planter (Lord willing), I am thankful that I won’t have to spend 3-4 years driving all over the US raising support by begging for $25 a month from pastors / churches who won’t support me if my wife wears pants, we listen to Steve Green, or I take my son to see The Hobbit. That model of ministry needs jettisoned ASAP, whether in missions or church planting.

I definitely like the idea of missionaries receiving most of their support from their sending church plus a few others versus hitting up 200+ churches for $25 / month. Also, as a bi-vocational church planter working with other bi-vocational team members, we will need minimal start up support and should be able to self-fund much of the regular ministry expenses of the church plant. This removes one of the major hurdles involved in church planting.

I must echo what I have heard others say - why don’t more families support their own missionary? My family recently started supporting an apologetics ministry and a missionary family on deputation to Peru, this is in addition to regular missions giving at church.

I honestly never considered it until my wife asked about it. We have extra income and we really appreciated a family who had visited church a while back. Why not give money as individuals, rather than just to the church exclusively? Perhaps it’s a case of, “Well, we’ve never done it that way before …”

Missionaries should certainly be attached to a local church, but individuals don’t have to give exclusively to that end through the local church.

Greg… I’ve actually done a little of that over the years…bringing a national leader over to help me raise sponsorships for national pastors and our church actually supported some national pastors directly. I’ve found that many people like supporting a national individually because they are more closely connected to them and then the two families are knit together. But our church missions budget has supported nationals as well. I’ve tended to focus on countries where the average wage is around $1 a day. For example, the little group I helped start 12 years ago in Cuba now sponsors 42 church planters. During that time, I’ve helped raise and distributed another $100,000 in ministry support items ranging from bicycles to Kindles filled with theology books to arranging training conferences to clothing to housing in some cases. Right now, our pastors receive about $30 cuc per month or about $35 USD equivalent. We are also now working on helping the pastors develop micro-businesses for their families which will allow them to become self-supporting during the long-haul. We’ve got some pretty cool things going on in that department right now. I just returned from a trip to Cuba Friday evening, so it’s fresh on my mind. But truly, we support 40 pastors who are on the ground working, living among the people, already have a community network and understand the language for LESS than it would cost for one American missionary to go (if the field was even open) and there’s a high likelihood that the American missionary will take a one-year furlough (something I find unnecessary in this day and age) after four years and an over 50% chance that he/she won’t be taking two furloughs as they will have left the field by then. I wouldn’t be opposed to having nationals raise support here and frankly, I encourage folks to support organizations like Worldvision and Gospelink which assist nationals in getting sponsors in the States.

As for the CDS’s draining available funds for missions, I’m sorry….I’m not buying that and I’m not seeing any sort of substantive or empirical evidence to support such a claim. I’ve got 30 years of experience DEEP in the CDS world. As someone noted above, fewer and fewer Independent Baptist churches have Christian schools. I pastored two churches with Christian Schools and neither received “subsidies” from the church other than some shared space and frankly, the school helped the church as much as the church helped the school. I’ve consulted for numerous Christian day schools and church owned day schools and have never seen a church that did not support missionaries around the globe, nor did I see one that designated missions money to the day school. Many schools with which I’ve worked actually support missions and missionaries through fund-raisers, class sponsorships/support and also, we had a regular trickle of young people who went to the mission field from our Christian schools — both on short terms and as vocational missionaries.

I think we all should take a fresh look at bi-vocationalism. I’ve been bi-vocational my entire ministry and I’ve been the lead pastor at two large churches and the executive pastor at two other large ministries. I didn’t “have” to be bi-vocational, I have chosen to be, so I’m not in the class of character of those who are tentmakers are bi-vocational in order to be in ministry. I have HUGE respect for them. Work is honorable and being in the community is always an opportunity for ministry — so I think we should honor those who are bi-vocational so that they can be about the work of ministry.

One things for sure….the times are changing and they are changing rapidly. I think we will be gaining momentum toward many changes in missions and ministry. Ministry will likely be more of a sacrifice for Americans in particular in the future. We need to be prepared and we’ll need to see if our actions match our words as it becomes more difficult.

Great conversation!

OK, I think about every single point was pretty much true for us, as missionaries :)

we do have one SBC supporting us—they have extra income and support several independent missionaries.

we are supported by about 7 churches and maybe 15 people. We don’t have “enough” support—but God makes it enough.

I have started supporting us by working as an english teacher and doula and childbirth teacher. The birth work is mainly done for wealthy internationals living here. I have small kids, so i’m not sure I could ever work to the point of gaining the rest of the income funds we’d lke to have for ministry, but we’ll see what happens.

About supporting nationals—Vitaliy, my husband, is a national. I want to give another perspective. Nationals can do way more than foreigners, although they can’t do everything that a foreign missionary might could do.

About churches becoming dependent on foreign funds—this can be very complicated in that, our church, for example, supports ourselves every ministry the church has—awana, feeding the homeless, teens, youth, singles, women, SS, rent—which is a big bulk. They give Vitaliy about 100 dollars/month which covers some gas. I think our church offerings are around 1000 dollars/month—our personal rent for our family alone is 700—and that’s a cheap very-ukrainian apartment.

i divided up our yrly income from last year by 12, and our income averages to be about 2400/month. we can live on that if we are thrifty, and don’t visit the States often, but we don’t have much for ministry. So that’s what I use my work for and we try to raise more as we can.