Transcript William Carey

BAPTISTS
AND
MISSIONS
BAPTISTS AND MISSIONS
I. Introduction
A. A Missions-Minded People
B. A Definition of Missions
C. Revivalism
BAPTISTS AND MISSIONS
Is organized
mission work a
given for all
Baptists?
“Baptist Ideals”
V. Our Continuing Task: 5. Missions
“Missions, as we use the term, is the
extension of God’s redemptive purpose
through evangelism, education, and Christian
service beyond the local church.”
BAPTISTS AND MISSIONS
II. The Turn to Organized Mission Work
A. Early General Baptists
B. Early Particular Baptists
C. A People on Mission
Bill J. Leonard
“Doing Missions Baptist Style”
“The call for liberty of conscience and
freedom of worship was a consistent mission
of Baptists in the 1600s and 1700s. That grand
missionary effort should not be ignored in our
attempt to understand the missionary identity
of the people called Baptists”
First London Confession
1644
Article V: “God in His infinite power and wisdom, doth
dispose all things to the end for which they were created;
that neither good nor evil befalls any by chance, or without
His providence; and that whatsoever befalls the elect, is by
His appointment, for His glory, and their good.”
Article VI: “All the elect being loved of God with an
everlasting love, are redeemed, quickened, and saved, not
by themselves, nor their own works, lest any man should
boast, but, only and wholly by God, of His own free grace
and mercy, through Jesus Christ, who is made unto us by
God, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and
redemption, and all in all, that he that rejoiceth, might
rejoice in the Lord.”
Bill J. Leonard
“Doing Missions Baptist Style”
“They believed that all persons were totally
depraved and had no ability to move toward God
until God had "infused" the grace to believe.
Though all were depraved, God in mercy had
‘elected’ some persons for salvation before the
foundation of the world. Those persons would
ultimately be drawn to salvation by the
irresistible grace of God. All others would follow
their destiny of depravity to reprobation and
damnation. That God should choose any was an
overwhelming gift of grace.”
Bill J. Leonard
“Doing Missions Baptist Style”
“The earliest Baptists did not send out official missionaries, but they
understood themselves to be on mission. They insisted that all believers
were witnesses to the grace of God and that church membership was
extended only to those who could testify to a work of grace in their hearts.
Some seventeenth-century Baptists actually practiced the laying on of
hands at baptism as a sign that all believers were ordained to take the
gospel to their particular part of thecommunity. Thus, for Baptists, the
concept of missions exists within the concept of the church's mission.”
Further, “The mission of Baptists in the 1600s seems to have been to call
people to faith, and to encourage them to see Baptist views as the most
biblical way of understanding Christian life and practice. They founded
churches, urged sinners to experience God's grace in Jesus Christ, fed the
hungry, clothed the naked, and celebrated worship, all as part of their
missionary imperative.”
However, Leonard says, “Early in their history, Baptists disagreed over both
the need and method of sending out missionaries in Christ's name. These
differences have shaped Baptist attitudes toward missions throughout
their history”
Walter B. Shurden
“To say, as one often hears at Baptist
meetings, that ‘Baptists have always been a
missionary people’ is to overlook the fact that
at one time Baptists were concerned with
survival, not expansion”
Denton Lotz
2005
“Basically, Baptists are a mission society
announcing the Good News of Jesus Christ,
calling men and women to repentance,
baptizing them in the name of the triune God,
and gathering together as the beloved
community to extend the Kingdom of Christ.”
“Who’d Be a Baptist?”
The Baptist Union of Great Britain
“Baptists see themselves as part of the wider
world church of God, with a common mission
to live and preach the Good News of Jesus,
and to bring people everywhere into God’s
family.”
BAPTISTS AND MISSIONS
III. Organized for Missions—England
A. An Emphasis on Organized
B. The Beginnings of Mission Work in
England
C. Delane Tew
“The cause of missions created the emotional
impetus to draw Baptist churches out of their
local isolation into a shared vision of
evangelizing the world”
1770
The Northampton Shire Baptist Association
“Every soul that comes to
Christ to be saved . . . is to
be encouraged.”
