Barnabas File

The idea of how a church pursues missions has changed drastically in the last fifty years.    Although my perspective comes from being a Baptist in the South during that time, I believe that many of the changes have also impacted churches of all denominations across the United States in some way. The paradigm in which I was indoctrinated saw “missions” as something that was done somewhere else by people who were specifically called to leave their homes and do evangelistic and philanthropic work in strange and exotic places.  The denomination had overseas, domestic, and state mission boards who were responsible for this work.  The role of those of us in local congregations was to pray for the missionaries, learn about their work, provide the funds for them to pursue their ministries, and give them a platform to tell us about what they were doing.  There may have been a few local mission opportunities such as a “rescue mission” for the down a...

When I attended the CBF General Assembly at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Atlanta last week, I realized that the last time I had been in the hotel was December 1969 when I attended Mission 70, a program put together by six Southern Baptist Convention agencies that attracted 5000 college students and young adults. With music written especially for the event, original drama, and speakers like Coretta Scott King and NBC commentator John Chancellor, meeting planners sought to engage a young adult generation that included both those immersed in social activism and those who were just on the periphery.  We were challenged as Christians to take up the tasks of justice and reconciliation in order to make a difference in the world. As a Vietnam veteran and a student in his final year of seminary, I was a bit on the edge of the action.  I had a wife, one child and one on the way, and I was looking for a place to do collegiate ministry (what we called Baptist Student Union at tha...

Pictured above (L to R): TCBF Coordinators Ircel Harrison, Jr., September 1998-2008;  C. William Junker, January - April 1996; Lila Anderson Boyd, January 1997-August 1998; and Lloyd T. Householder, Jr. November 1994-1995.  Lloyd T. Householder, Jr., passed away on January 30.   Lloyd was one of those people who made the old Southern Baptist Convention work.  He was a true “denominational statesman.”   In his service with the Baptist Sunday School Board, Lloyd found creative ways to tell stories and bring people together.  He invested much of his life in telling the good things that Baptists could do when they worked cooperatively.  His creativity and innovative spirit is exemplified in his role as chair of Mission 70, the conference for young adults that challenged a generation (including myself) to accept their role in impacting the world with the message of Christ. Like many of us, Lloyd would not accept the changes that cam...