Many of you have walked with Caron and me through the ministry challenges of 2015 and 2016. They have been times of clarifying our call and place in God’s global mission via the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. As the challenges of 2015 begin to recede into the distance, opportunities for greater Great Commission engagement loom continually larger in the present and future. I am thrilled to see the International Mission Board positioning itself for on-going Great Commission impact worldwide.

Dr. M. David Sills, my friend and doctoral supervisor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, winsomely summarizes the Great Commission mandates as “reaching and teaching.”

• Reaching is that part of the Great Commission mandate in which God’s people intentionally advance the Gospel among those who have never heard the Gospel, once heard the Gospel, or have heard it, but still have not effectually believed it.
• Teaching is that part of the Great Commission that intentionally seeks to help ground believers in the “faith once and for all delivered to the Saints.” This grounding is based on the Biblical teaching as understood by the historic Christian Church, has life application and worship at its center, and is guided at all levels by a commitment to Great Commission expansion.

By God’s grace, the Johnsons are blessed to give themselves wholeheartedly to the teaching component of the Great Commission. My (Mark’s) primary task is to strengthen theological education in the Americas. My “official” job title is “Theological Education Consultant”. The team with whom I work seeks to influence theological education throughout Mexico and Latin America. I would like to share with you what my team is doing in order that each of you can more effectively pray before the Father on our behalf.

The Theological Education Consultant Team works with local missionary teams and Baptist partners (churches, associations, and conventions) throughout the Americas to help them in the area of their theological education needs.

Note: When we use the term “Americas” (with an “s” at the end), we are referring to Mexico, Central America, Latin America and South America, but not the United States of America.

Six priorities of the Theological Education Consultant Team

1. Each Theological Education Consultant brings some form of academic preparation to their task of relating to seminaries throughout the Americas. Most importantly, each one brings a strong sense of calling to and passion for theological education as an important and strategic means by which a new generation of Great Commission servants is developed and sent to the Nations. To accomplish this, each Theological Education Consultant is encouraged to exercise their teaching ministry and gifting. In this way, strategic relationships with Americas Baptist seminary leadership and partners are nurtured and developed. For example, this year I will be teaching a full gambit of courses in the area of Missiology: Theology of Missions, Missions Anthropology, History of Missions, and Missions Strategies. Whenever I teach, and wherever I teach, I will be working with key strategic Baptist seminary partners to train more leaders for Great Commission advance.
2. Theological Education Consultants work to develop a theological education network throughout Mexico, Central America, and South America. One recent and exciting example of this was a meeting coordinated by the International Mission Board in Panama. At this meeting, seminary leaders from the SBC met with Baptist seminary leaders from Mexico, Central America, and South America. This was an exciting opportunity to cast vision and strengthen cooperation.
3. Theological Education Consultants connect the tremendous theological education resources of Southern Baptist Convention seminaries and partners to the theological education needs and opportunities that exist in Mexico, Central America, and South America. One Theological Education Consultant project of tremendous value was recently highlighted in an article in Baptist Press, http://www.bpnews.net/46562/from-the-seminaries-sebts-and-brazil-baptists-mbts-doctoral-ethics-degrees-9marks-at-sbts. Please read the whole article entitled, “Southeastern partnership with Brazilians sees first fruits”. My team was deeply involved in this entire process. Thankfully, similar theological education projects are being facilitated throughout the Americas. A quote from Dr. David Bledsoe sums up well what the Theological Education Consultants are doing across the Americas:

“This MTS endeavor has demonstrated Baptist cooperation at its highest level,” said David Bledsoe with the IMB in Brazil. “Southeastern offered the program and strived to do so in a contextual manner. IMB offered a missionary professor to assist in the coordination … [and] the Brazilian mission boards provided much of the logistic assistance to pull off the program on Brazilian soil.”

Each project’s details will be different, but the essential goal is the same: Baptist cooperation at its highest level.

4. The Theological Education Consultants prioritize the development of Masters and Doctoral level training among Baptist seminary partners in Mexico, Central America, and South America. Theological education and leadership can and must take place at all levels. The Theological Education Consultants are deeply involved in broad based leadership training projects. However, many of the Consultants have terminal degrees (PhDs and D.Miss) that allow them to teach at the higher levels of theological and missiological education. It is an important priority for this team, the Baptist partners in Mexico, Central America, and South America have seminaries that are training and producing their own Masters and Doctoral level students who are prepared to teach and train in the future. Strategic partnerships exist or are being established with key Baptist partner seminaries throughout the Americas to help meet this very special need.
5. The Theological Education Consultants help to facilitate the development and implementation of on-line theological education among Baptist partners in the Americas. This world is rapidly becoming a digital world, and the digital revolution is changing both how theological education content is being studied by students and how the content is delivered to them for their study. The Theological Education Consultants work with Americas Baptist seminary partners to help connect them to the technological resources of Southern Baptist Convention life in order to meet their growing needs for quality digital delivery of theological content.
6. Finally, Seminary Consultants help develop leaders within the International Mission Board (IMB). Theological Education Consultants work in conjunction with the field strategies set by the affinity leadership team as well as cooperatively as part of a local IMB engagement team. It is a pleasure and honor to work with and serve along side fellow Southern Baptists on mission to the nations and IMB colleagues who are forward deployed among the nations.

You now have an overview of what I am doing and how I am leading this team as we work together in theological education in an area that stretches from the Rio Grande River to the southernmost tip of South America. This work is possible because of the financial support of Southern Baptists to the Great Commission and the prayers of each you on behalf of God’s global mission. This work of theological education has God’s global glory as its primary focus and Baptist cooperation at the highest levels as the means by which this global mission is being accomplished.

If you are a theological educator with a terminal degree and are interested in a short term missionary teaching assignment, please contact me.  I would love to share with you some exciting options.  If you are a pastor or church leader with a heart for training, there is a place for you also in this work.  We are committed to training leaders at all levels.  I look forward to hearing from you. God bless you and thank you for being a part of this cooperative effort that makes this all possible.