We at Independent Fundamental Baptist Missionary Trails base our ministering to you from the Word of God. We rally around the great commission of our Lord Jesus Christ found in Matthew 28:16-20; Mark 16:14-18; Luke 24:44-49; John 20:19-23; and Acts 1:4-8. We support in spirit and financially Faith Promise Mission programs. What is Faith Promise Missions? We define it as our faith reaching God’s heart and in return His salvation reaching the world. We have 5 core values of IFBMT that I would like to share with you.
We are better together!
Philippians 2:2 “…like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind”
All throughout scripture we find again and again that we should be united in our service to God. At the Tower of Babel, God separated the people because if they stayed united nothing would be impossible for them. Today, sadly we find a lot of the opposite even within our own Independent Baptist culture. I was personally not raised with the “camp” mindset and only recently learned about them these past few years. The first time I heard the phrase, “they are not of our camp” I understood it to mean that they did not go to the same summer camp. My, how much I misunderstood and was saddened. Yes, there is plenty of things to separate over, but there are plenty more to come together on. I believe that the only way that we are going to be able to evangelize the world with the gospel message is if we do it together. Do you preach the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Do you preach the divinity of Jesus through the virgin birth? Do you preach the reality of Hell for those who will not or have not received the atonement of Jesus Christ? If you do, then let us serve you as you preach Christ! We believe that we can be better for God as we seek to accomplish the great commission TOGETHER!
Less is better!
Proverbs 15:16 “Better is little with the fear of the Lord…”
Whoa! But we want to reach more people, and disciple more nationals, and need more support; so what do you mean “less is better”? We believe that when God is involved, He will take the less and make it better. Here let me explain with the Bible story of the feeding of the five thousand. Jesus did not seek out the food truck or turn the stones to bread, he took the little boy’s lunch and multiplied it. We believe that God can use less miles, less fuel, less calling, less emailing, less meetings, and less time to be able to raise the support needed to get to the field where He has called you to go. Now wouldn’t that be better?
Make deputation great again!
Genesis 12:2 “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing”
Yes, this verse was written to Abraham, but there is an application which we can glean from it. God wants to use your family and your ministry as a vessel to make His name great. It is not about us and having a great name for ourselves, it is about our great God! There are times when deputation may not feel great, times when you call for 8 hours and book no meetings, times when you drive 500 miles to a church and get a $50 love offering, and even times when you may feel like quitting. This is when we need to turn to God and ask him to make it great. We cannot make deputation great. “What? Isn’t that the title of this core value though?” Yes it is, but it is not us making it great; it is GOD working through us making deputation great again. If you joined IFBMT so we could help you but you have not asked God to help you, I’m sorry but there is not much help we can offer you outside of the Lord’s power through us. If you want to complete deputation and try to make it great without God then IFBMT is not for you. But, if you have asked God to give you the power and strength, that through Him you can have a great deputation, then let us help you make deputation great again!
Serving Missionaries for Life!
Matthew 23:11 “But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.”
One of the men of God that made the most impact on my life was my Christian School Principal and Youth Director. He was a very humble servant himself and taught us to be the same. Our Christian school focused heavily on servant leadership. Values of servantude were not only taught but also practiced. I remember a quote from a service my principal preached where he stated, “He with the dirtiest towel wins.” We understook Psalm 27:14 to mean not to sit still and wait on God like you wait for a bus, but rather to wait on God like a guest in the dining chambers. It is our desire to not make a name for ourselves or become the baptists biggest tech commodity, but rather to simply serve you. And we don’t just want to serve you until you sign up, nor only for the first month, nor only for your deputation ministry, we want to serve you for your whole life. Your commitment to serve God with your life is not something that we take lightly! We value your commitment and the sacrifices you make to serve God. We strive to honor you and through God’s power spend our life serving you. In February 2018 when we launched IFBMT my wife asked me, so does that mean that you are done with that project now? It was a loaded question and I knew what she was getting at with the question. It is not that she did not support the project, it is that the life changes were becoming greater than anticipated. We sat down and discussed that this project of IFBMT was not something that was ever going to end. Changes would need to be made, scheduled adjusted, and extra help found to continue serving with this ministry for life. But that is exactly our goal. IFBMT’s desire is to be more than a church database. We desire to be more than a deputation and furlough tool. We desire to provide essential tools for a missionary throughout his whole lifetime. We are here to spend our life serving you for your life.
Serving the next generation!
Matthew 25:40 “…as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
It is so easy to always get caught up in the past or even in the here and now, but we need to look torwards the future. Yes, the past is good to learn from, and if we do not learn from history then we are doomed to repeat it. And yes, it is good to live in the here and now at the present and focus at the task at hand. But even more importantly, is looking to the future of the great commission. I have heard to many times over and over that the current missions program in the Independent Baptist culture is broken. I am sorry, but I do not agree! The program, I believe takes Biblical principles and practical methods and combines them together to accomplish the great commission. “But couldn’t it be better?” Yes! Which is exactly what we believe. We believe that the processes and the methods are not faulty but need to be streamlined. We whole heartidly believe that by continuing with IFBMT we can see the next generation of missionaries and church planters spend even less time on deputation and furloughs and more time on the field. “But the pre-field ministry is important and needed for the local churches.” We couldn’t agree more. Imagine with me for just a moment of a missionary raising his needed support in 6 months or less. He would not be able to get into as many meetings possibly, and may not even be able to have as large a impact on local churches as missionaries do today. But think about the encouragement it would be to other missionaries called to go but struggle with the fact of support raising. I am not saying it will take the work out of support raising, nor that it will be easy. What I am saying is that it will have a profound effect on the missions culture. I recently read about a ministry that’s whole purpose is to see you get fully funded. Now this is great, but it is self centered in my personal opinion. Who does it help if you get fully funded but the next missionary makes all of the same struggles that you did? Wouldn’t you be thankful if you were the one getting all of the helpful information to streamline your methods? With our uniquely custom built management system, you can raise your support using your own methods while providing valuable information for the next generation. Let IFBMT serve you, and in doing so we will serve the next generation.