00:00:00.000 - 00:00:29.000

Welcome to the Foreign Mission Board site of Mission Scope, fourth quarter, 1979. R. Keith Parks, for the past 25 years a missionary and missions administrator, became Executive Director-Elect of the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board on September 3, 1979, and will assume the post of Executive Director

00:00:29.000 - 00:00:57.920

Director on January 1st, 1980. Parks was elected by a unanimous vote of the Board in session at Glorieta Baptist Conference Center in New Mexico on August 6th. He will succeed Baker James Cawthon, who retires December 31st after serving as Executive Officer of the Board for the past 26 years. Director of the Board's Mission Support Division since August 1975,

00:00:57.920 - 00:01:22.360

Parks previously was Area Secretary for Southeast Asia from 1968 to 1975 and Missionary to Indonesia from 1954 to 1968, except for an 18-month period when he served the Board as an Associate Secretary for Missionary Personnel. Parks holds the Bachelor of Divinity and Doctor of Theology degrees from Southwestern Baptist

00:01:22.360 - 00:01:38.680

Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas. While a missionary, he taught at the Indonesian Baptist Theological Seminary in Samarang, Java. He also was acting president of the seminary for a time, did evangelistic work in the Samarang

00:01:38.680 - 00:01:59.680

area, and later was mission treasurer. Born October 23, 1927, near Memphis, Texas, Parks grew up in Texas and Arkansas. The newly elected executive is a jogger and tennis player, but says most of his personal activities are family related.

00:01:59.680 - 00:02:20.880

As a youth, Parks learned to be a cowboy, for his father raised cattle. And Parks still feels at home on a horse. Following the nomination by the search committee to the board session, both Parks and his wife, Helen Jean, made statements to the board about their personal, spiritual, and missions development.

00:02:20.880 - 00:02:44.440

Following the Board's affirmative vote, Parks, his wife, their three sons, their daughter, and their daughter-in-law each spoke briefly. The testimonies presented a portrait of a loving, close-knit Christian family. All four children, Randall, Kent, Eloise, and Stanley, have acknowledged a call to the

00:02:44.440 - 00:03:01.800

Gospel ministry or to missions. The three youngest children were born in Indonesia. We now take you to the August 1979 meeting of the Foreign Mission Board in session at Glorieta, New Mexico.

00:03:01.800 - 00:03:22.640

Board President Jack Patterson presided over the historic meeting. You will hear the Board's recommendation and affirmation, and then testimonies from Parks and his wife, including a statement by one of their children, Eloise. We'd like to welcome you to this meeting,

00:03:22.640 - 00:03:37.120

a full meeting of the Foreign Mission Board. Our purpose here is to receive the recommendation of the search committee that was appointed in October of 1978. And this committee has been working

00:03:37.120 - 00:03:55.580

since the October board meeting of last year, And they've come to a time of sensing God's leadership. And so we've notified the board members to please be present to receive their recommendation.

00:03:55.580 - 00:04:09.180

We sent them out to search for God's will regarding the leadership of the executive secretary, executive director of the Foreign Mission Board. So we present the chairman of the committee,

00:04:09.180 - 00:04:27.340

Mr. Hunter Regans. Thank you, Mr. President, Dr. Cawthon, board members, staff, missionaries, Southern Baptist friends. Early in this report, I want to let you know that our work was begun,

00:04:27.340 - 00:04:50.640

continued, and completed with such a sense of dependence upon our Lord that we were constantly driven to pray. We followed a procedure of asking for prayer support of all Southern Baptists, input. And incidentally, they responded.

00:04:50.640 - 00:05:17.820

In placing the name of Dr. R. Keith Parks before you, I would like to stress the point. This man is a product of long and difficult work, steeped in prayer. There were so many different factors, qualifications, abilities, and background studies to make.

00:05:17.820 - 00:05:33.800

In letters and personal conversations, the names of splendid and able men have been called to our attention. They have been carefully and deliberately considered. It is a blend of many gifts,

00:05:33.800 - 00:05:52.580

proper proportion of the necessary qualities. Above all, the sense of divine leading and approval that brings us with this nominee to you today. You did not give me a committee of rubber stamps.

