Wednesday Afternoon
Articles of Agreement
Amending the Articles of Agreement (the basic bylaws of the ABA) requires a two stage process. First, the changes to the policy must be approved by 2/3 of the messengers present at the meeting. Then, each church must be given a ballot to mail in or a chance to vote at the next meeting in Spokane, WA. 2/3 of the churches represented at the average of the last three meetings must vote "yes" for the amendments to pass: it is not 2/3 of ballots turned in, so not turning in a vote is a "no."
The amendments as approved were mostly adjustments to terminology, but there were two substantial changes. First, the music director, director of meeting arrangements, parliamentarian, and assistant parliamentarian were added as officers. They were not included historically because they were appointed officers, but now they are elected and adding them to the officers matches our practice better. Second, the article on the missionary service trust (Article X, which has not been used in many years) was stricken from the record. Third, a provision is now made for virtual meetings in an emergency, where each church would receive one vote. The most controversial language change was the switch from describing churches as sovereign to autonomous. A representative of the committee explained that they determined God alone was properly described as sovereign, churches are autonomous. This proposal passed unanimously, and is now the property of the churches.
Mission Policy
There was much discussion about the mission policy. Opposition to the ban on full salaried missionaries working a secular job and opposition to the salary wind down were discussed but not successful.
The primary change was that the salary wind down now applies to all salaried missionaries (it previously applied only to the interstate missionaries on full salary). The new policy will take effect for other missionaries in 2027. At that time, the maximum amount that a missionary can receive from the treasurer's office on salary will be capped at 80% initially (as it already is), after the 5th year will be 75%, after the 6th year 70%, and so on. This cap will begin affecting foreign and national missionaries five years from now, and will begin at 5% for everyone regardless of how long they have presently been on the field. Interstate missionaries will remain on their current plan.
The other change was that after the ban on full-time missionaries working secular jobs, a clarification was added that this does not prevent a missionary from raising funds in special circumstances (health insurance, travel expenses, and housing). This passed with no recorded opposition (although I saw on Twitter that one person voted against it and was missed) and takes effect immediately.
World Missions Focus: Those Who Have Not Heard
This seminar was great. Bro Rusty's was the most practical, and so my brain did not switch effectively to taking notes for the others. If you are able to attend an ABA meeting, I would consider the World Missions Focus to be one of the must-attend events.
The amendments as approved were mostly adjustments to terminology, but there were two substantial changes. First, the music director, director of meeting arrangements, parliamentarian, and assistant parliamentarian were added as officers. They were not included historically because they were appointed officers, but now they are elected and adding them to the officers matches our practice better. Second, the article on the missionary service trust (Article X, which has not been used in many years) was stricken from the record. Third, a provision is now made for virtual meetings in an emergency, where each church would receive one vote. The most controversial language change was the switch from describing churches as sovereign to autonomous. A representative of the committee explained that they determined God alone was properly described as sovereign, churches are autonomous. This proposal passed unanimously, and is now the property of the churches.
Mission Policy
There was much discussion about the mission policy. Opposition to the ban on full salaried missionaries working a secular job and opposition to the salary wind down were discussed but not successful.
The primary change was that the salary wind down now applies to all salaried missionaries (it previously applied only to the interstate missionaries on full salary). The new policy will take effect for other missionaries in 2027. At that time, the maximum amount that a missionary can receive from the treasurer's office on salary will be capped at 80% initially (as it already is), after the 5th year will be 75%, after the 6th year 70%, and so on. This cap will begin affecting foreign and national missionaries five years from now, and will begin at 5% for everyone regardless of how long they have presently been on the field. Interstate missionaries will remain on their current plan.
The other change was that after the ban on full-time missionaries working secular jobs, a clarification was added that this does not prevent a missionary from raising funds in special circumstances (health insurance, travel expenses, and housing). This passed with no recorded opposition (although I saw on Twitter that one person voted against it and was missed) and takes effect immediately.
World Missions Focus: Those Who Have Not Heard
This seminar was great. Bro Rusty's was the most practical, and so my brain did not switch effectively to taking notes for the others. If you are able to attend an ABA meeting, I would consider the World Missions Focus to be one of the must-attend events.
Agape Love
Rusty Teer
Proximity
Rusty Teer
Proximity
The kind of agape love we need to reach the two-thirds ignored world requires us to first relocate our heart. Can we love them regardless of whether they respond? Can we love them regardless of their sin? Can we love them regardless of the barriers we must overcome (whether language, communication style, or something else)? Agape love requires sacrifice: surrendering our possessions and even our lives (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Warning: We can make a lot of noise without proclaiming the gospel. We can do a lot of "work" for God and be useless. We can give our money and even our bodies to missions and still accomplish nothing.
This kind of love that we need keeps us close to the people, motivated to serve well, motivated to learn and grow, motivated to worship God in the heart language of the people, motivated to pursue the unreached even those who are difficult or may be your enemy. Mission work is not a single surrender: it is dying daily to self.
Pursuit
Pursuit
God did not wait for us to reach out to Him, He pursued us. We need to reach out in pre-evangelism of our lifestyle, our love, our families, our work, our play, our cell phones, our exercise, our diet - everything about our lives should be geared to help us be effective vessels of the gospel.
Be a learner: read! Be professional: do what your visa says and do it well! "Just because you work in a corrupt culture does not mean you should be corrupt yourself." Be prepared! Have a presentation, full of reason and care. "There is no timeline on relationships but there is a direction." Be conversational - "ask them questions until they start asking you one." "You are answering a questioner not simply a question."
Paraphrase: like Peter, we cut off the ears of those we want to hear the gospel.
Be a learner: read! Be professional: do what your visa says and do it well! "Just because you work in a corrupt culture does not mean you should be corrupt yourself." Be prepared! Have a presentation, full of reason and care. "There is no timeline on relationships but there is a direction." Be conversational - "ask them questions until they start asking you one." "You are answering a questioner not simply a question."
Paraphrase: like Peter, we cut off the ears of those we want to hear the gospel.
Agape love makes us seek out perpetual relationships.
Eddie Williams
The power of the resurrection is the power for telling the lost of whom they have not heard.
Doug Wiesema
Mark 2
"It was noised that Jesus was in the house" - the story would never have happened if somebody did not announce the good news. The hero of the story has no description, no dialogue: It is time for us to make some noise!
Doug Wiesema
Mark 2
"It was noised that Jesus was in the house" - the story would never have happened if somebody did not announce the good news. The hero of the story has no description, no dialogue: It is time for us to make some noise!
Editorial
I said I wasn't going to walk to the mic to fix the wording of the "full salary" issue, but my will power broke down and I did. Sorry.
Fixed? No offense, but I’m not sure that it was fixed. It sounded like word soup. But, I’m visual and was not afforded an opportunity to see the language we were being asked to vote upon. In this age, we should be able and required to display such language on the big screens for all to see.
ReplyDeleteThe language originally said "The maximum percentage of salary that a full salaried missionary may receive is" - the change I proposed was "The maximum percentage of full salary that a salaried missionary may receive is". That means that the principle is the same, but it closes the loophole of requesting slightly less than full salary. It creates an absolute cap instead at a certain percentage of full salary based on your time on the same field. I agree that it would make the process much smoother if someone would put the language described on the screen. Maybe having a process for people to write their proposals down and hand them to the clerks to put on the PowerPoint would be helpful. It would also help if when a committee proposed a stack of changes they made them available on the website to consider before the meeting.
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