The shifting landscape in Baptist missions during the twentieth century: dozens of excellent books and hundreds of articles have been written in the past ten years on the changes that occurred in Baptist foreign missions work during the twentieth century.

Most of these books and articles have been penned by distinguished historians and competent missionary executives. Although I have taught missiology and been involved in missions administration, I was a missionary for most of my adult life, living overseas and engaging in cross-cultural missions work. Perhaps there is a need for a life-long practitioner of missions to add some additional thoughts to those of others who have pondered the last and greatest century of Baptist missions. By identifying the shifts in strategy and methods during the last hundred years, new insights may be gained as to where the Great Commission will lead Baptists in this new century.

Identifiable Shifts

A number of identifiable and significant shifts occurred in Baptist missions work in the twentieth century. Some of these changes are obvious to those who have studied--even in a superficial way--the history of Baptist missions. Those changes are clearly explained and documented in various works on the subject. For example, both "stated" and "unstated" reasons have been given as to why Southern Baptist foreign missions moved away from agricultural, medical, and social missions and from theological education in the last twenty-five years. The stated reason was that Southern Baptist missionaries need to focus more on evangelism; the unstated reasons appear to be more financial and logistical. Other changes, especially in the last thirty years, are less obvious, and the reasons behind these changes are even more obscure. These less obvious changes and shifts in missions strategy have shaped the nature of the church both overseas and in the United States and are worthy of examination.

TWo editorial notes are necessary. First, in discussing the "twentieth century" with regard to missions work, that period is best defined as the time between the beginning of World War I in 1914 and ending on September 11, 2001. Second, and unless otherwise noted, when referring to Baptist missions, the focus is on the work of Southern Baptists from America ministering outside of the United States.

The "Greatest Century" for Baptist Missions

As A. Earl Parvin noted, not until the beginning of the Second Great Awakening in 1780s did a great wave of enthusiasm for missions sweep across the American church. (1) Yet, most of that interest was centered on the United States and evangelism at home. The involvement of Baptists in overseas missions work is most often traced to Adoniram and Ann Judson in the early 1800s. (2) But in fact, Luther Rice, a colleague and supporter of the Judsons, was the person who raised awareness of the need for foreign missions effort and who worked to establish a unified missionary sending agency. (3)

This missionary fervor helped form the Triennial Convention in 1814, so named because it met every three years. From the origin of this convention and through the nineteenth century, the overseas work of Baptists grew slowly but steadily. By the start of World War I, the work of Baptists from America had spread to the four corners of the earth, including China, Brazil, and Nigeria.

The nineteenth century has sometimes been called the "Great Century" for Baptist missions. Yet, only in the twentieth century were circumstances favorable enough in the United States to allow for large numbers of missionaries to be sent overseas and supported. For example, by 2005 Southern Baptists topped the 20,000 mark in terms of the number of career missionaries they had sent overseas. Thus, this last century can truly be seen as the "Greatest Century" for Baptist missions work abroad.

Baptist missions work overseas changed a great deal during that century, and modern missionaries found themselves in a different position from that of their forbearers. At least eight important changes or shifts occurred in Baptist missions efforts during the past one hundred years. Though the order of their presentation below is not important, an effort has been made to list these changes somewhat chronologically.

From Rural to Urban

Prior to World War I, much of the Western world, including the United States, had already begun shifting from an agrarian to an industrialized economy. (4) The military-industrial machines created during World War I and World War II meant that men and women left their farms and small towns in large numbers for better paying jobs in towns and cities. This basic change in the culture of America from rural to urban life also had a pervasive effect on missions work.

Early Southern Baptist missionaries, such as Lottie Moon and hundreds of lesser-known missions heroes, came mainly from rural backgrounds, many of them growing up on farms. Thus, they related more readily to those whom they served in underdeveloped countries. My wife Kathie and I had the wonderful experience of arriving on the mission field at a time when the last of the "boat" missionaries were still serving. These were the missionaries who moved to foreign lands with barrels rather than crates and arrived via boat rather than plane.

"Boat" missionaries were "lifers," who did not view foreign missions as an item to add to their resume; rather, they committed themselves to serve until retirement or sickness or death called them home. Most of these missionaries were from the builder generation and had grown up on farms or in small towns. They could build or fix things and did not shrink from hard work.

