It was a great priviledge to work with Canadian Baptists in Zaire for six years. Well said Terry. The work we did and continue to do- I am sure it makes the Lord smile.
Allow me to take you back to May 1994, the year that my wife, Heather, and I joined Canadian Baptist International Ministries. At the Spring 1994 Board meetings, the members of the boards of CBIM and the Canadian Baptist Federation voted to dissolve their two entities and form one organization together: Canadian Baptist Ministries. The move to merge two distinct movements (one a foreign mission board and the other, a national denominational body) was bold, audacious, risky and frankly, innovative. At a time when other Christian mission agencies were drifting towards fragmentation, these joint boards moved in a different direction. Unity of purpose in mission, nationally and internationally.
Such bold and innovative moves were not new to our Canadian Baptist church family throughout its already 120-year history. Countless milestones marked the road with innovation, such as opening new fields at the invitation of national church leaders (Kenya, Indonesia, Brazil, to cite a few). At a time when many Protestant churches were calling for a moratorium on North American missionaries, CBM took steps which showed a bold, even risk-taking approach to mission. Joint pioneer outreach and taskforces, where missionaries would be told that their tenure in a specific place would not exceed 10 years, was such a change. Empowering women to lead the way in creating mission stations in India and Bolivia also marked a new approach in a very male-dominated context. And now, today, CBM is led by a bold, innovative woman, Jennifer Lau, as are the CBOQ with Leanne Friessen and the CBAC with Renée MacVicar.
During the past 30 years, I have witnessed unprecedented, innovative achievements. At the risk of neglecting many brilliant initiatives, allow me to name just a few:
Under the leadership of John Keith and Bob Berry, CBM commissioned and sent almost a dozen families back to their home countries in Europe during Perestroika. Baptist leaders went back to serve in their homelands (Latvia, Croatia, Belgium, Belarus, etc.), countries that they had emigrated from in the previous decades.
The Sharing Way, under Suzanne Seguin-Goetz, Muriel Bent, and Marilyn Smith, identified and empowered nationals to lead our Canadian Baptist relief and development work, giving us such gifted leaders as David Sarma and Sam Mutisya. Gordon King followed suit and appointed Emigdio Veizaga, Gato Munyamusoko, and Dr. Judson in similar roles. Today, the majority of our field staff are nationals working within their cultural milieu and intimately aware of our partners’ strengths and weaknesses.
Cathy Phillips was concerned by the injustice of Bolivia’s penal system that allowed wives to fulfill their husbands’ prison sentence. She also saw a need to provide for children of incarcerated women. Cathy worked with the Bolivian Baptist Women’s Association to initiate the Prison Kids ministry which became the Casa de l’Amistad (Friendship House) and has since ministered to thousands of children and youth, giving them a bright and promising future.
CBM / TSW staff led innovative nutrition programs in what was then, Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Even today, the leaders of the Baptist churches in the DRC thank us for promoting the bright red Loden bean. These were named after CBM missionaries, Doug and Cathy Loden, who encouraged pastors and farmers to diversify the diet from simple manioc (cassava or yuca) to legumes and avocados.
Paul Stevens of Regent College and Brian Stelck of Carey Theological College launched a joint program with CBM to train African church leaders through a certificate, then bachelor’s, master’s, and finally doctoral programs. Many of our African partners’ leadership was trained through this innovative and groundbreaking approach to theological education.
In fact, innovation is more often the result of repeated failures (with the permission to do so!). Thomas Edison once quipped, “I didn’t fail. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” He knew a thing or two about the gradual, disruptive nature of innovation.
Jeff and Deanne Carter spearheaded a transformational youth training program in Europe (Horizon) after spending over a year conducting a multi-country needs assessment. Today, Horizon has been adopted by the Baptist World Alliance as its global youth training program.
Elie and Mireille Haddad opened the way for CBM to work in a very high-risk but innovative ministry in the Middle East through the LSESD (now called THIMAR) at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary. Rupen and Mamta Das helped launch what has become one of the most transformational community development programs that CBM has supported within THIMAR.
The list could go on and on. No one, nor any organization, should set out with the stated goal of being innovative. In fact, innovation is more often the result of repeated failures (with the permission to do so!). Thomas Edison once quipped, “I didn’t fail. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” He knew a thing or two about the gradual, disruptive nature of innovation.
Many of us who have served with CBM over recent decades would readily admit that we were allowed, even encouraged, to attempt new things, even at the risk of failure. Whether it was in finding creative ways to address economic disparity through micro-loans; combatting gender inequality in the Church; attempting alternative modes of theological education and spiritual formation; building ecumenical links to address food insecurity; and speaking truth to power in peace-building and reconciliation, our leaders invited us to try – and if it didn’t work, try something different.
A corollary to this ‘permission to fail’ culture of innovation has been and continues to be an openness to change. In fact, in each of the examples cited above, the CBM leadership and personnel were not satisfied with the status-quo. We never heard the words “we don’t do it that way” from our leaders. In the early 2000s, Carla Nelson helped launch, and Patty Card helped lead, an innovative, new way to work with our African partners through the Guardians of Hope, serving children who had been either infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. This was when the stigma of the disease was still rampant in the Church. CBM’s leadership embraced the chance to change not only our fields of work, but the partnerships and models of cross-cultural mission. Our leaders set the staff free and gave them the means to attempt new things.
And finally, but most importantly, innovation in mission as Canadian Baptists has been made possible because we were inspired by Colossians 3:23-24. This verse was our inspiration when we launched VENNTURE, CBM’s Faith and Work, or whole-life discipleship initiative. Its message permeates any and every innovative aspect of our ministry. Translated by Eugene Peterson in The Message, the passage reads, “And don’t just do the minimum that will get you by. Do your best. Work from the heart for your real Master, for God, confident that you’ll get paid in full when you come into your inheritance. Keep in mind always that the ultimate Master you’re serving is Christ.”
CBM and its Canadian Baptist partners know and embrace what Os Guinness, in the Call, refers to as “living and working for an audience of one.” While we understood leadership structures, benchmarks and strategic plans, we also knew that our ultimate accountability was to God alone. Charlie and Fran Harvey exemplified this. When told, back in the 1970s, that the Mission Board had given clear instruction for them to flee the DR Congo and return to Canada during a time of sectarian violence, Charlie’s now famous response was, “Well the Board can ask what they wish, but my real boss, Jesus Christ, has told me to stay and work with the Congolese people.” Others have echoed these words, such as the Matwawanas and Fosters in the DRC, the Haddads in Lebanon, and the McBeths in Angola.
The father of the modern-day mission movement, William Carey, once wrote, “Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.” Today, more than ever, we want to follow our ultimate Master, Jesus Christ, in working across linguistic, cultural, ethnic and geographical frontiers in helping to heal a broken world through word and deed – and whenever and wherever innovation happens, soli Deo gloria!
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