00:05:52.580 - 00:06:13.100

We have had honest and sincere differences in deliberation, but our conclusion is firm. Our decision is unanimous and it was by secret ballot. God has brought us together in naming Dr. R. Keith Parks.

00:06:13.100 - 00:06:35.300

Now, I would like to move, Mr. Chairman, that Dr. R. Keith Parks be elected Executive Director of the Foreign Mission Board, effective January 1, 1980, and that he be the Executive Director-Elect as of September 3, 1979.

00:06:35.300 - 00:07:14.860

If we get a second to that, then I would like to invite them. Very good. Now would Dr. and Mrs. Keith Parks come forward, please. Thank you. I'm going to ask Dr. and Mrs. Parks to come and stand here now

00:07:14.860 - 00:07:29.560

and to share with you with their heart their conversion experience, called omissions, their pilgrimage along the way as the committee dealt with them. Anything that they would like to share?

00:07:29.560 - 00:07:46.260

Before I share briefly about my personal experience in conversion and called omissions, I did want to share just a little bit about the pilgrimage that we have been through in these last several weeks. I'm really not sure exactly how long it's been.

00:07:46.260 - 00:08:13.660

But when the committee asked us if I would come and meet with that committee, fortunately I felt I had a Sunday ahead of me in which the appointment that I had had been canceled due to the calling of a pastor. I spent the time that Sunday up in the mountains alone with the Lord to try to find if I could

00:08:13.660 - 00:08:36.540

sense his leadership in taking that step. Many, many scriptures, and I want to share at least one of those in a moment, caused me to come and share with Helen Jean and caused us to find a sense of the Lord's leadership, saying, "We are willing to take this step of talking with you to seek God's will."

00:08:36.540 - 00:08:53.660

We could not find it in our hearts to say we knew that it was not God's will, and so we were able at that point to meet with the committee. And then after that meeting, on another occasion, to meet with both of us together with the committee again.

00:08:53.660 - 00:09:19.220

At each point I would say what I would like to say again at this point. We have had freedom from the Lord to say, "You are free to take this step." We have a deep conviction that the way the body of Christ functions, that the will of God is revealed to a larger group than just to an individual.

00:09:19.220 - 00:09:41.460

We are here this morning saying we are willing to be at this point in the process. We have prayed as late as this morning and last night and many, many other times that if it is not God's will that he will intervene at this point. So that is where we are.

00:09:41.460 - 00:10:05.980

And if, after all of the prayerful concern that has gone on around the world, finds itself affirmed in what is done here this morning, we would accept that as God's leadership to us, as to his will for us. I had the good fortune of being born in a Christian home.

00:10:05.980 - 00:10:22.300

My mother and dad were living at that time in Memphis, Texas, out on a farm out from Memphis. Mother took me to the cradle roll before I had my eyes open. They call it something else now, but it was cradle roll then.

00:10:22.300 - 00:10:39.280

And I was in church all of my life. A good number of those years I was in a quarter-time Methodist church. Now some of you will have to explain that to the younger generation, but we had preaching every fourth Sunday and on the fifth Sunday the preacher came back.

00:10:39.280 - 00:11:01.720

But in my growing up years in Memphis when I was nine years old in a Sunday school department meeting one morning the pastor had come to talk to the juniors and for the first time I recognized that I personally was a sinner. And I shared that understanding because I had been steeped in it all of my life.

00:11:01.720 - 00:11:21.280

I understood that Jesus was the answer to that. I shared it in the Sunday school department and then later in the service that morning. I was baptized there in the church in Memphis. My parents gave me the spiritual nurture that kept me on track for the next six years when

00:11:21.280 - 00:11:39.960

we were really out of touch with any strong Christian fellowship. I did not realize how much my dad was teaching me until I was older and could reflect on it. For during those years he lost his active role in the Church, but his personal life

00:11:39.960 - 00:12:14.640

of integrity became the quality of Christian life that was built into my life. was the more active of the Christians, she was the more vocal, and I learned more verbally from her than from Dad. It was during my years at North Texas State, active in BSU, when the summer mission program

00:12:14.640 - 00:12:35.400

was first initiated. My junior year in college was the first year of the summer mission program. The next year I was fortunate enough to go with Ernest Pippin and Jim Hadley and Dan Rainbolt to San Andres Island down off the coast of Columbia.

