IMB official reverses decision to fire African missionaries

The SBC politicians are at it again. Don’t you just wonder who their God is? Don’t you just wonder about their integrity? Don’t you just winder about their beliefs? Do these men really know what they believe?

http://www.abpnews.com/www/995.article


Associated Baptist Press

IMB official reverses decision to fire African missionaries

By Hannah Elliott

Published: May 1, 2006

RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) -- International Mission Board officials have reinstated Wyman and Michelle Dobbs, the missionary couple who had faced termination for establishing a "baptistic" church in the West African nation of Guinea.

The couple's pastor reported the news May 1.

The Dobbses had received an April 15 ultimatum for resigning or being fired for starting a church in cooperation with non-SBC missionaries. As Associated Baptist Press first reported April 13, IMB leaders issued the mandate because the church the Dobbses started wasn't explicitly Baptist, and because they had cooperated with a missionary couple from the Christian and Missionary Alliance. However, CMA is a conservative evangelical denomination, and the couple had reportedly stated their agreement with SBC doctrinal standards.

The congregation was one of only a handful in the heavily Muslim nation, and the only one affiliated with IMB missionaries.

Jason Helmbacher, the couple's stateside pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Sallisaw, Okla., told ABP he couldn't have chosen a better outcome for the situation, which galvanized his church, bloggers and missionary supporters nationwide.

"We’re just really thrilled about it,” Helmbacher said, in a May 1 telephone interview. “I have to admit we were shocked."

Helmbacher said Gordon Fort, vice president of IMB overseas operations, made the decision to reinstate the couple after a regional leader recommended their dismissal. Had Fort not reinstated them, IMB trustees would have had the final say on the recommendation to terminate.

Helmbacher praised Fort's decision. "He handled it in a very professional way. I was very impressed."

IMB officials have declined to comment on the Dobbses' situation, citing a policy of not discussing personnel matters with the media.

 

Take a look at www.wadeburleson.com The IMB tried to get rid of him recently too. He is currently currently serving as a trustee on the International Mission Board. The good ol' boys are getting exposed.

In the Bible it mentions who does the humbling.

 

To even make such a recommendation is to think of the church as SBC and not God's. God's church is much more diverse and its magnitude far greater then the mentality of the SBC. There should be cooperation and not a competition.

Take a look at www.wadeburleson.com and read what a trustee in the IMB reports. Just a few weeks ago they tried to get rid of him too becasue he is not a good ol' boy like them.