by Jon Konnerup
In the past 60 years, the churches of the Baptist Bible Fellowship International have developed a burden for this world manifested through their incredible giving to missions and sending of missionaries. By God’s grace and through His people, nearly 7,000 churches have started outside the United States.
To continue our global missions effort, our local independent Baptist churches must continue to concentrate on church planting and lifting higher than ever the banner of the cross worldwide.
An area that is experiencing tremendous growth is that of foreign countries sending their own missionaries. This has been the goal all along and we are seeing the fruit of our church planting philosophy spread around the world. Missions is no longer “from the West to the rest.” Christianity is no longer seen as a Western religion. Missions should now be done in partnership with national believers. Why bypass those that the Lord has raised up through the efforts of our missionaries? Enabling indigenous believers and mobilizing local Baptist churches to reach others in their own region of the world and beyond is a God-honoring priority.
National Fellowships are springing up across the world. No longer content to only receive missionaries, these “new sending countries” are striving to send out their own missionaries. For instance, BBF churches in South Korea have sent out 21 missionary families. Japan BBF churches have sent their own to various parts of the world. The Philippines BBF has nearly 1,800 churches, many of which are involved in supporting and sending out their own missionaries — now 125 extended globally. Latin America and Africa are beginning to expand beyond their borders with the light of Jesus Christ.
In places like Indonesia, the church leaders express their need for more missionaries. Their desire is to see more leaders trained to plant more churches with the goal to reach their country for Christ. But they also are pleading for men and women to go from Indonesia to other countries sharing the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Our task today is not merely in going to the dark spots of the planet ourselves, but in enabling our brothers and sisters in Christ to reach those dark areas closest to them. We multiply ourselves, becoming catalysts, when we help mobilize national Christians. Missions has become a global enterprise, the gospel from everywhere to everywhere.
In 60 years, we have grown to 862 missionaries in the BBFI serving on 95 fields. With the population predicted to reach over 12 billion in 25 years, another 900 missionaries will not be nearly enough to keep pace. We need help, and with these disciples from other nations we can work together — making us truly the Baptist Bible Fellowship International.