00:12:35.400 - 00:12:52.720

It was my first exposure to missions. And out of that experience I became aware of need and had a growing desire to be a part of trying to meet that need. seminary days many many people had influence in my life but there came a

00:12:52.720 - 00:13:19.880

growing desire to be a part of God's mission in this world and finally in a seminary chapel I made that decision and God confirmed it and affirmed it leading me to a wife who had also made that decision and our years in Indonesia were enjoyable to a degree that has not been surpassed since.

00:13:19.880 - 00:13:44.680

We found it more difficult to leave Indonesia than we found it to go to Indonesia. My years as Area Secretary were equally rewarding and delightful, and it was another struggle to turn away from that task to the Mission Support Division responsibility. But in each step, God has given the affirmation that it was his will,

00:13:44.680 - 00:14:05.080

and this was his place in missions for our lives at that particular point of our lives. And that is our desire, that has been our desire, it is still our desire. And as the committee came to talk about this responsibility, many, many things overwhelmed us.

00:14:05.080 - 00:14:18.580

I will not elaborate at great length. I will mention two or three and then ask Helen Jean to come to share. After she has shared, I would like to make a brief statement about my own philosophy of missions.

00:14:18.580 - 00:14:37.200

For as I said to the committee, I am not here to convince you that I am the man for the job. I am here to try to open my life to you, and the responsibility of evaluating God's leadership then is yours.

00:14:37.200 - 00:14:58.940

And for that reason, I'd like to share in a moment my philosophy of missions, and then we'll be open, I believe, to questions if there are those questions. But in this pilgrimage, I thought it would be fairly simple to decide whether I would be willing to take the next step.

00:14:58.940 - 00:15:19.560

And so I very confidently told the chairman of this committee, "Well, the way I make decisions it won't be long until I can let you know." And my good wife said, "Don't be too sure about that." We pray conversationally occasionally, and I would say this has been the richest spiritual

00:15:19.560 - 00:15:31.360

sharing of our entire lives together. But I felt at times she was praying against me, because I'd say, "Lord, tell me," and she'd say, "Lord, not yet. Let him suffer a little first."

00:15:31.360 - 00:16:01.960

So I didn't know whose side she was on there for a while. But the sense of inadequacy, the sense of what would be required, the burdens of responsibility, many, many other things I will not try to detail for you. I found myself studying God's call to different individuals.

00:16:01.960 - 00:16:25.320

Many of them became very significant, his call to Moses and his call to Isaiah and his call to Paul and his call to Jeremiah and others. In nearly every case they started off saying, "God, we're not qualified to do this." And one by one the reasons that I would bring up, the Lord would answer in scripture.

00:16:25.320 - 00:16:49.260

The passage that became the focal point of my own decision making was a passage that had never been that meaningful to me prior to this, although I had read it on occasion. And I'd like to read it just to say to you what God said to me. It's Jeremiah, the first chapter, starting in verse 4.

00:16:49.260 - 00:17:06.820

Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 'Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; and before you were born, I consecrated you. I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.' Then I said, 'Alas, Lord God!

00:17:06.820 - 00:17:28.420

Behold, I do not know how to speak, because I am a youth.' But the Lord said to me, 'Do not say, "I am a youth," because everywhere I send you, shall go; and all that I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.'

00:17:28.420 - 00:17:48.460

Then the Lord stretched out his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, 'Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, and to build and to plant.

00:17:48.460 - 00:18:08.740

Then he goes on with many other things and concludes the chapter by saying, "And they will fight against you, but they will not overcome you, for I am with you to deliver you," declares the Lord. The time limit that the chairman gave me, I wasn't sure I could tell all my story.