In sharp contrast, today's missionaries typically grew up in large towns or cities and have education beyond a bachelor's degree. They are baby-boomers or even younger, and they consider such things as air conditioning and computer access to be basic necessities. The socioeconomic gap between this younger generation of missionaries and their target group is enormous. Given the opportunity, they often choose to live in capital cities (or in another country), rather than in the midst of their unreached people group, as did their predecessors.

From Countries to People Groups

A second significant change involves the focus of missions organizations. Previously, missionaries were appointed to countries, to the nations of the earth; today, they are often assigned to specific, unreached people groups. This change began with the work of David Barrett (5) and others who endeavored to identify those groups of people in the world who had been the most neglected or untouched by traditional missionary efforts. This effort led to such concepts as the "10-40 Window" (6) and "ethnolinguistic groups." (7)

The result is that more and more cutting-edge Baptist missions organizations are now assigning personnel to very specific ethnic groups in remote and often hostile areas of the world. Such missions work requires a different kind of cross-cultural missionary who must be not only a linguist and an anthropologist but also must be capable of educating supporters about places and people that are as exotic as locations seen in a National Geographic television special.

From Holistic to Evangelistic

Another significant change in overseas missions work came with the shift from holistic to evangelistic ministries. While Baptist missionaries always had as one of their priorities the sharing of the gospel, they also met human needs whenever possible. Just as Lottie Moon gave up her own food to keep others alive, Baptist missionaries through the decades have been involved in agricultural, educational, and other helping ministries.

During the last thirty years or so, Southern Baptists began pulling back from costly institutional ministries such as schools and hospitals. The primary focus shifted solely to evangelism. This shift has led to a "numbers' game" of counting new church starts and converts, and such a change at times is difficult to comprehend or endorse. The stated rationale was that Southern Baptists wanted to fulfill the Great Commission, but the emphasis seemed to be more on baptism numbers and "counting coups." The emphasis seemed to shift away from "making disciples," which is the true aim of Mathew 28:19-20, and missionaries began to neglect Matthew 25 and the obligation of ministering to "the least of these." (8)

Fortunately, American Baptists have continued their holistic approach to foreign missions, as have many others. The emergence of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) in the early 1990s added another organization dedicated to holistic missions. CBF's Rural Poverty Initiative, (9) for example, illustrates a commitment to being the presence of Christ and to ministering in Christ's name to those in need.

From Denominational to Relational

For several decades, sociologists have been predicting the decline of the major Protestant denominations in the United States. This prediction may now indeed be coming true. One fact is certain: denominational loyalties are declining. New church start surveys show that a new congregation may actually be hurt by identifying itself publicly with a mainline Protestant group.

The lack of denominational loyalty has significant implications for overseas missions work. In past decades, if a local First Baptist Church wanted to be involved in missions in Brazil, the members would contact the Foreign Mission Board, which would in turn put them in touch with an area director. Today, that same church would simply connect a missionary in the area of Brazil to which they wanted to take a missions trip. If that same church had a prior connection with a missionary in Brazil, whether Baptist or not, the church would likely work directly with that missionary.

Today, this relational attitude, rather than denominational connectivity, runs deep in the local church. More and more members want "hands-on" involvement with overseas missions efforts before they are willing to commit money and other resources. The top-down, hierarchical model of missions organization is no longer accepted, which is why an organization such as the CBF views itself as a resource center for local churches and Christians rather than as a denominational sending agency.

Decreased denominational loyalty has had a marked impact on missions giving. Fewer churches now give blindly to missions organizations. Instead, local congregations often either designate money to specific projects or to specific missionaries, or churches send money directly to a missionary. This shift in giving has, in turn, changed how missionaries and their sponsoring organizations go about seeking support. Missionaries today live in a competitive market, and telling their story with a few slides is no longer an effective means of raising awareness or money.

For most of the twentieth century, Southern Baptist leaders relied on the Cooperative Program and special missions offerings to motivate givers. Although this system worked well for decades, it always had the disadvantage of removing missionaries from an on-going and personal relationship with their supporters. Today, more and more groups, including the SBC, are calling for missionaries to raise money for themselves and for their projects through direct support from churches and members.

From Field Workers to Entrepreneurs

Until recently, overseas missionaries had often been called "field workers," because they answered a call to foreign fields of service and went to those fields to work. These missionaries served as representatives of their denomination and under the direction of their missions board. Support for their life and ministry was funneled through denominational organizations and administered by its leaders. Though "tent makers" (those missionaries who raised their own support on the field), and "faith missionaries" (those who had no board behind them but did their own fund-raising through churches) have been around since the time of the apostle Paul, Southern Baptists and others have primarily used the missions board approach.

