00:00:00.000 - 00:00:18.120

[ Silence ] >> This is Mission Scope for April, May and June 1980. >> Winter was a busy time for the whole mission board. It was a time of evaluation and contemplation.

00:00:18.120 - 00:00:29.400

And it was a time of bold advance. We have several stories as example in this quarter's Mission Scope. >> Bold mission thrust carries Southern Baptists

00:00:29.400 - 00:00:38.180

to the 13th Winter Olympic Games. >> P-A-C-T, an important part of associational missions. We'll explain. >> Some important items were discussed

00:00:38.180 - 00:00:48.060

at the Winter Board Meeting of the Home Mission Board. >> Cindy Blair is a U.S. tour in St. Louis, Missouri. We'll take a brief look at her work there. >> More students have applied for summer missions

00:00:48.060 - 00:00:55.940

than there are positions available. Bill Lee gives us a quick report on this summer. >> And we'll have an update on the Home Mission Study Graded Series.

00:00:55.940 - 00:01:06.620

>> But now, our special report. Southern Baptists in Lake Placid. >> I think it's a great growth experience for me personally. I think I'm getting more out of it than I'm really giving.

00:01:06.620 - 00:01:13.880

>> I personally have been really blessed by it. >> I really enjoyed the work here. >> It really is a rewarding feeling, but it's a frustrating feeling too sometimes.

00:01:13.880 - 00:01:34.620

>> I don't know. I feel like I'm really accomplishing something here. [music] The 13th Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York.

00:01:34.620 - 00:01:51.320

A melting pot of people from every language, every culture, every corner of the world. Southern Baptists were there in force. David Book, the project director, speaks to a group from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary who had just arrived to help with the project.

00:01:51.320 - 00:02:07.620

This is a great opportunity. I appreciate you all being here. This is an experiment for us. It's a bold mission experiment for us. It's never been done before. We've already learned lots of things we should have done and would do differently if and when we'll do it again.

00:02:07.620 - 00:02:28.720

The experiment proved to be a major Southern Baptist effort toward reaching the world and the people of Lake Placid. Semester missionary Bill Mathis. There's a possibility here of opening doors in countries because we can share here. And they'll see Baptists, they'll see Christians, and some of them will say to themselves, "I like that. I'd like to have that in my country."

00:02:28.720 - 00:02:49.920

We have the chance of making key visits, contacts with people from other countries and people here. The actual project began in 1976 when the Home Mission Board established an Olympic Task Force Committee for the purpose of looking into the possibilities of ministering to the thousands of people to be at the 1980 Winter Olympics.

00:02:49.920 - 00:03:07.800

Target groups were outlined, and various ministry possibilities were constructed and implemented. David Book explains how the work began in Lake Placid. The work began here in preparation for the 1980 Winter Games back in August of 1978 when

00:03:07.800 - 00:03:16.080

this particular facility was purchased with the help of the Home Mission Board. We had a shell of a building here, an old Adirondack building.

00:03:16.080 - 00:03:23.820

Didn't have any insulation in it. Didn't have a good roof. Didn't have this nice red siding that you see now. It was in pretty bad shape.

00:03:23.820 - 00:03:40.200

And over the last 14 months, we've had about 10 or 12 work groups that come in have renovated the building from inside out so we have a facility question service Corps volunteer Al Lawrence the job entailed taking a

00:03:40.200 - 00:04:05.000

hundred-year-old building which was unheatable plumbing shot electricity ready to blow the house down and to put it together with 24 innovators and these other folks here like Donna, making it comfortable and able to really serve the Lord from this area. And so the Lake Placid Baptist Chapel was established

00:04:05.000 - 00:04:28.600

and the Exchange House created, ready for use. If we see somebody on the street who looks like they might need some company or something to eat, then we invite them up here personally. Katrina Strickling, a semester missionary from Norcross, Georgia, explains some of the ministry of the Exchange House. We also have set up the little Good Sam program for the elderly people and if they call up here they don't have a

00:04:28.600 - 00:04:48.960

transportation system and then we'll go get their groceries for them or go take them to the hospital, the doctor, the dentist or something like that. From here on out we should have like a community in the community to be able to work with the elderly people and with the boys home and with anybody who needs anything. They realize that we're here and we're just getting started and when people are really beginning to come to us and ask us for help.