00:18:08.740 - 00:18:29.140

But whatever the outcome of this meeting, I would like to say thank you for the opportunity to share my spiritual pilgrimage with this very special group. I profess Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior as a junior girl in my home church, First Baptist Church of Abilene, Texas, during a Sunday school dedication service during

00:18:29.140 - 00:18:42.220

a revival meeting. I grew up very active in that church, in every organization except missions. I grew up totally ignorant of missions. I was at the church four different nights on the week and mission organizations met

00:18:42.220 - 00:19:00.420

on another night and I just didn't have time for that. And that seemed sort of like a fringe, you know, thing that wasn't too important so I knew nothing about missions until I was nearly grown. When I was a sophomore in college at 18, I was sitting on the front row during a revival

00:19:00.420 - 00:19:25.700

service having directed a junior choir in which Bill O'Brien was my star performer. And the visiting evangelist preached on, called a special service which I had never heard before and I felt that the Lord was calling me as a missionary to China that night. Well I was shocked and before you laugh let me just say that my attitude is a very typical

00:19:25.700 - 00:19:42.660

Baptist attitude even today. I knew nothing about missions. I thought that if you could work here in the United States with all these educated, intelligent Americans, the Lord would leave you here. But that if you couldn't quite cut it, he would send you overseas to work with all these poor, ignorant

00:19:42.660 - 00:20:04.380

heathen. Now don't tell me I have known people even on the Foreign Mission Board and the Foreign Mission Board staff who seem to appear to have had that attitude. You'll excuse that a little remark. But I went on into student work and youth work. I taught mission study courses. I especially was influenced in Springfield, Missouri where

00:20:04.380 - 00:20:22.340

I was citywide student director by a missions program that the students put together and asked me to give the last part as we took it to churches and to the campuses. And as I gave the last part telling about the new advanced program of Southern Baptist, how from 750 missionaries there were plans to

00:20:22.340 - 00:20:42.340

double this in 10 years as I asked these young people if they were willing and that question just went out so glibly from my lips the first few programs we gave and finally it began to be like a boomerang and come back to me as I would ask myself am I willing we went back to Indonesia and when the Lord called my

00:20:42.340 - 00:20:58.740

husband as area secretary I remembered the the feeling the Lord why can't you find somebody in the States there's so few people willing to go why can't you find somebody who's happy in the States, who wants to stay there. We're just beginning to work, just beginning to get into the language after three terms,

00:20:58.740 - 00:21:19.940

learn the culture, love the people, they are accepting us. Why can't you get somebody else? And then I began to think. The fact that Dr. Winston Crawley, our area secretary, had been a missionary and understood our problems, made all the difference in the world. Finally, the Lord gave me this verse from Exodus 3, when I

00:21:19.940 - 00:21:29.720

I was really seeking to know. God answered and said, "I will be with you, and when you bring the people out of Egypt, you will worship me on this mountain.

00:21:29.720 - 00:21:43.840

That will be the proof that I have sent you." And the Lord said to me, "Don't wait for the feeling. Don't wait for the sign from heaven. Step out on faith, and when you have stepped,

00:21:43.840 - 00:21:55.200

in due time you will know whether I will confirm it," because that was going to be months for Moses. And that's where we are. Eloise just finished high school and is on her way to Hardin-Simmons.

00:21:55.200 - 00:22:14.320

We'll be here next week for student week and then we'll leave this one in Abilene. Sort of hard for me to follow two preacher brothers and a father is a preacher. But through this time that my parents have shared with us, you know, their feelings that the Lord has opened this door,

00:22:14.320 - 00:22:40.800

it's meant a lot to me. And I feel called to career missions. [Crying] And I look forward to the day that my father can appoint me.

00:22:40.800 - 00:23:09.800

[Pause] Maybe the shortest appointment service in the record. [Laughter] I think you can begin to understand, board members, how the committee came to this place.

00:23:09.800 - 00:23:27.200

All right, we've come to that momentous time then when we will register how we feel God is leading us to vote regarding the Executive Director of the Foreign Mission Board. Now, Mr. Riggins, would you state your motion one more time for us so we know clearly what we're voting on?

