York on the IMB and NPR

I am just now returning from a historic meeting of the International Mission Board. President Jerry Rankin, Chairman Paul Chitwood, staff, trustees, and a special task force are working closely together, perhaps more than ever before, to chart the course for a bold missiological paradigm shift that will propel us to greater efforts at world evangelization. Following Dr. Rankin's lead, the task force presented to the trustees a statement of vision, mission, and core values. After evaluation, discussion, tweaking, and the presentation of a final form, the Board unanimously approved the following:

VISION

Our vision is a multitude from every language, people, tribe and nation knowing and worshipping our Lord Jesus Christ.

MISSION

Our mission is to make disciples of all peoples in fulfillment of the Great Commission.

CORE VALUES

1. We commit to obedience to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and to God’s inerrant Word.

2. We believe Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for salvation and all people without personal faith in Him are lost and will spend eternity in hell.

3. We seek to provide all people an opportunity to hear, understand and respond to the gospel in their own cultural context.

4. We evangelize through proclamation, discipling, equipping and ministry that results in indigenous reproducing Baptist churches.

5. We serve churches to facilitate their involvement in the Great Commission and the sending of missionaries to bring all peoples to faith in Jesus Christ.

6. We partner with Baptists and other Christians around the world in accordance with IMB guidelines.

7. We understand and fulfill God’s mission through God’s Word, prayer and the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

Based on this vision, mission, and core values, we also approved 8 proposals for revisioning what the IMB of the future must look like and the parameters for reaching a lost world that is less and less defined by national boundaries. The 8 proposals are:

Revisioning 2008 Proposals

1. We affirm a continuing commitment to the basic priority of impacting lostness through:
• Evangelism, discipleship and planting reproducing churches.
• Engagement of all peoples with the gospel.
• Comprehensive, holistic strategies including but not limited to medical, media, human needs, social ministries, training and theological education.

2. We affirm a commitment to serve and facilitate all cooperating Southern Baptists involved in fulfilling our Great Commission task.

3. We affirm the creation and the expanded utilization of platform organizations for creative access to impact lostness.

4. We affirm appropriate levels of cooperation with others, including:
• Indigenous Baptist partners and missionaries;
• Non-IMB Southern Baptists engaged in overseas missions;
• Great Commission partners.

5. We affirm a revision of our vision and mission statements and core values to reflect a more relevant expression of our current task and commitments.

6. We affirm an organizational structure based on the following principles:
• Maximize frontline personnel in witness and church planting.
• Minimize administrative field structure and resources.
• Serve and facilitate field personnel and their needs.
• Provide appropriate accountability at all levels.
• Provide a seamless unity between home and the field.
• Alleviate administrative burden of the regions.
• Accommodate supervision and accountability of creative access platform organizations.
• Staffed by servant leadership at all levels.


7. We affirm a uniform structure in which missionary personnel are assigned to a team whose work is coordinated by a team facilitator.
• Teams are organized into clusters led by a cluster leader to facilitate impacting the lostness of their assigned target area/people group/s.
• Clusters are affiliated with global affinity groups.
• Global affinity groups are established on the basis of language, culture and ethnicity.
• Affinity group strategists ensure accountability of the clusters to the Office of Global Strategy.

8. Each missionary unit is served by geographically-based support teams representing financial management, business services, personnel support and mobilization assistance.

These are exciting days as Southern Baptists probe the edges of lostness. Though I have only been on the board for one year, I sense a new day in partnership between missionaries, staff, and trustees. A spirit of focused purpose, cooperation, and harmony for the gospel's sake permeated our meeting. Debate and disagreement was respectful, insightful, and even helpful. The result was evident in the recommitment to and recasting of our vision. Furthermore we took some positive steps to show greater trust in our Richmond staff as they work with missionary candidates and present them to the Board. I was gratified to be a small part of that effort by serving on a subcommittee that was charged with reviewing the way we deal with and present candidates. I don't think I am overstating it one bit to say the staff was elated with the results of our efforts.

The next four months will be critical in the future of world evangelization, not just in the life of the IMB. As the largest missionary sending agency in the world, the IMB necessarily sets the pace for other agencies who feel the ripples of what we do. Please pray for the task force, Dr. Rankin, Dr. Chitwood, the staff, and the board as we work through and implement the implications of our vision, mission, and core values that God has given us.

Finally and on a completely different note, I will appear on National Public Radio's Tell Me More on Friday, September 12, and the topic will be the evangelical faith of Gov. Sarah Palin. The media have had a field day talking about her church's views on homosexuality, creation, and even the second coming of Christ. What is fair game in a political race? The show does not appear in all markets, but you can listen to it online at the preceding link or on Sirius satellite radio on channel 134 at 9AM or 6PM.