Richmond, Virginia
February 9, 1967
103
The Foreign Mission Board met in regular monthly session on Thursday, February 9,
1967 at 3:00 P.M. in the chapel of the Foreign Mission Board with Dr. J. Roy Clifford
presiding.
Present: State Member: 0. K. Webb, S. C. Local Members: T. F. Adams, Wade Bryant,
J. Roy Clifford, V. Allen Gaines, David S. Hammock, Mrs. Clyde V. Hickerson, John
Kincheloe,' W. Rush Loving, J. Walter Martin, J. Leonard Moore, James Rayhorn, D. 0.
Rose, Edwin L. Shattuck, Dalton Ward. Staff : Baker J. Cauthen, Rogers M. Smith,
Frank K. Means, J. D. Hughey, E. L. Hill, G. Norman Price, lone Gray, Floyd North,
E. L. Deane, Jesse C. Fletcher, William Dawson, William Marshall, Truman Smith,
Louis Cobbs, E. L. Wright, Franklin T. Fowler, Emily Lenz. Guests : Mrs. 0, K. Webb,
S. C., J. Levering Evans.
The meeting opened with prayer by Dr. W. Rush Loving.
Dr. Cauthen filed the following report of the Executive Secretary:
REPORT OF EXECUTIVE SECRETARY
The largest financial responsibility in the task of foreign missions is at the point
of sending and maintaining missionaries on the field. Much more is involved in
maintaining missionaries abroad than their actual salaries. There must be travel
to and from the fields, outfit allowances, education of missionary children, furlough
expenses, housing, and a great array of other responsibilities.
Most important in the list, however, are missionary salaries. Missionary salaries are
as follows:
$2,000
3,600
Single Missionary
Married Couple
Each child under 10 years of age
Each child over 10 years of age
250
300
This means that a family with one child under 10 years of age would receive $3,850
and a family with four children, two of which are under 10, and two over 10 would
receive $4,700. Inflationary conditions throughout the world require cost-of-living
supplements to be added to these basic figures in most countries.
In addition to salary, housing is provided, and one half of all medical bills are
paid by the Board with the understanding that when the missionary's portion exceeds
$100 the remainder is absorbed by the Board. Each missionary is provided with
$1,000 life insurance and his pension dues are paid by the Board. Assistance is
provided toward expenses of missionary children attending college. A refit allowance
of $5.00 per month per missionary and $2.50 per month per child for each completed
month of service on the field enables a missionary family to become equipped for a
new period of service abroad. Transportation on the mission field is provided as
recommended by the Missions and as resources permit.
The work of foreign missions relies upon resources provided through the Cooperative
Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. These two streams of reinforcement
flow together like tributaries to form a great river of compassion reaching into a
needy world.
This is demonstrated in the financial provisions for 1967.
The Cooperative Program provides $11,780,300 and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering,
$7,317,000 for the support of missionaries and maintenance of ministries of evan¬
gelism and church development, Christian education, publications, medical work, and
benevolent ministries in sixty-four countries.
The Cooperative Program provides $1,500,000 received through Advance Funds and the
Lottie Moon Offering a minimum of $5,500,000 for necessary buildings on mission
fields including churches, schools, hospitals, residences for missionaries and other
necessary structures.
The extent to which advance in foreign mission service is possible depends upon the
supply of people and resources. Indications point to the likelihood of the largest
number of missionary appointments in 1967 in the history of the Foreign Mission
Board. The appointment of new missionaries in the course of a year requires an
increase of at least $2,225,000 of resources the following year.
Southern Baptists have been able to sustain advance since 1948 by steadily increas¬
ing the resources for foreign missions along with caring for other essential needs
in Baptist ministries at the home base.
It is our deep conviction that blessings will abound for all churches and denomi¬
national interest if we continue to press forward with an ever increasing outreach
of love into a world of escalating need.
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