00:23:27.200 - 00:23:59.320

We elect Dr. R. R. Keefe Parks to be the Executive Director effective January 1, 1980. Did he become the Executive Director-Elect September 3, 1979? If you are an elected member of the Foreign Mission Board and you are in favor of that motion, would you stand?

00:23:59.320 - 00:24:11.120

Thank you. You may be seated. If you are an elected member of the Foreign Mission Board and you are not in favor of that motion, would you stand? If you are an elected member of the Foreign Mission Board

00:24:11.120 - 00:24:29.960

and you are in favor of that motion, and you are a member of the staff, or you are anybody in this room, and you would say, "I would like to affirm that motion too," would you stand with us? All right. To God be the praise. Great things he has done. I can summarize my philosophy of missions in two words. I started doing one, but I didn't

00:24:29.960 - 00:24:55.380

I won't be simplistic about it. That first word would be "Jesus," and it would be John 1, 14, would be my text, "Where the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and then we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

00:24:55.380 - 00:25:19.120

And I believe basically we as a missionary people are committed to that concept of the revelation of God being incarnated in persons and living among people to reveal God to them. The second word would be "church." If I read the text for that, it would be most of the third chapter of Ephesians, that matchless

00:25:19.120 - 00:25:44.480

passage, but coming down to the 10th verse, saying that through the Church will be revealed even to the powers and principalities in the heavenly places, the multifaceted wisdom of God. And the passage is talking about God's eternal purpose in the fact that all humanity has

00:25:44.480 - 00:26:06.080

a part with the Jews and all of the promises that God has ever made. And for me, the Church is the focal point, not only of Christianity, but its nature is missionary. It is from the Church and through the Church that God calls those whom they send out, sometimes

00:26:06.080 - 00:26:21.820

a little indirectly through a board, but the Churches send them out. The churches support them in praying. The churches support them in giving. And as they are sent forth, as people are won to Christ, churches are started.

00:26:21.820 - 00:26:42.780

The process begins to repeat itself, as was so beautifully demonstrated in the service last night that some of you were privileged to attend, as the churches on the mission field become missionary in their own right. So without going further except to say the philosophy statement that the Board adopted

00:26:42.780 - 00:27:03.900

is certainly my philosophy of missions, I would hang it on these two words as being the heart of that statement. And that's who I am in terms of my own missions, commitment, and conviction. In reviewing what this Board has done, it has been sensitive to change and has changed

00:27:03.900 - 00:27:21.740

more than any organization of any size in Southern Baptist life, I believe, that we know about. And I would be confident that that spirit of adaptation to the changing times would be a part of what we must do.

00:27:21.740 - 00:27:43.940

I would be very candid to say, given all of the circumstances, there has been no opportunity to talk with board or with staff about some of the thoughts I have about what might be done and what could be done. I am confident that organizational changes will have to come simply because I am not

00:27:43.940 - 00:27:55.980

Dr. Cawthon. I do not have his gifts and his strengths. Mine are a different set. I cannot function to greatest efficiency wearing Saul's armor.

00:27:55.980 - 00:28:15.540

I just can't do it. I'm not big enough, so I'll get a slingshot. I'll indebt it to Winston Crowley for that illustration that he elaborated on about mission work.

00:28:15.540 - 00:28:37.300

But my point is, my desire and my approach would be as a team leader, and to gather together not only staff but board and gather input from mission fields and look for the best idea. I may not have that best idea, but I think one of my strengths is the ability to recognize

00:28:37.300 - 00:29:00.100

good ideas. We'll be searching for the best combination of the gifts and talents that God has given us, the best organization of our staff, and interrelation with the board. are changes there that inevitably need to be made. I'm convinced God is in this, and

00:29:00.100 - 00:29:26.420

his creativity is such that he can't make two snowflakes alike. I believe he can tell us how we need to change to help us do the job he's called us and saved us to do. I believe the resources are there. I'm open to looking for them. [BLANK_AUDIO]