I just arrived in Pasadena, CA for the American Baptist Churches Biennial.  Every year, the ABC gathers as a national body to address important concerns, vote on pressing issues, worship, learn, and celebrate.  This will be my fourth ABC biennial that I have had the honor of attending.  This year’s location is fantastic.

Before I left, I heard numerous comments about a very concerning situation involving American Baptist missionaries.  It seems that that American Baptist missionaries will now be responsible for seeking to secure the majority of their funding sooner rather than later.  As I understand it, in the past, missionaries were not required to raise the majority of their financial support.  Now, due to a variety of reasons, ABC missionaries will now have the burden of asking churches for more money.  These reasons include lower support for missionary giving and lower returns in investments that support missions.

ABC of Ohio has made an appeal to their churches about it.  The letter can be read here.

Missionaries should not have to spend their time lobbying individuals, churches, and non-profits to support themselves.  One of the reasons for being a part of a denomination is to have the national body do some of this administrative/financial work.  I can understand the need to have missionaries to be responsible for part of their funding (say 10%-20%), but the majority?  Many of these missionaries have families and cannot raise enough money to support a family of four for a year or two.

If all this is true, this presents a crisis for our ABC missionaries.  More to be updated later.  I am sure that I will learn more from the denominational reps at the biennial.