Andrew Fuller
The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptance
Two Key Arguments:
1. sinners are capable of
responding to the
gospel
2. ministers are guilty of
neglecting the spirit
and priorities of the
primitive
William Carey’s Enquiry 1791
William Carey
Sermon on Isaiah 54.2-3 in 1792
Expect great things from God
Attempt great things for God
The Particular Baptist Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel Amongst the
Heathen began here in 1792
BAPTISTS AND MISSIONS
IV. Organized for Mission—America
A. Early Work
B. Early Mission Societies
C. The Move towards National Organizations
D. Formation of the General Missionary
Convention of the Baptist Denominations in
the United States of America for Foreign
Missions
Roger Williams
George Lisle
Missionary
to
Jamaica
Early American Mission Societies
1796 The New York Missionary Society
1800 The Boston Female Society
1802 The Female Baptist Missionary Society
Adorian Judson
Ann Hasseltine Judson
The Commissioning of Adorian Judson
and Others
February 8, 1812
Note Ann
Judson
kneeling
to the
side
A NEW MISSIONS BODY
The General Missionary Convention of the
Baptist Denominations in the United States of
America for Foreign Missions
Known as
The Triennial Convention
The Triennial Convention
Organized in 1814
The first national association of Baptists in
the United States of America
1817 Began domestic missions work with John
Mason Peck—financial difficulties soon ended
this initial work in domestic missions
1832 Established the American Baptist Home
Missionary Society
Women Missionaries
BAPTISTS AND MISSIONS
V. Selected Statements on Missions
A. “Baptist Distinctives and Diversities”
(1964) “Missions”
B. “The People Called American Baptists: A
Confessional Statement”
C. The 2000 Baptist Faith and Message,
Article XI Evangelism and Missions
“Baptist Distinctives and Diversities”
(1964) “Missions”
“Recognizing the relevancy of the gospel for all, Baptists
have demonstrated a missionary passion that has carried
them to the ends of the earth. The knowledge of human
need and God’s provision to meet it have offered sufficient
motivation for missionaries to endure hardship and death
in their efforts to serve as ambassadors of Jesus Christ. The
daring faith of these women and men has so inspired
Baptists, that they find it easier to rally to the support of
this aspect of their Christian responsibility than to almost
any other. Baptists believe that the gospel of Christ ‘is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.”
“The People Called American Baptists:
A Confessional Statement”
“. . . as American Baptists We affirm
A Missional People
--who strive to fulfill the Great Commision.
--who engage in educational, social, and
health ministries.
--who accept local and global responsibilities,
and
--who affirm both individual redemption and
corporate justice.”
Southern Baptist Convention
The 2000 Baptist Faith and Message,
Article XI Evangelism and Missions
“It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ
and of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to
endeavor to make disciples of all nations. The new
birth of man's spirit by God's Holy Spirit means the
birth of love for others. Missionary effort on the part of
all rests thus upon a spiritual necessity of the
regenerate life, and is expressly and repeatedly
commanded in the teachings of Christ. The Lord Jesus
Christ has commanded the preaching of the gospel to
all nations. It is the duty of every child of God to seek
constantly to win the lost to Christ by verbal witness
undergirded by a Christian lifestyle, and by other
methods in harmony with the gospel of Christ.”
BAPTISTS AND MISSIONS
VI.Dissent over Missions
A. From the Beginning
B. Organized Dissent in America
C. Organized Dissent in Great Britain
D. Formation of the Southern Baptist
Convention
E. A Reaction to SBC Mission Work
Bill J. Leonard
“Early in their history, Baptists disagreed over
both the need and method of sending out
missionaries in Christ's name. These
differences have shaped Baptist attitudes
toward missions throughout their history”
Daniel Parker
1761-1844
1820 published
A Public Address to the Baptist Society, and Friends of Religion in General, on the Principle and
Practice of the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions for the United States of America
"They have violated the right or government of the Church of Christ in forming themselves into a
body and acting without of the union."
1826 published
Views on the Two Seeds Taken from Genesis
Other Noted Leaders
John Taylor
Joshua Lawrence
1820 Thoughts on Missions
The Kehuckee Baptist Association
1827 “A Declaration against the Modern Missionary
Movement and other Institutions of Men”
The Blackrock Address
1832
“Brethren, we would not shun reproach, nor seek an
exemption from persecution; but we would affectionately
entreat those Baptists who revile us themselves, or who side
with such as do, to pause and consider how far they have
departed from the ancient principles of the Baptists, and how
that in reproaching us they stigmatize the memory of those
whom they have been used to honor as eminent and useful
servants of Christ; and of those who have borne the brunt of
the persecutions leveled against the Baptists in former ages.
