Saturday, November 10, 2007

Texas Baptists and Missions


Lost in the shuffle of interesting events at the latest BGCT meeting in Amarillo was the speech by Texas Baptist Committed Executive director David Currie. The speech was summarized in the Texas Baptist Standard by Ken Camp
http://www.baptiststandard.com/postnuke/index.php?module=htmlpages&func=display&pid=7018

Currie's comments were interesting and give a cue to what at least some Texas Baptist leaders envision for the future.

One particular observation caught my eye and that was his comments about Texas Baptists stepping up to the plate for world wide missions.

Currie said:
"Texas Baptists should provide at least a portion of the direct funding for any Texas Baptist who feels called to serve internationally with any missions-sending agency."

World-Connex should be the mechanism to accomplish this task! I have thought from the very inception of World-connex that at least part of its mission should include sending missionaries. While modern missiological theory says that there are new ways to do missions in the post-modern era it has been true since the days of William Carey that resident missionaries are still the "bread and butter" of the mission force.

The task of missions has always been important to Texas Baptists. Let's step up and support world-wide missions and start putting our money where it should be, in financing and supporting missions around the world.

Vacation this past summer was in Washington, DC. We spent a week and had a great time. I have always enjoyed vacation destinations, but this time I was ready to stay. Perhaps one day I will get to move to Northern Virginia near the capitol and its historical places.

Here I am in the Lincoln Memorial. It was an emotionally moving experience because so much history has occurred there. Even Forrest Gump was there once!