‘Go Make Disciples’

MISSIONS CELEBRATION FEATURES WORKERS FOR FAITH

Alan Duncan, a missionary from South Africa, preaches at First Baptist Church in Fayetteville on Sunday. Duncan serves through the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Alan Duncan, a missionary from South Africa, preaches at First Baptist Church in Fayetteville on Sunday. Duncan serves through the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.

— Loren Phippen had devoted decades to a high-paying career in aviation when God called him to something different. Phippen, who gave his life to Christ at age 40, returned to college at about 50, he said. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Christian ministry and then a master’s of divinity.

Today, Phippen works as a missionary with the Southern Baptist Convention, striving to reach souls in Wichita, Kan., and the surrounding area. His trademark tool is a miniature horseshoe iron. Phippen personalizes four-inch horseshoes with people’s names at state and county fairs and other events.

“While they’re waiting, we share Jesus with them,” he said. The horseshoes also are inscribed with “John 3:16.” The verse carries the heart of the good news, evangelical Christians believe.

Phippen was one of 26 missionaries who shared their stories with local churchgoers during the On Mission Celebration sponsored by the Washington Madison Baptist Association last weekend.

Missionaries set up booths and spoke to association members at a special service at First Baptist Church in Fayetteville on Sept. 21.

They fanned out through the twocounty area on Sunday, speaking at morning and evening services at 22 participating churches.

The goal was “to personalize missions for people in our churches,” said Ron Lomax, director of missions for the association. “We give money to missions, we pray for missionaries, but most people don’t meet missionaries face to face. This is a chance to get together and see what God is doing all over the world.”

The missionaries represented a wide range of ministries - from church planting in Latvia to an eye care clinic in Mexico to a church in a Midwest mall. Several local missionaries joined laborers from as far away as Brazil, Tanzania and the Middle East.

The visitors work in ninecountries and six states, Lomax said. They all are career missionaries, at least partially supported by one of several entities within the Southern Baptist Convention.

Their colorful displays featured native dress, handicrafts, outreach programs, maps and brochures.

MISSIONS THE PRIORITY

Churches in the Southern Baptist Convention support missions in several ways. A percentage of church members’ weekly tithes goes to the Cooperative Program, which funds the International Mission Board, the NorthAmerican Mission Board and other programs.

Some of that comes back to local churches and associations - local networks of Southern Baptist churches - through support from the state convention and the North American Mission Board. Special collections such as the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and the Dixie Jackson State Missions Off ering also are taken throughout the year.

Southern Baptists in Arkansas donated about $22 million to missions in 2011, said Rusty Hart, who works with CooperativeProgram promotion for the Arkansas Baptist State Convention.

Missions are at the heart of ministry for Southern Baptists, who believe God gave them a clear directive in Matthew 28:19-20.

“Go therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.”

The Great Commission, as this is known, is coupled with The Great Commandment - to love God with all one’s heart and soul and mind and love one’s neighbor as oneself, said the Rev. Douglas Falknor, pastor of First Baptist Church in Fayetteville.

The two commandments work together to form a blueprint for Christian life, he said. Southern Baptists share their faith from a place of obedience and heartfelt love for other people, he said.

The Rev. Terry Eaton, pastor of Brush Creek Baptist Church in Springdale, said the mission celebration gave members of his rural congregation a chance to learn about missionary efforts worldwide. His church heard from missionaries engaged in evangelism in Arkansas, Iowa and Mexico, he said.

“It was a good reminder of what the church is supposed to be in regard to our mission,” he said. “That’s the real work. That’s the priority for us, as believers, until the Lord takes us home.

“No one is exempt from that. It’s each of our jobs to be missionaries where we are.” ‘JERUSALEM’ AND THE WORLD

Bob Morris has served in South Africa for 23 years, working with a tribal people called the Xhosa. He and his family lived in a rural area for most of that time and moved to the city when his eldest child reached high school age.

Despite the end of apartheid in 1994, whites and blacks still live in separate areas, Morris said. He ministers to the Xhosa living in a township on the edge of Grahamstown, the seat of the Makana municipality.

Many are receptive to the Christian message, although they want to combine it with their animistic beliefs, Morris said. Animism sees a spirit world underlying the physical world. Adherents see spirits in natural phenomena such as rocks and trees. They think evil spirits can enter a person and do him harm, Morris said.

“One of our challenges as Christian missionaries is to get across to them, ‘God says he’s a jealous God. He wants us to worship him alone, notGod and other spirits.’”

Missionaries in the United States and Canada face other kinds of challenges. The Send North America initiative of the North American Mission Board aims to break through apathy and reach the unchurched in large cities, said Georges Boujakly, a missionary with the Kansas Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists.

The goal is to become the premier church planting organization in North America, he said.

The work may not sound as glamorous as converting people overseas, but it is every bit as important, said Phippen, the church planter in Wichita.

“Jesus said in Acts 1:8 to witness to people in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and all the world,” he said. “If we’re not doing Jerusalem, we’re in trouble.”

In addition to sharing the gospel at public events, Phippen works with the 52churches in the Wichita association. He pastors parttime at one church and works with youth at an area juvenile detention center, he said.

“People in aviation don’t understand. I walked away from an $80,000 a year job. The rewards are much better.”

Morris and his family are back in the U.S. for what’s called a stateside assignment. International missionaries are called back to the U.S. every three to five years, staying three to 12 months, Lomax said.

“It gives us a chance to reconnect with family and friends,” Morris said. “It gives us a chance to do things like this - connect with people who are supporting us. We’re in a partnership with people in the churches.”

Religion, Pages 10 on 09/29/2012

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