The missions organization for the largest Protestant denomination has recently changed its policies on qualifying missionaries. The Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board (IMB) has decided to lift a decade-old ban on candidates who spoke in tongues or belonged to a church that disagreed with the convention's view on baptism.
International Mission Board also has lifted its ban on candidates who are divorced or are parents of teenagers.
David Platt, the president of International Mission Board, was concerned about how the mission board can qualify and work with more missionaries under the Baptist doctrine. During the meeting of the International Mission Board on May 12-13 in Louisville, Kentucky, the trustees established new criterion for qualifying more missionaries under the framework of Baptist Faith and Message, the statement of faith for the Southern Baptist Convention.
"The driving force behind all these changes is to unify all Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) churches under the umbrella of the Baptist Faith and Message in order to send limitless missionary teams to unreached people and places for the glory of God, and I don't want that to be misunderstood," David Platt wrote on Christianity Today.
On the FAQ page on the missionary appointment qualifications, International Mission Board has laid out clear guidelines to how the board will now be selecting members.
For the issue of parents with the teenagers, the FAQ page states, "This revised policy does make it possible for missionaries with teenage children to be appointed. However, the previous policy was established for good reason in light of challenges for children (and their families) moving overseas at certain ages, and we will continue to take those challenges into account when considering missionaries."
Also, the FAQ page informs readers that those who have been divorced may now be selected as long term missionaries. The former policy had allowed those who have been divorced to serve in short term missions only.
The International Mission Board has changed its policy on tongues and private prayer languages by not automatically disqualifying those who practice such. However, the board may end employment for missionaries or candidates who continue "persistent emphasis on any specific gift of the Spirit as normative for all or to the extent such emphasis becomes disruptive."
On the basis of baptism, however, the International Mission Board aims to select only those who have been baptized by immersion as is befitting for the Baptist Faith and Message.
According to the International Mission Board, "the ultimate aim" behind these changes in the policy "is to enable limitless God-exalting, Christ-following, Spirit-led, biblically faithful, people-loving, high-quality Southern Baptist missionaries to serve with IMB through a multiplicity of pathways IMB provides in the days ahead."
Joo Heon Lee is a volunteer student writer from the University of California, Irvine.
