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a fork in the road
by Barry Simpson
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While attending a district association meeting in October 2006, James Forlines, general director of the International Missions department, approached me and invited me to have lunch with him the following week. At the time, it was just another lunch engagement.
I thought it might have something to do with Shannon Little, a missionary appointee to Japan who is a member of our church. As a single woman, she was experiencing difficulty raising financial support. We set a date, but with the demands of pastoral ministry I didn’t give much thought to the appointment. On the day of the scheduled meal, my full attention was consumed with helping a dear Christian brother dying with cancer. As a result, I arrived late to the appointment.
As the conversation unfolded, I began to realize that James was going to ask me to work for International Missions. I’m sure I had a deadpan look on my face. The idea of working for the department had never entered my mind, nor was I overly interested in a change of employment. When we left the restaurant, James headed for a two-week trip to Spain, and I embarked on a 24-day odyssey of prayer, consultation with confidants, and deep soul-searching for my wife Jena and me.
Jena and I had been serving New Hope FWB Church in Joelton, Tennessee, for almost a quarter of a century. I was 23 and Jena 19 when we began attending the church as young Bible college students, and we spent our entire married life and ministry at New Hope. We began by serving in children’s church and bus ministry, and later transitioned to full-time youth and associate pastor. For the past 16 years I served as senior pastor.
We love the people of New Hope. They helped us raise two sons; they shaped and honed our ministry skills. In many ways, New Hope has been our life. The church has a bright future with committed staff and great lay leadership. We truly had no reason to leave.
Out of the clear blue, we found ourselves considering leaving the pastorate at New Hope for another facet of ministry. What began as just another lunch had the potential to change our lives and our future.
I’m not much of a mystic when it comes to the will of God. I’m not one to put out a fleece, or to make major life decisions based on a whim or feelings. My mind, as well as my heart, would have to be satisfied it was God’s will before I would consider such a move.
The Crisis Presented
James returned from his trip in time to attend the Tennessee state meeting. During the meeting, Jena and I met with him for a total of four hours. He clarified the challenges facing each missionary and the department as a whole, as it relates to funding. I couldn’t help but agree as he shared his concerns about the inadequacies of the current funding system to meet future needs.
I knew from personal experience, as Shannon’s pastor, the current system wasn’t working. Shannon, who grew up at New Hope, spent two and half years on the road, working hard to raise her support. I knew how discouraged and frustrated she’d been at times.
The inefficiency of the current funding system
is hampering our ability to share the gospel with
the unreached multitudes. A pipeline full of young couples and individuals—ready or preparing to go to the field—will be delayed or turned away entirely if something isn’t done. The gospel will not reach men, women, and children who desperately need to hear it unless new solutions are found.
As never before, I recognized the flaws in the current method of designated missionary giving. We will utterly fail to meet future needs if we continue as we are. I became convinced I needed to help find a solution.
The Missionaries’ Dilemma
A troublesome aspect of the current funding system is the deputational burden with which we saddle our missionaries. For years, I have thought it a shame that missionaries come home on stateside assignment and immediately hit the road to raise money. This difficult task involves not only travel, but hours on the phone making contacts and scheduling services. Stateside time no longer serves as an opportunity for restoration and an occasion to share their ministry; it often becomes a time of great stress, a strain on missionary families and their marriages.
Like Shannon, other well qualified young missionary candidates who are unknown beyond their local churches, often find fundraising to be a challenge of monumental proportions. After spending many years and thousands of dollars on education and preparation, fundraising becomes another hurdle to overseas service.
The Lord began to use these troubling realities to refocus both my mind and my heart.
Jena’s Predicament
The decision was very difficult for Jena. If I worked for International Missions, her life would be dramatically different. She voiced the turmoil clearly as we sat across from James at a fast food restaurant during the Tennessee state meeting. Jena looked James in the eye and challenged, “Why did you choose to turn our world upside-down?”
Eventually, Jena summarized her fears with two questions. First, where would we attend church? Since we live just 25 miles from Nashville, there was no need to relocate. Our church family at New Hope assured us they want us to continue to worship with them.
Secondly, she wanted to know about travel. James informed us that I would be on the road as many as 100 nights a year. What a huge change! I had not traveled much during my tenure at New Hope. Being apart almost one-third of the year would be a real sacrifice for us. Then we thought about the sacrifice of our missionaries who leave family, home, and country; ours would be a small sacrifice in comparison.
We had been blessed with more than two decades at New Hope. We’d had a pretty good run without much sacrifice. Perhaps, it was our time to sacrifice for what we both considered to be a profoundly important cause.
After coming to terms with Jena’s two important questions, we still faced the most important decision of our married life. Would we stay at New Hope, and continue a long and enjoyable ministry among some of the finest people in the world? Or, would we embark on a journey promising many challenging changes and even more unknowns?
The Call Accepted
I simply could not escape the reality of the wave of young people flooding the already stressed system. Nor could I avoid the challenge to our future ability to get the gospel to the unreached. I was being called upon to help find a solution—a solution to make it possible for missionaries (both married and single) to exercise their calling and utilize their gifts to reach people for Jesus Christ without the fear and stress of seeking major financial support.
Jena and I determined—if I could be an instrumental part of bringing about this change, lifting the burden from our missionaries—it would be a worthwhile way to spend my life. I wouldn’t leave New Hope for another church, but I felt the call of duty and the call of God to give myself to this effort. I called James and told him I would join the International Missions team.
My Mission
While the position of director of development certainly involves raising money, I would not have taken the position to merely serve as a fundraiser. A large part of my ministry, and the burden of my heart, is to educate, inform, and challenge Free Will Baptists to recognize the problem we face.
I want people to understand and genuinely embrace the truth that giving to the World Missions Offering each April is not just a good thing to do. It is, in fact, a vital first step toward bringing about an essential change at this critical time in the history of the Mission and the Free Will Baptist missionary effort.
I want to shout from the housetops, “The wave is coming, and we must be ready for it! We must change the way we give to missions. And we must not fail!”
As I stood before my congregation to offer my resignation, I looked out on the faces of my dear friends and asserted, “I can, and have, thought of a 100 reasons to stay, but I must go.”
About the Writer: Veteran pastor Barry Simpson was recently named director of development for the International Missions Department. He and his wife Jena live in Joelton, TN.
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