Related Topics
SBC Roundtable: Great Commission Priorities
To download, right-click on the "Download" link and select "Save Target As," "Download Linked File As" or "Save Link As."
Participating in the roundtable discussion on Great Commission Priorities were Richard Harris (from left), Bill Mackey and Jerry Rankin. NAMB Photo by John Swain.
ORLANDO, Fla. -- International Mission Board president Jerry Rankin, Kentucky Baptist Convention executive director Bill Mackey and interim North American Mission Board president Richard Harris took part in a brief roundtable discussion on future trends in missions during the SBC annual meeting in Orlando.
The roundtable was one of four hosted by NAMB during the SBC meeting in Orlando. Other discussions included "Reaching Cities in North America," "Church Planting in the 21st Century" and "Reaching People Groups in North America." Audio of each roundtable discussion is posted at www.namb.net/orlando2010.
Mackey said reaching the increasing numbers of internationals settling in Kentucky is an issue challenging him. "We are seeing a great influx of Hispanics, a tripling to 300,000 since 2000. We’re trying to respond by urging the churches to consider the opportunities in their neighborhoods.
"We’re working with journeymen who are coming out of seminary who are experienced with working with people groups throughout the world. We need them to address the people groups moving into Kentucky. For example, we have seven dialects spoken by Indians in Louisville."
Rankin agreed that "the world is coming to us. You no longer have to go overseas to do foreign missions and reach unreached people groups. All of us recognize that it won’t be the state convention, IMB or NAMB that reaches these people groups. It will have to be a grassroots movement of Christians witnessing anywhere, everywhere to anyone. IMB’s role would be to mobilize, train and equip these grassroots Christians, churches and associations to reach the peoples coming to their communities."
NAMB’s Harris said, "You have to identify these folks and find them: where are they and what are their interests? What is their heart language? What are their needs?
"One area we need to do more in is on university campuses," said Harris. "We have to get more career, MSC and summer semester missionaries on campus – to get in there and engage students with campus ministries and try to reach them. They’re the ones going into leadership positions.The college campus is a great opportunity."
The three men also discussed the advent of "participatory missions" – whereby more of today’s Baptists want to take a hands-on approach to missions, rather than leaving it just to missionaries.
"There’s a massive challenge of reaching billions of people overseas," said Rankin. "We’ll never have enough missionaries to reach them all. But if we could mobilize the 16 million Southern Baptists and 45,000 churches to be strategically involved, God has raised up the necessary resources to fulfill the Great Commission."
story by Mickey Noah, North American Mission Board
