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We are on the cusp of change. Our present denominational structure is about three and a half decades old, and the delegates to the June, 2009 Biennial will be considering a proposal for organizational change. In truth, this is not unusual within American Baptist life. Our past shows that we and the generations before us have lived with recurring cycles of change. We Baptists in America first came together on a national scale to do mission in 1814, when our predecessors formed The General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United |
States of America for Foreign Mission (popularly known as the “Triennial Convention”).
We had walked together in that pattern for only three decades before we began reconfiguring our structure. This began a pattern of significant organizational change that would repeat itself within American Baptist life every thirty years or so (1814, 1844-5, 1871-74, 1907, 1934-47, 1972, and 2009).
It is reasonable to conclude that we tend to reshape our organizational life on a generational cycle. If this conclusion is accurate, then the current move toward structural change is occurring true to form. At best, these changes can help each generation of American Baptists reorganize for mission in ways that are appropriate for their particular cultural context. This, in fact, is good mission practice.
The intent of the denominational restructuring proposal is to reshape us into a “federation of missional agencies.” I believe a change of that nature can have positive consequences for our life as American Baptists, and will likewise be constructive for the particular mission of International Ministries.
My positive assessment of the restructuring proposal is rooted in the important distinction between modalities and sodalities. Modalities are entities whose concern is for the welfare of an entire group. People may be “born into” a modality. Sodalities, on the other hand, are entities within or alongside modalities that have a more narrowly defined purpose.
People must intentionally choose to become part of a sodality. For example, the Roman Catholic Church is a modality, while the Jesuits, Franciscans and other contemplative and mission orders within Catholicism are sodalities. On the community level a local church is a modality, while the church’s choir, Sunday School, mission committee, usher board, and so on are sodalities.
When a sodality begins to take on the broadly based functions of a modality, it loses its singular focus and its effectiveness in accomplishing its original task. The unintended consequences of expecting a sodality to function as a modality were amply demonstrated early in the life of International Ministries.
As noted earlier, the General Missionary Convention (now incorporated as the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, and since 1972 doing business as the Board of International Ministries) was formed as a sodality for the singular purpose of foreign mission. At the start, however, some leaders believed that this new entity should also take on responsibility for pastoral training, frontier evangelism, literature production and other common interests of the local churches.
The experience of the next decade, however, proved that addressing the broad needs of the whole Baptist movement increasingly compromised the organization’s ability to accomplish its primary function. Therefore in 1826 the organization returned to its original focused purpose of cross-cultural mission to make disciples outside of the United States. New sodalities were then created to fulfill other focused purposes: the Baptist General Tract Society (1824), the American Baptist Home Mission Society (1832), the American Baptist Historical Society (1853), and so forth.
Our present denominational structure is configured as an interlocking directorate that requires the International Ministries Board of Directors to attend to broad and varied denomination-wide functions as well as to the unique needs of international, cross-cultural mission. In effect, the present structure has been a twentieth century version of that nineteenth century experiment (1817-1826) which sought to fulfill sodality and modality functions at one and the same time.
A federation will move us from that interlocking directorate into an inter-relating structure, a “third way” that recognizes and builds on the strengths of both our modality and our sodalities.
International Ministries is a sodality whose focused mission is to cross cultural boundaries around the world, making disciples of Jesus Christ. We understand disciple-making to mean helping people to come to faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, to grow in that relationship with Jesus, and in so doing, to change the world through the power and working of God’s Spirit.
We seek to fulfill this mission by partnering with the body of Christ in the countries of our service while reaching out to meet human needs. And, we seek to guide our actions based on our core values of faithfulness, integrity, servanthood and humility.
We recognize that God calls some men and women to ministry within their own context in the United States and Puerto Rico, while others are called to cross into different cultures to serve. The federation model can enable International Ministries to shape its board with leaders who have a committed passion for international mission as well as needed cross-cultural knowledge, relationships, and skill-sets. Its smaller size can facilitate the ability to learn from and to incorporate best practices of non-profit boards.
The United States and Puerto Rico are shaped by many distinctive cultures -- ethnic, linguistic, regional, generational, religious, and so forth -- yet these cultures also share macro-cultural, or general, overall characteristics. We now understand that western macro-culture has become increasingly post-modern and post-Christendom. While we may not yet fully understand this major cultural shift away from modernity and Christendom, several features seem now to be fairly evident:
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Reshaping ourselves as a “federa-tion” can help us as we continue to become a more nimble entity, with the flexibility to experiment and the ability to adapt and offer more choices for participation in global mission. Even within the constraints of our existing structure, International Ministries has been acting to reshape itself in ways that are an appropriate fit for our 21st century cultural context.
World Mission Conferences have become accessible to new constituencies by being offered in a weekend format at locations across the nation. Missionary Partnership Teams are now giving more than 400 people a purposeful ministry to specific missionaries. The Missionary Partnership Networks that the teams help to build and coordinate are enabling individuals and local churches to construct meaningful relationships and participate with missionaries. International Ministries is offering opportunities and services to some 2,500 short-term missionaries each year through VIGM—Volunteers In Global Mission. And International Ministries continues to develop its interactive website, providing news, information and opportunities for involvement on an ever increasing scale.
Post-modern promotion of individualism and self-sufficiency leaves many with a yearning for community. Thus there is a continuing role for our American Baptist general body (modality) that facilitates identity and community based on our shared values. Because people seek choices, our life together should promote the emergence of more, rather than fewer, American Baptist options. This intentional offering of choices is consistent with being a missional movement.
No organizational structure is perfect. The restructuring proposal being presented to the Biennial delegates likewise is not perfect. But in my view, it reflects good mission practice and will substantially advance the effectiveness of International Ministries to fulfill our mission of glorifying God in all the earth, by crossing cultural boundaries to make disciples of Jesus Christ.