00:04:48.960 - 00:05:03.440

Debbie Waller, a chaplain from the Olympic Training Center in Squaw Valley, California. I'm just amazed at the different numbers of languages and different kinds of people, people who would come here without any place to stay, any place, anything to eat. They would just come.

00:05:03.440 - 00:05:20.280

We have here in the Exchange House, a hospitality center that's open 24 hours a day that provides soup and sandwiches, a large Advent TV screen for viewing the games at night when everybody is in from the venues, interpreters. We've got a half a dozen kids here who speak six different languages.

00:05:20.280 - 00:05:37.780

We've got literature distribution going on. We've got a meeting place for people to come by and simply get warm and meet friends. We have not only been here in the house, this kind of outreach, but also out on the streets. We have two trained street ministry teams who are out on the streets meeting people.

00:05:37.780 - 00:05:47.260

And already they're bringing back some fantastic experiences of encounters they had have had with individuals. My name is Terry Hendricks. And I'm Amy Sumner. And we're from Melbourne, Georgia.

00:05:47.260 - 00:06:00.900

And we're here in Lake Placid, the site of the 1981 Olympics. And we're here as innovators. We, as innovators, we work in the community. Both of us work at McDonald's here and we do mission projects, quote unquote.

00:06:00.900 - 00:06:25.980

We do such things as Meals on Wheels where we go to the hospital and pick up meals and take them to the shut-ins in our community. And I work with Children's Worship and visit some older citizens at the Eline Mercy Center here. We're both involved in the coffee house starting here. This coffee house is open to people on the streets

00:06:25.980 - 00:06:38.640

to just come in and have a cup of coffee and sit down and eat and watch. Otherwise, a big screen TV here for them. I think we have here just about the entire gamut of volunteers

00:06:38.640 - 00:06:48.620

and career missionaries that are representative of our Home Mission Board. The crux of our ministry here are the innovators. They're young people, by and large,

00:06:48.620 - 00:06:57.460

who live all over the United States, who have come to Lake Placid to put in quite an investment. They pay their own way here. They find secular jobs in the community.

00:06:57.460 - 00:07:08.320

And then they help us in their ministry and time off. So we've been able to penetrate this entire community in the last year through their help. - I was an innovator.

00:07:08.320 - 00:07:20.460

I began in June and I came home a couple times in between, but I was there until just Saturday. So it's hard for me to kind of put everything back into perspective and, you know, quickly look back over what all that happened.

00:07:20.460 - 00:07:38.460

This summer was kind of our, you know, building our foundation in the community. The work was started by other groups that had come up in preceding summers, mission groups and mission teams, and then we also had help in the summer with mission groups and mission teams, too.

00:07:38.460 - 00:08:13.220

As an innovator, I had a secular job, and then in my off hours you know, volunteer missionary just like the others there. [French] Just like right now, I was talking with a boy from France, and that's part of the special

00:08:13.220 - 00:08:31.260

things that we're doing here as the semester missionaries, to do some translations where the other ones couldn't really communicate with people that come in. And we have information here, we have Bibles, all types of foreign literature. Suzanne South from Louisville, Kentucky, describes her part in the work at Lake Placid.

00:08:31.260 - 00:08:53.500

We offered our services to the Olympic organizing committee here in Lake Placid and they wanted us to do translation work with them and help accredit people who come in who have to get the accreditation cards. And so today I'm going to work in protocol with them and then we also help with all the

00:08:53.500 - 00:09:10.940

different ministries that go on here with the Baptist Chapel and whatever work that needs to go on. [MUSIC PLAYING] We have a ministry that's going on out at the Olympic Learning

00:09:10.940 - 00:09:21.500

Project, where many of the groups who are coming up to be with us during this time are doing their puppets, their music, their entertainment, various kinds, and finding a very ready audience out there.

