Global ministry has deep Texas Baptist roots

A global ministry that has led to 25 million decisions for Christ over the past 50 years grew out of a small West Texas Baptist church and an unsuccessful cotton farmer’s vision for missions.

“I went broke farming. I lost four crops in three years,” said Ben Mieth, founder of what is now known as International Commission. “I knew the Lord was trying to tell me something.”

International Commission currently works in 181 countries, conducting church-based evangelism projects and equipping national church leaders. It provides evangelism and discipleship resources to congregations across the United States.

However, the organization has deep roots in Texas Baptist life, particularly in West Texas.

“We are an organization of Texas Baptists, just not a Texas Baptist organization,” said Brent Edwards, president of International Commission.

While International Commission is not affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, it has worked with BGCT leaders in sharing personal evangelism resources.

And for five decades, it has worked with some Texas Baptist congregations in short-term evangelism-based international mission trips.

Early board members included pastors of Texas churches and directors of missions of Texas Baptist associations, Edwards noted.

Current board members include Rick Lineberger, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Glen Rose, and Chad Selph, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Allen.

Originally a ministry of Seminole church

The global ministry grew out of First Baptist Church in Seminole and what Ben Mieth, now age 88, described as a clear call from God.

It began when William “Dub” Henry Jackson, founder of the World Evangelism Foundation, invited Gene Hawkins, then pastor of First Baptist Church in Seminole, to enlist members of his congregation to be part of a short-term partnership church-to-church missions trip to Japan.

Mieth participated as part of a 40-member team from Baptist churches in West Texas who worked with several Japanese churches in personal evangelism. The four teams involved in that mission trip saw 1,000 people make professions of faith in Christ, Mieth recalled.

The idea of churches in the United States working in partnership with congregations in another country captured Mieth’s imagination.

“Coming home from Japan, the Lord told me, ‘What you saw work in Japan will work in Mexico,’” he said. “God burdened my heart for Hispanic people.”

Mieth traveled to Mexico to introduce pastors to the idea of working in evangelistic partnerships with volunteers from churches in Texas. Once several pastors in the Ojinaga area expressed interest, he led a team from First Baptist in Seminole to participate in a weeklong mission trip.

The Texans worked with Mexican churches to make evangelistic visits, lead Vacation Bible Schools and hold evangelistic worship services each evening. That first mission experience led to 1,500 professions of faith in Christ and a new church being planted.

Expanded at request of Mexican pastors

Within a few months, several pastors from Chihuahua City asked Mieth to bring volunteers to their area for similar ministry.

So, he recruited church teams from West Texas to work directly with Mexican churches, and that experience produced results similar to the earlier mission trip.

Mexican pastors invited Mieth to return to Chihuahua to do for churches throughout the entire state what they had done for congregations in the state capital.

At that point, Mieth, Hawkins and other leaders of First Baptist Church in Seminole decided it was time to establish the global missions and evangelism initiative as its own nonprofit organization. Adopting terminology made popular by Billy Graham, they formed International Crusades.

In time, the term “crusades” became problematic, particularly in countries with a significant Muslim population. So, the organization rebranded itself as International Commission in 2000.

As word spread, the ministry received invitations to work in other Latin American countries. Contact with a Latvian-born missionary to Brazil opened doors to serve in Eastern Europe and beyond.

Following the Operation Andrew model

While International Commission has no formal connection to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, it adopted that organization’s “Operation Andrew” strategy and materials.

Months before International Commission sends a short-term mission team from the United States to another country, Christians in that country are challenged to identify individuals who need a relationship with Christ and to pray regularly for them.

When the visiting mission team arrives, American volunteers go with local Christians to present the gospel to those individuals for whom they have been praying.

After the mission team returns home to the United States, believers in partnership national churches follow up with those who made commitments to Christ, focusing on discipleship and Christian growth.

As part of its “N2N” (National-to-National) program, International Commission also works with church leaders around the world to train their members to do the same kind of projects, with local Christians praying for, evangelizing and discipling their own countrymen.

The N2N teams can work in places closed to Americans, have no cultural and language barriers to overcome, and can operate at a fraction of the cost of sending U.S.-based teams internationally, Edwards explained.

Texas Baptist convictions ‘in the DNA’

International Commission has grown far beyond a few West Texas Baptist churches partnering with an equal number of congregations in Mexico.

However, Edwards said, the mission remains the same: to equip and enable believers to conduct church-based evangelism projects to reach unbelievers and make disciples.

The organization’s doctrinal statement includes an affirmation of the Baptist Faith & Message, and International Commission continues to have strong connections to Texas Baptists, he said.

“It’s in the DNA,” Edwards said.