Comments on: Mission Crisis Update http://onthebema.com/2009/06/26/mission-crisis-update/ Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:43:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Joseph Smith http://onthebema.com/2009/06/26/mission-crisis-update/#comment-37 Joseph Smith Sat, 27 Jun 2009 22:32:32 +0000 http://onthebemainballston.wordpress.com/?p=385#comment-37 I am not persuaded that making missionaries do their own support-raising will pay off well. I wonder whether anyone has done a study of whether individuals in those organizations that work that way have been able to garner appropriate support over an extended period of time. In other words, there may be a flash of enthusiasm at the beginning of such a relationship, but will it continue for years and years? And then someone also must have data on what percentage of a missionary's time has to be given to this task. I'll wager that doing this kind of thing takes a huge amount of energy away from the mission itself. I understand about the investment problems. But even though I work to help churches create endowments and I look for people to remember Christian causes in their wills, etc., I am also aware that if a mission effort is supported by more dead Baptists than live ones, it will eventually fail. Do we need a rediscovery of the missionary imperative among American Baptists? Side note: just this week stopped along the road in Crewe, VA, to read the historical marker interpreting the grave of Lottie Moon, she with whose name Southern Baptists raise gazillions for international missions. Do American Baptists have a Yankee Lottie Moon?! I am not persuaded that making missionaries do their own support-raising will pay off well. I wonder whether anyone has done a study of whether individuals in those organizations that work that way have been able to garner appropriate support over an extended period of time. In other words, there may be a flash of enthusiasm at the beginning of such a relationship, but will it continue for years and years?

And then someone also must have data on what percentage of a missionary’s time has to be given to this task. I’ll wager that doing this kind of thing takes a huge amount of energy away from the mission itself.

I understand about the investment problems. But even though I work to help churches create endowments and I look for people to remember Christian causes in their wills, etc., I am also aware that if a mission effort is supported by more dead Baptists than live ones, it will eventually fail. Do we need a rediscovery of the missionary imperative among American Baptists?

Side note: just this week stopped along the road in Crewe, VA, to read the historical marker interpreting the grave of Lottie Moon, she with whose name Southern Baptists raise gazillions for international missions. Do American Baptists have a Yankee Lottie Moon?!

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