For it is a well-known fact that it was in ages past a uniform
and distinguishing trait in the character of the Baptists, that
they required a “Thus saith the Lord,” that is, direct authority
from the word of God for the order and practice, as well as
the doctrine, they received in religion.”
The Blackrock Address
1832
“We believe that many who love our Lord Jesus Christ,
are engaged in promoting those institutions which they
acknowledge to be of modern origin; and they are
promoting them too as religious institutions; whereas
if they would reflect a little on the origin and nature of
the Christian religion, they must be, like us, convinced
that this religion must remain unchangeably the same
at this day, as we find it delivered in the New
Testament. Hence that anything, however highly
esteemed it may be among men, which is not found in
the New Testament, has no just claim to be
acknowledged as belonging to the religion or the
religious institutions of Christ.”
Anti-Missions Movements
in Britain
The Strict and Particular Baptists
(later called the Gospel Standard Baptists)
William Gadsly (1773-1844) pioneer leader
The Strict Baptist Aid Society
Upheld strong Calvinistic views
Formation of the
Southern Baptist Convention
1845
A division over the
ownership of slaves
by missionaries
“An Address to the Public”
from the new
Southern Baptist Convention
The Address “affirmed that the object of the
new body was to extend the Messiah’s
kingdom and the glory of God.”
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
Interim Steering Committee
“An Address to the Public”
1991
“What ought to be the task of the missionary is another
difference between us [the SBC and the CBF]. We think the
mission task is to reach people for faith in Jesus Christ by
preaching, teaching, healing and other ministries of mercy
and justice. We believe this to be the model of Jesus in
Galilee. That is the way he went about his mission task.
Fundamentalists make the mission assignment narrower
than Jesus did. They allow their emphasis on direct
evangelism to undercut other biblical ministries of mercy
and justice. This narrowed definition of what a missionary
ought to be and do is a contention between us.”
BAPTISTS AND MISSIONS
VII.Concluding Thoughts
A. Baptists Disagree
B. Why Baptists Participate in Missions
C. The Future of Missions
Bill J. Leonoard:
Baptists participate in the church's
mission because
1. It is central to teachings of the New
Testament
2. All Christians are called to participate
3. The call to make disciples is essential to the
Gospel message
4. The church’s call to missions is a response to
the whole person
Mike M. Stoops on
The Future of Missions
“Baptists will do missions in the future because of
a fundamental belief that humankind can only be
reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.”
BUT
“For Baptists to have a missions future, they must
recognize that missions is the activity of marginal
people, living in distinction from their culture and
giving witness to the gospel as the ultimate
power”
Pamela R. Durso
In 1973 just over 3,400 non-Western crosscultural missionaries were serving. In 2006
the number reached 103,000
“The day of western missionary domination
seems to be coming to an end”
Michael Jaffarian
“Though the Four-Fifths-World [Africa, Asia,
Latin America] missions movement is still
much smaller than the Western [European,
Northern America, Pacific] missions
movement, it is growing at a much faster rate.
It also is adding a larger number of
missionaries each year”
Articles on
Non-Western Missionaries
Carla Gay A. Romarta-Knipel, “One Mission, Different Voices:
Overseas Missions of the Convention of Philippine Baptist
Churches,” Baptist History and Heritage Spring 2006: 41-54).
Joseph Tse-Hei Lee, “The Overseas Chinese Networks and Early
Baptist Missionary Movement Across the South China Sea,” The
Historian 63.4 (Summer 2001): 752-68).
Michael Jaffarian, “Are There More Non-Western Missionaries Than
Western Missionaries?” 28.5 (July 2004): 131-32.
Christopher J.H. Wright, “An Upside-Down World,” Christianity
Today January 2007: 41-46
Christopher J.H. Wright
“Christianity has never had a territorial center.
Our center is the person of Christ, and
wherever he is known, there is another
potential center of faith and witness”
Bruce Gourley
In today’s world, “post-denominationalism,
saturation of personal technology,
reorientation toward the local church, and
reevaluation of mission field models have
resulted in higher levels of lay missions
involvement among young people, more
diverse expressions of missions, and greater
external pressures upon the Baptist missions
enterprise”