00:09:21.500 - 00:09:35.820

We've got two lovely elderly ladies here who are fixing the meals and seeing to it that the house chores are taken care of and keeping all those logistics. We're doing everything from mopping floors to cooking the best food in the

00:09:35.820 - 00:09:51.620

Lake Placid area. We just got back from the grocery store and the station waiting was crowded with food. We really like to buy the stores out and save money. It seems to be like they ought to give us a little cut on this stuff as much

00:09:51.620 - 00:10:09.020

stuff as we haul in here, doesn't it? They could have retired several years ago and lived a life of luxury, but they have chosen not to do that. We're with the Christian Service Corps Ministry. We are volunteers. And we felt like that this was what the Lord wanted us to be doing at this particular time.

00:10:09.020 - 00:10:40.400

So that's why we're at Lake Placid. Barbara McClainie was a chaplain directly to the athletes while assigned in Lake Placid. of that caliber under great stress and they face some real emotional highs and lows and we try to ease this especially after they've gone through some losing experience or also some winning

00:10:40.400 - 00:11:01.120

experience to keep their feet on the ground so we're trying to minister to them as much as we can we try to build a relationship first make contact get to know them and then when they do feel that they need to talk to somebody, the relationship is established and they feel free to contact us and to talk to us about their problems. I feel that the

00:11:01.120 - 00:11:22.260

text that the Southern Baptist chose here at Lake Placid is a very adequate text. You know, First Corinthians chapter 9 verse 24 through 27 where Paul discusses the metaphor of race. We will not force ourselves, our spiritual beliefs on the people, but we were able to share that even though they have achieved the

00:11:22.260 - 00:11:44.880

ultimate, that there is more. You know, this is not really the ultimate. It means that Baptist care, it means that the resources of our convention are just now being recognized by this enormous giant of a denomination that we are part of. It means that on every level of human endeavor,

00:11:44.880 - 00:11:55.680

we are finding an opportunity to minister, not just in the ghetto, not just in foreign countries, but in an international arena like we're having here at Lake Placid.

00:11:55.680 - 00:12:08.480

Southern Baptists are here to tell the world that we care. And we care because Jesus Christ cared for us. That is what, I guess, it means to me mostly, to see the total resources of our convention

00:12:08.480 - 00:12:21.480

We turn loose in a united effort to see that agencies can work together, and that when all the resources of our convention are pulled together, a beautiful thing can happen. The bold mission thrust can really take place.

00:12:21.480 - 00:12:27.400

It's not just a concept anymore. It's a reality. It's happening. It's an action kind of thing.

00:12:27.400 - 00:12:37.320

It is a bold endeavor indeed. And because of the efforts of so many people, we're seeing the results of it here. One thing that I'm excited about is the fact

00:12:37.320 - 00:12:49.320

is going to stay when the Olympics are over. That it will continue in ministry here and it will become a church. And to me that's exciting that we plan to stay and plan to grow here instead of just coming and leaving.

00:12:49.320 - 00:13:00.320

From here on out we should have like a standing in the community to be able to work with the elderly people and with the boys' home and with anybody who needs anything. They realize that we're here and we're just getting started.

00:13:04.320 - 00:13:22.320

Jerry Allen is assistant director of the Metropolitan Missions Department. One of his major responsibilities is to oversee the department's program called PACT. We talked with him recently about the program. PACT is Project Assistance for Churches and Transitional Communities.

00:13:22.320 - 00:13:45.340

It is a Home Mission Board response to the needs of churches and transitional communities. But it's done within the context of other denominational structures, the State Convention, the associations, as well as the Home Mission Board, and really other denominational agencies. What brought about the idea for PACT?

