Live with Urgency! Get expensive gadgets!
Posted by Chris Roberts on October 9th, 2009 at 2:55 pm.
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Apparently, the North American Mission Board has too much time on its hands.

I know nothing about the Catalyst conference. But I do know that NAMB has some folks there, recognizing that attendees are “inspired to make your mark in this world”. NAMB wants to join with that and “encourage you to touch the world through missions and minstry [sic]“. How they intend to encourage you is highly bizarre: “That’s why we’re giving away to [sic] iPod Touchs before the end of this year’s event.”

Somehow “missions and ministry” goes along with “make your mark in this world” and is powered by giving away an iPod touch.

I have no problem with gadgets and rather enjoy my iPhone 3g S, I’m just not sure how this will in any way help people be more devoted to glorifying God rather than self-interest. And mixing “missions and ministry” with “make your mark in this world” just does not seem to work.



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  • Patrick

    I hate to say it, but this is one of the reasons I’m an IFB – direct support of mission efforts and missionaries by the local church. Giving away Ipods with God’s money that should have went to mission work is shameful. Most IFB mission boards are voluntary and 100% of the money given goes straight to the missionary or mission effort – no overhead or ipods!

  • http://crackedpot40.blogspot.com Barbara

    I’m afraid I know too much about the Catalyst conference, and if the NAMB is involved in that, then the NAMB has much deeper issues than I thought.

  • http://www.seektheholy.com/ Chris

    Patrick,

    I grew up in a denomination that did not have anything like the cooperative program. I appreciate that in the SBC missionaries do not have to spend chunks of their year going around raising support. The downside, of course, is that churches have less contact with “their” missionaries and it can be easy to forget about the people receiving our support.

    Barbara,

    I imagine their involvement is limited to having a booth or some such.

  • http://crackedpot40.blogspot.com Barbara

    I don’t know. The Catalyst conference is largely a part of the ministries of Perry Noble of NewSpring and that general CEO model of church leadership in the seeker-sensitive movement, folks who are increasingly hostile to sound doctrine and the concept of a shepherd, and who (at least in the case of NewSpring) are actually affiliated with the SBC. So with that affiliation, the NAMB would have a potential role, although I’m with Patrick on this – and following your link to the NAMB announcement it sounds as if, rather than taking a stand for Biblically appropriate missions, they’ve just fallen into the same trap. As a former SBC member and WMU director in my local congregation myself, I had to swallow back a few times when reviewing some “wish lists” provided by the missionaries for assistance in their missions work. We generally would choose to assist the ones who were asking for school supplies and Home Depot cards rather than the ones seeking all things Starbucks. I wish they’d exercise some discernment here – this kind of “anything goes as long as we mention the name Jesus” mindset is growing and is why I am no longer affiliated with the SBC in my area.

  • jack lindser

    You guys have way too much time on your hands to be worried about this. The i-pods were donated by someone who wanted to partner with NAMB in an effort to help them connect with the estimated 2,500 SBC staff members at this conference. Not a bad way to spend their time… in fact, the conference was only 15 miles away from NAMB so they saved your CP dollars by not traveling far. Arguments like yours are why I am no longer SBC. Congratulations.

  • http://www.seektheholy.com/ Chris

    Jack,

    I was wondering if someone would say something like that. People are criticized for criticizing. If the iTouch’s were donated that makes me feel a little better, but the whole way the info on that page is presented is just ludicrous. Perhaps they were trying to be amusing or ironic but that fails to come through. One is not helped to reach the world by obtaining an iPod touch, and how does an iPod touch communicate that one is living life with a sense of urgency? The two do not mix. That is not to say an iPod touch cannot be put to good use, they can! But on the whole I do not see them as ministry-enhancing devices. It is just bizarre to mix ministry to the world with an iPod touch.