RICHMOND, Va. (BP)–The need to protect missionaries in sensitive assignments made a recent change in the missionary prayer calendar necessary, said International Mission Board President Jerry Rankin.
Generations of mission-minded Southern Baptists have prayed for missionaries on their birthdays, using prayer calendars printed in materials published by Woman’s Missionary Union and LifeWay Christian Resources. Those prayer calendars listed missionaries’ names and the countries in which they served.
Current calendars, however, list missionaries according to the IMB region in which they serve. Each region covers anywhere from a half-dozen to more than two dozen countries. The IMB removed references to specific countries to protect missionary security and to reflect dramatic changes in the way missionaries work overseas today.
Taking the gospel to people who have had little or no access to the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ made the change necessary, Rankin said. Some faithful prayer supporters, however, have expressed unhappiness with the switch.
“Over the years I have stored up knowledge about countries, have become acquainted with missionaries to these countries either personally or through reading, and have practiced praying much wider than just the missionary having a birthday,” wrote Nan Owens of Junction City, Ark.
“That’s impossible to do with the broad listings. For one thing, I can’t use the news sources to zero in on problems a missionary might be facing. I can’t intercede for specific political leaders and entities. I don’t know with whom else the missionary is interacting.”
While he understands the frustrations of intercessors used to knowing the country to which a missionary is assigned, two pressing issues forced the IMB to list missionaries only by region, Rankin said.
First, Southern Baptist workers today are sharing the gospel in places hostile to Christian missionaries. Publicly identifying those workers and the places they serve as IMB missionaries would jeopardize their safety and ministry and expose believers in those places to danger. There are, in fact, some IMB workers whose assignments are so sensitive they are not listed at all in the prayer calendar.
Second, the board has shifted its focus from working in countries to working among ethnic people groups. Recognizing that the gospel spreads most readily within a people group — and that tribal relations often cross political borders — Southern Baptist missionaries have begun organizing themselves around the people groups they are trying to reach.
These “people group teams” are not restricted to working in any one country, and the place a missionary lives may have little to do with his or her work, Rankin said. While 4,570 IMB missionaries live in 126 countries, they are involved in strategies reaching more than 336 people groups in 184 countries.
For the first time in its 154-year history, the International Mission Board is pursuing a truly global strategy, committed to taking the gospel to every last people group on earth, regardless of where they live, Rankin said. That shift has required missionaries to make enormous adjustments, and their supporters will have to make adjustments as well.
Mission supporters can compensate by leading their churches to adopt missionary families so sensitive information can be shared without having to resort to published media, Rankin said.
To order an 8 ½-x-11″ world map showing how IMB work is divided among 14 regions, e-mail your request to the IMB Resource Center at [email protected] or call toll-free, 1-800-866-3621. Please be specific in requesting the IMB Regional World Map. Information on adopting an IMB missionary can be obtained by e-mailing Susan Lawton at [email protected] or calling toll-free 1-800-362-1322.