00:13:45.340 - 00:14:02.920

Why was it developed? Really it is a response to the fact that the Home Mission Board, association directors, Convention personnel have pastors calling them and saying, "We're out here by ourselves. We have needs.

00:14:02.920 - 00:14:14.720

We don't know how to deal with these problems that we're facing, and we need some specialized help." And therefore, we've tried to respond to a need. We didn't create a program and then look for a need, David.

00:14:14.720 - 00:14:27.800

It's really a response to what's out there. What is the need that churches have for PACT? Why does the need exist? Let me give you a typical case.

00:14:27.800 - 00:14:45.640

Here is a church that was constituted 30 years ago in what was considered then a newly developing area a few miles from downtown. The people who lived in the community were middle-class white. The membership at that point was a cross-section of the community.

00:14:45.640 - 00:15:08.880

That is, the community and the church were interlinked. Then soon after World War II, people began to move to the suburbs and left in that community to a large degree with the black and low-income white and elderly, with maybe a few pockets of middle class.

00:15:08.880 - 00:15:32.120

But the Church was still middle class white, still with the type of program that they had had 30 years before. The church was still trying to use the same structures, the same programs, the same methods as back then, but they were not used, but it was not being successful as far as statistics

00:15:32.120 - 00:15:45.600

were concerned. And the church begins to see the statistics go down, and they say, "What's wrong?" And not really being able to deal with the problem on their own, they're asking for specialized help.

00:15:45.600 - 00:16:01.760

Does PACT have all the answers for the churches with this problem? Is the program in itself sufficient? PACT is not a package program for churches in changing communities. We do not have one method, one answer, one direction.

00:16:01.760 - 00:16:17.320

It's not a program, but rather we're trying to lead them in a process of going back, what is the purpose of our church, what does the data on the community and church show, and And then what are the options? What are they facing?

00:16:17.320 - 00:16:27.440

And then to try to develop along with them, tailor-made solutions to their problems, or how to get at the problems. - How do you actually go about helping a church

00:16:27.440 - 00:16:42.680

that asks for help in this area? - Once a church asks for help, through perhaps his association director, the association director then contacts a PAC consultant

00:16:43.760 - 00:17:02.880

has been especially trained to come in and do this type of work. And this material is only used in conjunction with a specific PAC consultation. That is, we don't dispense the material without a PAC consultant. We're talking about the future here.

00:17:02.880 - 00:17:27.880

How long has this been going on? We have had PAC consultants in the field for about three years. And I would say at the present time we would have approximately 25 PAC consultants, with perhaps 15 to 20 of these that we would call certified at this point.

00:17:27.880 - 00:17:49.260

We hope within one year of now to have at least 25 certified consultants, and within two years we hope to double that number. How would the Church know if you could help them? Now, concerning whether a church is in a transitional community, we say a church is in a changing

00:17:49.260 - 00:18:11.660

community, is a church in a community which has or is experiencing significant change. That change might be racial or ethnic, socioeconomic or population density. Now, this significant change--of course, all churches are in changing communities, but that's not what we're talking about.

00:18:11.660 - 00:18:35.880

It's where the change has happened over a relatively short period of time. It's a pervasive type of change throughout the community, where the very character of the community has been changed, and where that change will probably be permanent. At the winter meeting of the Home Mission Board's Board of Directors, new officers

00:18:35.880 - 00:18:49.340

were elected to serve a term of one year. Howard Cochran from Tennessee was chosen as president. - A man who is a bold witness for Christ, a deacon, a layman, a self-achieving person

00:18:49.340 - 00:19:05.400

in his own business world. A man that's not only capable and able in leadership, but quite willing to lead out, to lead us, I believe, in a way that would be positive, would be exciting,

00:19:05.400 - 00:19:24.640

that would be a forward thrust in the days to come. Howard Cochram. And Howard Cochram is a man that's not only been involved in his own local church, but he has also been involved as a Sunday school teacher, a man who is practical in his Christian application. Following Mr. Cochram's