In the last twenty years, a new breed of entrepreneurial missionaries has emerged. These missionaries have been trained with the idea that their vocation involves bringing the resources of the Great Commission to bear on their particular piece of the mission field. Their self-understanding is no longer that of a mere field worker, but rather as a catalytic, world-wide mobilizer of prayer and resources for their unreached people group. They may avoid the "M" word (missionary) and prefer words like "representative" or "advocate." This "new" kind of missionary is entrepreneurial in raising funds for his or her projects and ministries. In some cases, their "raison d'etre" in their host country is not only a platform for their presence but also an income source for their ministry.

The denominational controversy within the SBC in the 1980s and 1990s eventually impacted the Foreign Mission Board, now the International Mission Board. The effects of that struggle gave rise to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship; the controversy also adversely affected missions giving. Some pastors and churches used the controversy to justify reducing their support of the Cooperative Program and their giving to world missions offerings. While most of these funds were redirected to other missions endeavors, this shift contributed to a new paradigm of "hands-on missions."

From Boat-Mail to Cyberspace 

Most entrepreneurial missionaries today speak the language of computers. The boat missionaries were also the boat-mail people. Turnaround time for correspondence throughout most of the twentieth century for boat missionaries was four to six months, thus making missionary administration a long, drawn-out process. Today's overseas Christian workers send and receive e-mail messages in a matter of hours or even minutes. Computers have replaced typewriters just as e-mails have replaced telegrams. Thus, communication between sending agencies, supporting churches, and family and friends is almost instantaneous. Prayer support can be mustered in a matter of minutes; emerging ministry opportunities can see resources shifted and personnel redirected almost immediately. This new method of communication was evidenced in the rapid and appropriate response to the tsunami tragedy in December 2004 and following.

In many ways this revolution in the speed, quality, and accessibility of information and communication maybe the greatest change in missions work in the last hundred years. The communication revolution has made everything from Bible translations to travel so much easier and efficient. Even the most remote Christian worker can check in daily with family and colleagues via satellite phone.

From Well-Schooled to Bible School

Beginning with the soldiers who returned home from World War II, middle-class Americans had access for the first time to college education through the GI bill, which resulted in a pool of foreign missionary candidates who had traveled overseas and had received a college and often a seminary education. The missionaries that emerged were "four-wheel drive" missionaries, who would go anywhere and who could do almost anything.

In recent decades, however, groups such as Southern Baptists initially lowered their educational standards to accept missionaries who were not seminary trained or who had not been trained in one of their traditional seminaries. Later, as the SBC leaders moved to a more fundamentalist position, so did the SBC seminaries. The result has been a new generation of missionaries who arrive on the field with more of a Bible school education rather than a solid liberal arts or university education along with serious theological training. The lack of educational training has proved to be detrimental to missions efforts. For example, when working in Europe, a presentation of the gospel must consist of more than a simple recitation of the four spiritual laws if a missionary hopes to engage the highly educated national people in a life-changing discussion.

Such discussions, of course, presume that missionaries can speak the languages of their target groups. The short-term nature of too much recent missions work has resulted in a kind of Berlitz-ing (10) of the gospel message by missionaries who are neither cross-cultural nor operational in the heart language of their target group. The truth is that there are few viable shortcuts for sharing faith. The incarnational example of Jesus challenges Christians to take on the form of a servant, which includes adapting to the language and culture of others in order

to be effective. Baptist missionaries cannot expect the rest of the world to learn English before they convert to Christianity, nor should Baptist missionaries use the teaching of English as their primary strategy in reaching others.

From Co-Workers to Second-Class

Perhaps the most regrettable change in Baptist missions work overseas has come in downgrading women and their value in this endeavor. In the early days of Baptist foreign missions work, women, who often outnumbered and outlived men overseas, took on roles and responsibilities denied them in the United States. These women preached, taught other women and men, planted churches, and discipled new believers. Many of these women were ordained on the field.

During the last two decades, some Baptist groups, especially Southern Baptists, have revised their views on the place of women in ministry. They have insisted upon submission by women, which has resulted in an institutionalization of a definite second-class status for more than half of their members. Such has not been the case among American Baptists and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Baptists.

