It would stand to reason that we can all agree there is something we are supposed to be taking from our daily scripture reading. Our devoted time to God each day must have purpose if it is to be meaningful. I was taught in college that anytime we read a passage of scripture we should ask ourselves two questions:

1. What does God want me to learn and remember?
2. What does God want me to do?

These two questions make an impact when considered in light of certain passages. Am I supposed to speak the world and matter into existence (Genesis 1) or am I supposed to walk on water when my friends take the boat out to the middle of the lake (Mark 6:45-52)? I believe this should be expanded upon even farther. There are plenty of devotional readers out there today for families, couples, teens, children, grandparents, and any other category of person you can think of, or for specific purposes. I think we need to take this a step farther. I believe it is time to start making ourselves have to think about several different accounts when we are reading scripture. Whether we are reading chapters at a time or short passages there is a way to study the Bible that has purpose, brings change in our lives, and gives God the glory He deserves.

Imagine implementing these five steps to your daily devotion in the form of a journal. The first thing you need to ask yourself is what does this passage do to my faith? How does this passage of scripture affect your faith? Faith comes by hearing the word of God but we cannot deny how each one can affect our faith in different ways. Maybe this passage strengthens your faith, maybe it rocks your faith and makes you want to dive in to the scripture more to gain better understanding, maybe this passage makes you want to share your faith, or maybe it just makes you appreciate your faith. This is the area where you write down what the passage does for your faith.

Next we have to look at the application of this passage in our lives. How can you apply this passage of scripture in your life? Is this a passage that needs to be put into action or is this something that becomes a passive expression? Does this passage of scripture require you to lie something at Jesus feet or does it require you to accept the service He has assigned us. This is the area where you write down the application of this scripture in your life.

Third, it is time to start digging deep into ourselves and our study. How does this passage require Christ to be increased in your life? Does His increase have to come through your decrease or by your willingness to step out of yourself and intentionally put Him on the pedestal where He belongs? Does Christ increase in your life from this passage by changing your approach to a situation or the way you pray about something for His will and not yours? This is the area where you write down how Christ is to be increased in your life.

Fourth, is something we should always be doing no matter why we are reading Scripture. What truth is there to be gained from this passage? All scripture is 100% true and accurate. What is the truth here that helps you to become more knowledgeable about the scripture you are reading? What is the context this passage is written in so you aren’t tempted to make it fit into another context? How does the truth of this passage relate to your life’s current situation? This is the area to acknowledge the truth of scripture!

Finally, we need to remember that we are the creation. How has this passage humbled you? Does this passage require you to be more humble among people? Does this passage of scripture require you to be more humble before Jesus? How does this passage of scripture make you view your own humility with yourself, others, and most importantly Jesus? This is the area to take note of the humility required from this passage.

You may notice this can be laid out by the acronym F.A.I.T.H. F – Faith, A – Application, I – Increase Christ, T – Truth, H – Humility. What I have done is taken this layout and filled it out on several pages and placed them in a three-ring binder. I would encourage each of you to do the same.

Remember that God gave us His Word for our benefit, not His. It is our responsibility to take from it what He has for us. We must challenge ourselves each day to do this. By doing this we will grow spiritually, we will draw closer to God, and we will have an outward change that will be seen by others to make us the salt of the earth.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE “F.A.I.T.H. FOR STUDYING” JOURNAL

• Families: There are two sides to this focus.  First, we want to help our families be all that God has called them to be.  Second, we want to reach out to and encourage broken families. We will be offering teaching and outreach events on the topics of finances and parenting.
• Men: In order for families to be strong, men need to be godly.  We will be starting a Bible study one evening a month geared toward building men.
• Outreach:  We are constantly striving to be more outwardly focused.  This means making decisions based on who we can reach.  While we will still have many of the normal activities and events that we have had in years past, this year they will have the added focus of outreach.
• Discipleship: Each year we will begin a few new ‘Life Groups’.  This year we will start the first one. 
• Apologetics:  We think that Christians should know why they believe what they believe.  We each should be willing and able to intelligently discuss our faith with others.  This year we are going to do more to equip our people in this area.  One of our small group classes on Sunday mornings will have this focus and this will be the topic of several Wednesday Evening electives.

We are also going to begin a monthly e-newsletter that will be sent out by e-mail the middle of each month.  There will be more information about this available in the next few weeks.

Be praying that we each would follow God’s leading in this new year.

Here are a few things that stick out to me about the previous year.

• People have been saved.
• More than ever before, the focus of our ministry is on the preaching/teaching of God’s Word.
• God has brought 9 new families/individuals to our church in the past 11 months (that number may go up in the next two weeks).
• God allowed 10 members from our church to go on a missions trip.
• God has allowed us to double our giving to missions in the last 12 months.
• We completed a $20,000 remodeling project of our Sunday School facilities; all from designation offerings.
• We began work on our missions apartment.
• God allowed us to build our first inroad into the area apartment complexes.
• In the past year our children’s ministry has doubled in size.
• Our focus is steadily shifting from inward to outward.
• There has been a constant commitment to unity.
• God has given us a clear vision for our church.  I am convinced of what God wants us to be, and the foundation for that is being laid.

I could go on and on, but God is at work.  And it is exciting.  We have a long way to go to be where we need to be.  BUT…

…God is leading!

…God is guiding!

…We are following!

Let me acknowledge up front that I overstated some of my concerns.  As has been pointed out, by both those who agree with my thoughts as well as those who disagree, stating that “Independent Baptist Missions is a colossal failure” is an overstatement.  I agree.  It was a  hyperbolic satement that was an obvious and intentional exaggeration; a figure of speech not intended to be taken literally.  Most readers understood this, but I thought I would clarify it for those who did not.  I do not believe that the current process is not getting missionaries to the field.  I am not saying that souls are not being saved. I am not saying that churches are not concerned with missions. 

However, I do believe that the current process needs to be changed/tweaked/adjusted/rethought/discussed/ improved…however you want to say it. 

I thought it would be beneficial to briefly recap and summarize both the response that I have received as well as my thoughts on this issue. 

Some Of The Responses (Both Positive And Negative)

“Thank you for saying publicly what so many have been thinking privately.” ~ Independent Baptist missions Director

 

 “I would rather be doing missions our way than all the others ways that others are not.”

 

 “Thank you for starting this conversation.  The next step is to talk about what can be done.” ~ Independent Baptist Pastor

 

 “Your concerns are seriously over-stated.” ~ Baptist Professor

 

 “The problems you brought out need to be addressed.” ~ Anonymous BIMI missionary

 

 “Son, you don’t have the experience to know what you are talking about.”

 

“It is about time someone pointed out the elephant in the room” ~ Christian counselor

 

 “You brought out some good points.  Now, let’s get to work fixing it.”

 

“Great article.” ~ BIMI missionary

The vast majority of comments have been positive.

 Final Remarks

I may not have the experience of some, but that does not mean my concerns are not valid.  My point, and the concerns of many, is that while the specific numbers may vary from region to region and missions board to missions board, the process of getting missionaries to the field is not as efficient as it could be.  We can either deny that there is a problem, ignore the problem, or work together to fix the problem.  I propose that we work together to fix the problem.

To do this I believe that we need to recognize the following:

• Sending missionaries to the field is of vital importance.  
• Sending churches need to take more of a responsibility in the ministry of those called from their church.
• Independent Baptist pastors need to intentionally work together to get missionaries to the field sooner.  This requires that we not be isolated, that we focus on building God’s kingdom, and that we stop competing with other churches.

The conversation from this point forward needs to be directed at what can be done to get missionaries to the field sooner so that less time and money is spent in an attempt to get them to the place to begin their field ministry.

Why Pastors Should Bless Interracial Marriage from Desiring God on Vimeo.

Here are some things that you can do to help bring back the joy to your family this Christmas.

• Do things as a family.  End the ‘everyone-going-their-own-way’ routine as much as possible.
• Limit the amount of media in your home.  Media can easily take your attention off of each other.
• Plan some Christmas activities such as driving around and looking at Christmas lights.
• Let your children plan a family night out.
• Find a way for your children to serve others.  Make Christmas crafts or Christmas cookies and let them take them to shut-ins in your church or to a nursing home.
• Don’t just encourage you children to serve others.  Parents, you serve others as well.
• Have fun together!

Whatever you do and however you do it, intentionally bring the joy of Christ and of Christmas to your family this year.

In a comment on a previous post on “Why Independent Baptist Missions Is Failing,” Greg Wilson said:

it seems in reaction to our distrust of the SBC Cooperative Program that we instituted an uncooperative one.

What a true statement.  The effects of this lack of cooperation are more apparent in the area of evangelism and missions than in any other area of ministry.  This lack of missions cooperation stems from a few problems.  May I state them bluntly?