00:19:24.640 - 00:19:44.560

election, Clifton Tennyson was elected as first vice president, Frank Holliday as second vice president, recording secretary Edna Shoes was selected for a second term and Cora Gates was chosen as the assistant recording secretary. Also at the meeting a special task force presented a policy proposal that

00:19:44.560 - 00:20:03.920

provided for a more effective utilization of the Board of Directors and staff, a more efficient stewardship of time and resources of the agency, and a clearer line of accountability. The board accepted the proposal with some revisions to be made at the next meeting. Dr. William Tanner, executive director of

00:20:03.920 - 00:20:25.080

treasurer of the Home Mission Board, had some sobering yet challenging remarks during the meeting. The economy, the inflation, in fact affects us also in doing mission work. We're affected by the world situation. We're affected by the price of gasoline, just like the Foreign Mission Board is affected. But I do want

00:20:25.080 - 00:20:45.800

to say, and I feel like that, we are studying and working and trying to develop some alternatives to some of the things that we see very pressing upon us, namely the gasoline situation, inflation, travel, and so forth. With the economy crunching missions in our land, Dr. Tanner urged support of the Southern

00:20:45.800 - 00:21:01.000

Baptist Convention's cooperative program. I want to challenge every one of our directors. Do everything you can to help promote the cooperative program. The lifeline of Our denomination has been the cooperative program. And I really feel that we need to talk

00:21:01.000 - 00:21:11.800

with our stewardship commission, and we need to talk with ourselves, and we need to work at really helping to say to people to reemphasize the value of doing cooperatively

00:21:11.800 - 00:21:20.760

that which we cannot do separately. And I'm going to start doing more of this. And our agency is going to support promotion of the cooperative program.

00:21:20.760 - 00:21:35.120

I think it's absolutely essential. - It has been said that economic problems hit the hardest on the already poor. Dr. Tanner expresses his concern for the hungry in our land. We have budgeted for nine months of this year funds for a

00:21:35.120 - 00:21:55.240

national consultant in hunger and disaster relief. I'm hoping by June this position will be ready to be approved and Paul Adkins will be looking to find someone to fill it. I think we need to get on with this business of reaching out to the people in our land. We have taken steps to increase our ministry and

00:21:55.240 - 00:22:21.840

sensitivity to the hungry people in our nation. That's called domestic hunger. That's a very smooth sounding phrase, isn't it? Reads well, almost innocuous. It's one of the most pathetic, serious, critical, urgent, pressing needs that we have in our nation. People that are hungry and young people and children

00:22:21.840 - 00:22:44.520

that really are suffering from malnutrition and starving in our land. And I know that we can't feed the nation. We can light a light. We can do what we can. As I said, I don't know all that we can do, but I do know that we can do more than we are doing. And I hope and I pray that we will.

00:22:44.520 - 00:23:09.520

Cindy Blair is a US2 missionary working through the Department of Christian Social Ministries in St. Louis, Missouri. With a master's degree in social work, she finds herself ministering in inner city areas. There are many needs in the St. Louis area. We find we have, especially the churches I'm working in, the communities, we have a high percentage of single parent families, especially with female heads of households.

00:23:09.520 - 00:23:40.020

We have an unemployment problem. We have a great need for tutoring services and for different kinds of social ministries, working with handicapped, working with underachievers, and just a whole range of things, especially with your single parent family. Cindy explains that she not only meets social needs, but shares the gospel as well in her work with children. Trying to present the gospel to them and just to get to know the kids and then by meeting the children, working with the children,

00:23:40.020 - 00:24:03.660

finding ways to work with the families, discovering needs and then meeting those needs in the families and hopefully getting the families into a church situation. The Southern Baptist Convention will meet in St. Louis in June this year. Cindy thinks that the people of St. Louis would provide the greatest education and interest to visiting Baptists. >> I think that they would find the people themselves in St. Louis,

00:24:03.660 - 00:24:24.460

that the vast needs and the different types of people you find in the city, how the churches are helping to meet those needs, and just to find a lot of the, especially a lot of the needs that are there among the people, among your lower income groups, and to see how the churches are reaching out to meet those needs,

00:24:24.460 - 00:24:53.680

and then to maybe even take some of these ideas back to their home churches and see how they can be used there. Bill Lee, who coordinates college admissions for the Home Mission Board, is busy making assignments for this summer. We have had approximately 925 applicants as of this date. We are budgeted for 650 students that will be assigned to these state conventions.

