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as one of our IBC trustees. We were happy to have
Regina Claas, General Secretary of the GBU, with us
for this year’s Annual Meeting. We are thankful for
this partnership.
The IBC is a member of the European Baptist Federation,
a family of more than 50 Baptist unions,
representing 13,000 churches and 800,000 members
from nearly every country in Europe and Central
Asia including five unions in the Middle East. Although
our most prominent involvement in the EBF
is through the Indigenous Missionary Project, we
also help to support all efforts of the EBF – mission
and evangelism, human rights and religious freedom,
theological education, and humanitarian aid.
We were happy to have Tony Peck, EBF General Secretary
and a prince of a man, to speak for our Annual
Meeting. For more information about the EBF, go
to www.ebf.org.
We are also members of the Baptist World Alliance.
The BWA is a fellowship of 214 Baptist conventions
and unions comprising a membership of 36 million
baptized believers and a community of 105 million.
Learn more about the BWA by looking at their website,
www.bwanet.org.
I challenge IBC churches to celebrate the partnership
with other Baptist churches around the world.
Locally, every pastor should seek to establish healthy
relationships with other pastors and churches. Certainly
you should pray for them and with them regularly.
Work together on projects where your visions
intersect.
Nationally get to know those who serve as leaders
of the union where you serve. Certainly there are
ways you can bless their work, and let them know
about yours. See how you might work together. International
churches can offer a vital spark of Gospel
fervor if they will engage meaningfully, particularly in
spiritual environments often described as post-Christian.
There is an excitement about our ministry that
can encourage and stimulate others.
I challenge our military churches to make every effort
to work with chaplains and others who minister
to military members. If they see you as a friend and
a person willing to help, and not just someone who
wants to use them for access, they will usually embrace
you. If you consider them a threat, you will almost
certainly cripple your own ministry.
Let’s support in appropriate ways the work of other
Baptist groups around the world. Former BWA
President Denton Lotz used to say often, “We belong
to each other because we belong to Christ.”
Engaging in World-Wide Missions
The heartbeat of our convention since its inception
has always been missions, whether locally or globally.
Most pastors come to IBC churches out of a compelling
sense of global awareness and mission commitment.
Most live outside their countries of birth.
This is also true for most IBC church members. Bringing
the Gospel to the whole world seems like a natural
result of our Christian commitment and global
representation. With churches in more than 25
countries, members from over 125 countries in our
churches, and many churches with up to 50 nations
represented in one church, we have the world not
only at our doorsteps but also within our walls.
One of our cooperative mission efforts as a family
of churches is through the European Baptist Mission.
In recent years the EBM has gone through a transformation
to involve in leadership people from its traditional
mission sending countries and mission receiving
countries to serve together more effectively in
Europe, Africa, Latin America, and India. Hans Guderian,
who has led the EBM for many years, will be
leaving at the end of this year to serve as a pastor in
Berlin. We are grateful to Hans for the good way in
which he has worked with the IBC in our support of
the EBM missionaries.
I am still looking for the day when an IBC church
member will serve the EBM as a long-term or shortterm
missionary. There are current needs including
a finance manager and two medical doctors to serve
in Cameroon, and an experienced missionary couple
to start and lead an HIV-AIDS children’s home in Mozambique.
Perhaps God will call someone from an
IBC church to serve. Until that day, we can continue
to pray and give toward the good work of the EBM.
More information can be found on their website at
www.ebm-masa.org/index_eng.html.
Every IBC church is involved in direct missions of
some kind. The Gospel of a gracious God who sent
His Son to hurting and needy people is our motivation
for sending and going to the entire world with
Gospel. It is natural that every church be involved
in strategic ways as the Lord leads them. In addition,
the EBF’s Indigenous Missionary Project offers
us good opportunities for personal mission involvement.
We are planning for 2009 a joint mission trip
with our partners in Virginia. I hope members from
several IBC churches will be able to join other IBCers
and Virginia volunteers to work with some of the Indigenous
Missionary church planters. The Missions
Ministry Team is working with Virginia’s Partnership
Coordinator Craig Waddell to plan this trip which
will probably involve working in several locations in
Moldova. There could be an additional trip or two
planned, perhaps to Romania, if there is interest.
Last year, we approved a new plan for our cooperative
mission giving. The IBC Global Missions Offering
will be emphasized during the month of December
and combines a number of special mission
offerings that previously were taken throughout the
year. In 2008, the distribution of the offering will be
as follows:
International Mission Board, SBC: .........22.5%
European Baptist Mission: ...............22.5%
Indigenous Missionary Project: .............5%
IBC Church Planting: ....................5%
Together We Build: .....................20%
IBC Home Missions (previously May Missions):.20%
Emergency Projects: .....................5%
The Missions Ministry Team took the decision to recommend
combining all IBC Special Offerings as a result
of requests from churches to reduce the number
of appeals during the year. We hope this once-a-year
special emphasis will help our churches to promote
effectively and give generously. As with other emphases,
the key will be pastoral leadership. If the pastor
leads, the church will follow.
I challenge our pastors to make it a priority in their
churches to promote the IBC Global Missions Offering
this year. If you will promote it, your people will
gladly give. I challenge our churches to make mis-
7 | Highlights 12/2008