Publisher's Synopsis
God's missionary mandate for every Christian is to go and make disciples of all peoples. From their beginnings, Southern Baptists have embraced this mandate. In May 1845, Baptists from across the South met to form the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). On the first day they established the Board of Domestic Missions (presently the North American Mission Board) and the Foreign Mission Board (currently the International Mission Board) in order to help fulfill the command of Christ. Today, it is estimated that 4.1 billion people on this planet have little or no access to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The on-going focus of the leadership of the IMB is what strategy or methodologies can be employed to reach these people. David Platt, the IMB president, recently shared a "streamlined" strategy and structure for the purpose of sharing the message of salvation with these unreached peoples. Is this the correct strategy and structure? What realities led Platt to propose this current strategy? Is this his own strategy or did he consult with others? The author believes that mission leaders, missiologists, and students of missiology can gain much-needed insights for the formulation of current missionary strategy by studying past strategy. M. Theron Rankin served as the executive secretary of the Foreign Mission Board at a crucial time in history, the end of World War II (1945). Rankin developed a comprehensive strategy that grew out of his vision, "That the world may know." His comprehensive strategy, the Advance Program, became the strategy of the FMB until the SBC adopted Bold Mission Thrust in 1976. Noted missiologist David J. Bosch indicated the past should serve as a compass for the future. Rankin's mission strategy can serve as a compass for future missionary endeavors.