• Too many Independent Baptist Churches are isolated, not independent.
• Too many Independent Baptist pastors are more concerned with building their own kingdoms instead of God’s Kingdom.  Pastors, we are shepherds of a flock, not kings of our own kingdoms.  When we focus only on our local ministries to the neglect of God’s Kingdom, cooperation with other doctrinally sound churches is non-existent.
• Too many Independent Baptist Churches break fellowship and refuse to cooperate over non-doctrinal, extra-biblical issues.  Should there be discernment?  Absolutely!  Are there times when it may be wise to not work with another church?  Sure!  But I am afraid that working together in the area of missions is currently not even considered as an option.

As long as this is the mentality in our churches missions will continue to suffer, missionaries will spend far too long on deputation, and millions of dollars will be wasted, all because of our ego.

Here are a few ways that we can begin moving toward this missions cooperation with churches of like faith who take a strong stand on the Gospel.

1) Pastors, stop criticizing other doctrinally sound churches for something they do that you do not prefer.  The only reason to call out another church or another pastor is if they are teaching a false doctrine that is affecting your church. Even then, be careful.

2) Understand that it is the truth that should cause division, not our attitude about it.  Enough said!

3) Realize that doctrinally sound churches are not in competition with each other.  Before you can work with another doctrinally solid church you have to stop competing with them.

I am not yet completely sure what this cooperation among Independent Baptist Churches should look like, but I am convinced that it MUST exist if Independent Baptist Missions is to have a future.

Let’s see where people are on this issue.  Please vote and then share this post using the “Share This” buttons below.  Thank you for your participation.

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• Each missionary family needs 100 supporting churches.
• They have to visit several hundred churches to get the needed support.
• They end up making thousands and thousands of phone calls to get enough meetings to result in enough support.

There are some other concerning points.

• It takes a missionary family close to three years to get to the foreign field.
• The process of deputation can cost over $100,000 (some estimate the cost to be $250,000).
• The number of Independent Baptist Churches is declining.  Our movement is decaying away to nothing (‘why’ is a topic for another day).
• Many of the Independent Baptist Churches that are left are stagnant and instead of the missions program growing, it is declining.
• If this trend continues (and, at this point, there is no reason to think it will not) the pool of Independent Baptist churches will be even smaller and the process will take even longer.
• It would not surprise me if in 10 years the average length of deputation is over 5 years and if the average cost is $250,000 – $500,000.

This is all in an effort to get the missionary family to the place to begin their missions ministry on the field.  If we are called to be good stewards of the time and resources that God has given us, and we are,we must be good stewards in the area of missions.  Currently, we are not.

The process of deputation is simply too long and too costly.  I have heard some say that deputation doesn’t need to be changed because it was the time when God taught them so much and grew their faith.  I don’t doubt that at all.  But let’s not put God in a box and say that He can’t teach people and grow their faith in a more effective and beneficial deputation process.  It’s like a  member in a church standing up and giving a testimony as to how God has taught them about finances and grown their faith through their bankruptcy, and then the church designing a program to usher people through bankruptcy.  After all, God uses that to strengthen people’s faith and teach them about finances.  Just because God uses something that does not mean that it is the most beneficial, logical, and prudent process to reach the goal.

We cannot wait for the problem to get worse; change needs to be made now.  So what needs to change?  Honestly, I don’t have all the answers, but it is something to which I am giving a lot of thought.  Here are a few things that would help immediately.

(1)  Pastors, only bring missionaries to your church if you have the ability and intent to take them on for monthly support.  It is foolish to ask missionaries to drive all over the country to attend the beauty contest that we call a mission conference.  Do your research up front.  Meet with the missionary family up front.  Determine up front if you can and want to support this family.  If you can only support two families, then only bring two families to your conference.  You don’t have to have a big missions conference (many missionary families) to have an effective missions conference.

(2) Pastors, focus on quality, not on quantity.  If you could either support 100 missionaries at $25 per month or 25 missionaries at $100 per month, you should pick the fewer missionaries at the higher amount every time.  Too many pastors are more concerned with being able to brag about how many missionaries they support rather than doing what is best for the missionary and the church.  Supporting a lot of missionaries at a small amount benefits no one.

(3) Pastors, sometimes you can be too independent for your own good.  Let’s be willing to work together to get missionaries to the field.  Every pastor has friends who are pastors.  If you have a missionary family that you would like to see get to the field, call your pastor friends.  Help the missionaries schedule some meetings.  Independent does not mean isolated.  Our over-emphasis of being independent is truly detrimental to the work of Christ in many areas, that includes missions.

There are some other more drastic changes that may need to be considered, but let’s start with these simple adjustments. If we were willing to make these simple changes we could cut the cost of and time of deputation in half, missionaries could get to the field sooner, and ultimately there would be more souls saved.  Isn’t that the goal?