From the outside it may appear that the main cause of new Independent Baptist churches being planted in the United Stats is church splits — amicable or otherwise. While this is a cause of new churches being started, the other main means of propagating fundamentalism in America is through home missions.
Raising support for home missions is no small task. It’s difficult enough to raise money to reach some exotic people group in the Amazon Basin, but what about auto workers in Detroit or retirees in central California? It’s just not too exciting.
To combat that natural lack of excitement, fundamentalist home missionaries have hit upon a tactic which overcomes the natural reluctance of people to give money to a pastor who is planting churches within their own borders. The magic phrase is “a city of [insert number here] with no Bible-believing, gospel preaching church.”
It does not matter that there may be 4,976 Baptist churches in that town and another 9,324 Methodist, Presbyterian, Nondenominational, and Evangelical churches that still preach an orthodox gospel. No, sir. If there is not an Independent Baptist church that has graduates from our school, who use our version of the Bible and our edition of the hymn book then THERE IS NO BIBLE-BELIEVING CHURCH! Amen?
It’s not a bad gig being a fully supported missionary to someplace like Orlando Florida. It’s certainly not bad work if you can get it.
amen, preach it! 😉
When’s the last time you met a fully supported home missionary? Hmmm? Thought so. LOL.
And I can’t believe I have to change my bookmarks to a stupid dot com name.
You’re welcome Bob. 🙂 Help yourself to some fundy gear while you’re here.
I’ve heard this one way, way too many times.
Ugh, yes! I’m sorry, but I just can’t take “home missionaries” seriously. My husband’s aunt and uncle are “missionaries” to the “unreached Mormons” in Utah. And that’s fine; we’re all supposed to reach out to those who live around us, right? What I don’t get is why they need my money to move out there–can’t they get jobs??
It’s much, much different when you have to move to a different country because of green cards, visas, etc., that are involved. So, yeah, I wouldn’t think twice about sending money to my parents’ in India, but I definitely wouldn’t send money to my husband’s relatives in Utah.
And the “no Bible believing church” mentality thing, too–gah! I hate that! My husband’s grandfather, a solidly Indy-Fundy, pre-trib, pre-rapture, pre-whatever Baptist, used to pastor a tiny church in Chapman, KS. The way he and his family tells it, his church is the ONLY church for a hundred miles around! And yet, I just did a casual Google search and found dozens of good churches within minutes of Chapman. They just aren’t KJV-Only and all the rest of those labels. *sigh*
Yeah, recently the church we are members of had to add a home missionary. Apparently a pastor who was a part of the “good ole boys” preachers network here, decided to leave his church and start a new one by his daughter and her family. So yeah, our church had to support him so the preacher would still be in good with the “big boys”. Apparently, none of the other dozens of Baptist churches were the “right” kind.
I always thought “How the West was Won†was a story of all those missionaries that came through our church on perpetual deputation, headed out west where there were no Independent, Fundamental, 1611 King James only, sin hatin’, satan fightin’, gospel preachin’, Baptist churches. Why as we heard it everyone west of Hammond, In. was heathens, pagans or mormons.
As a westerner here…growing up in an Independent, Fundamental, Bible-believing, MISSIONARY-MINDED Pre-trib. Baptist Church….I always thought that all of the Baptist churches in the South were the enemy. We heard so much about the evils of the Southern Baptist Convention that I assumed everyone in the South was of the “Southern Baptist Convention” LIBERAL variety.
Is there a need for home missions? Absolutely, but home missions doesn’t have the glory of starting up churches in major metropolitan areas. Now, if someone was going to be a missionary to the American Indian villages in Alaska or become involved in starting churches for people who don’t speak English, then I would be excited. However, most of what falls under home missions today (across denominational lines) are the development of churches in the suburbs of cities with lots of churches.
I remember someone coming through once that was trying to raise funding to be a missionary in Hawaii. Even my dad commented “He’s going to have a hard time with that one,” and we heard later they had given up.