00:24:54.220 - 00:25:24.980

Unfortunately, we will have maybe 150 to 200 students withdraw between now and the 1st of June. So it's important that we have that cushion so that we can replace withdrawals. And we don't just hold back the least qualified students. We actually do not assign some very good students because it's really some of our better students that withdraw.

00:25:24.980 - 00:25:43.420

They will get the offer of a youth director's job for the summer. Are they going to get married or they find out they've got to go to summer school or they find out they need to have a higher paying job than $40 a week. So there are a number of legitimate reasons why a student would withdraw. We don't like to

00:25:43.420 - 00:26:04.340

face that problem but it is evident that we're going to have that every year. Summer missions, Lee explains, are a viable part of missions in our homeland. I guess still the largest segment of the students will do what we call general missions work. Backyard Bible clubs, vacation Bible schools, camp work, survey work.

00:26:04.340 - 00:26:39.620

Probably next to that, one of the most popular things now is resort missions. inner city work, Christian social ministry types things, where they would be working out of a Baptist center, usually an urban center. Then we do work in church extension, either helping to pave the way for a new chapel or mission or church to be established by going in and doing backyard Bible clubs or doing survey work,

00:26:39.620 - 00:27:02.260

doing even some revivals. We have some evangelism teams that will be going out. In the area of language, for instance, we have some students that will be doing ministry to the deaf, to migrants, which involves usually some Spanish-speaking students. Seaman's ministry is a specialized kind of ministry where we

00:27:02.260 - 00:27:22.480

will have a number of students that will be working in port cities. We have some prison ministry, not very many, but several that will be serving in that capacity, hospital chaplains. So there are a number of these specialized areas. Baptist young people continue to volunteer their services summer after

00:27:22.480 - 00:27:43.360

summer, but what does the future hold? In terms of human resources, I think it's unlimited. In terms of financial resources, we're in need of more funds. The cost of putting a summer missionary on the field is increasing considerably, particularly in the area of travel, which is no surprise to anyone.

00:27:43.360 - 00:28:01.000

If you are interested in having a summer missionary work in your area next summer 1981, contact Bill Lee, Department of Special Mission Ministries, with the Baptist Home Mission Board. Associational missions is the subject of the 1981 Home Mission Study

00:28:01.000 - 00:28:19.760

graded series. From the Indian reservations of New Mexico to the ski jumps of the Lake Placid Olympics, the adult study covers associational activity in six locations across the U.S. By highlighting young people in Western Montana and in Detroit, the study for youth explores the work of the local

00:28:19.760 - 00:28:39.040

Baptist Association and its director of missions. Flag football, ranch work, and a director of missions who just happens to be a horse trainer help illustrate the children's study about teamwork and the work of the Baptist Association. The adult study, Churches on Mission, the Association, is available in a slide set

00:28:39.040 - 00:28:59.000

or film strip, each with a cassette. Running Shoes and Big City Blues, the youth study, is available in film strip and cassette form with script. The children's study, A Team for You, also contains film strip, cassette, and script. The 1981 Home Mission study will be available in the early fall of 1980

00:28:59.000 - 00:29:18.000

through the Home Mission Board's orders processing. 1350 Spring Street, Northwest, Atlanta, Georgia, 30309. This has been Mission Scope for April, May, and June, 1980. A production of the Audiovisual Department of the Baptist Home Mission Board.

00:29:18.000 - 00:29:33.000

1350 Spring Street, Northwest, Atlanta, Georgia, 30309. [BLANK_AUDIO]