The delegation of women to second-class status by Southern Baptists has affected how Baptists do missions work overseas. Not so long ago SBC missionary women carded titles such as seminary professor, doctor, nurse, and social worker. Even the spouses of missionary pastors had the title of "church and home." That label was later changed to "home and church" so that the proper emphasis would be made.

Home schooling has become a growing phenomenon in the United States and also among overseas missionaries. While this trend may be a necessity in some parts of the word, it can also be seen as a means of isolating female missionaries at home "where they should be" taking care of their children. The increased popularity of home churching for missionary families has also influenced Baptist missions efforts. What does this trend say about incarnational missions and about identifying with the people with whom one is working?

Conclusions

What do these changes teach us about the future direction of Baptist missions work in this new century? Phillip Jenkins correctly notes that the role of North American and Western European churches in the next thirty or forty years will be to resource the work of Christians from those places where the church is now the strongest: Africa, South America, and parts of Southeast Asia. (11) From an American point of view, this shift is leading to an internationalization of missions where groups such as Korean Baptists and Brazilian Baptists are taking the lead in world missions. Korean and Brazilian Baptists not only send missionaries to the United States and elsewhere to work with their ethnic group, they are also evangelize the nationals as well.

The internationalization of world missions means that organizations like the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship are on track by focusing their energies and attention on significant partnerships with major players from the developing world. The internationalization of world missions also suggests that Baptists in America should realize that the great century for missions is likely over. Baptists in America are now being invited to develop humility and allow others to take the lead while they "hold the ropes," by praying and perhaps supplying the means for others to further God's Kingdom.

Another troubling conclusion that can be drawn from these shifts or changes involves the passing of the builder generation, that is, those who preceded the baby boomers. Members of that generation fought in World War II and came home to build America. They were active in church and in giving to their church and its missions programs. As that generation with their strong denominational loyalty fades away, who will replace them in the support and promotion of Baptist missions work overseas?

Many of these factors have also led to a decline and the near disappearance of missions education in most Baptist churches in America. Far too many emerging church leaders and their children have neither an understanding of nor a heart for foreign missions. Despite the growing trend of churches for hands-on missions involvement both at home and abroad, the overall missional consciousness of Baptist churches seems to be dimming. Where are the prophetic voices reminding us that "the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few?" (12)

A new call to world missions is needed. This call must take into account new missional paradigms as well as the changes of emerging Baptist churches in America. The single word "Baptist" once evoked the idea of world missions to those who heard it. It is time to rediscover our first love and reclaim our heritage as world partners in missions.

(1.) A. Earl Pan, in, Mission in North America (Beckley: Moody Press, 1997); http://www.anamissions.org/missionsnorthamerica/09.%20history.ch2.html, accessed March 10, 2006.

(2.) Courtney Anderson, To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1956). The Judsons were commissioned on February 6, 1812, as Congregationalist missionaries and set sail for India shortly thereafter. See Anderson, 106ff. During their voyage to India, the Judsons became Baptists; see Anderson, 128ff.

(3.) H. Leon McBeth, The Baptist Heritage: Four Centuries of Baptist Witness (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1987), 344-46.

(4.) John Besl, "A Short Retrospective on 20th Century U.S. Population Change," Indiana Business Review (Spring 2001): 11-12.

(5.) See, for example, David B. Barrett's World Christian Encyclopedia: A Comparative Survey of Churches and Religions in the Modern World, A.D. 1900-2000 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982).

(6.) The "10-40 Window" is a missiological term describing that part of the world that contains the largest population of non-Christians on earth. The area extents roughly from 10 degrees to 40 degrees north of the equator and runs from North Africa, through the Middle East and Central Asia to China.

(7.) "Ethnolinguistic groups" is a term used to identify those groups of people who have a common self-identify based on a shared culture and language.

(8.) See Matthew 25:40 and 45 in the New International Version of the Bible (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995).

(9.) The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's Rural Poverty Initiative involves a commitment by CBF to work in the twenty poorest counties in the USA on a long-term basis to improve the quality of life of their residents, all this while "Being the Presence of Christ" as these ministries are developed.

(10.) Berlitz Schools are found around the world and offer short-term language acquisition to businessmen and others who are looking for a rapid way to communicate in a foreign country.

(11.) Phillip Jenkins, The Next Christendom, The Coming of Global Christianity (New York: Oxford Press, 2002).

(12.) Matthew 9:37b from the New International Version of the Bible (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995).

T Thomas is the coordinator of the Cooperating Baptist Fellowship of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma.