Man on a global mission

WAKE FOREST -- In the weeks before school starts, Daniel L. Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, is doing what he likes best: traveling the globe.

This time he's in Jordan, where son Paul is witnessing to his love of Jesus while working for a sports organization teaching children basketball and baseball.

Timothy, another son, just returned from two years in Turkey, doing much the same thing.

All four Akin boys are continuing in the family business, serving Jesus for the Southern Baptist Convention, some as missionaries, others as ministers.

On Aug. 19, Akin will be back in presidential mode, welcoming faculty and students to the seminary he has led since 2004. But unlike some seminary presidents who focus solely on fundraising, management and scholarship, Akin has assumed a larger public role. Beyond the magnolias and red brick buildings of the Wake Forest seminary, Akin is known as the architect of a bold new vision for the Southern Baptist Convention.

Known as Great Commission Resurgence, the vision refocuses the nation's largest Protestant denomination on its No. 1 priority - making converts to Christianity. At a time when many denominations are declining, Akin thinks the Southern Baptist Convention can grow by redoubling efforts to spread the gospel to the globe's farthest reaches. Convention-goers agreed, overwhelmingly approving the plan this summer.

"I'm trying to raise up Green Berets for Jesus, who will go to hard places," said Akin, 53.

To this end, Akin travels the world, from Kenya to Thailand to southern Sudan, encouraging missionaries and local Baptist ministers to bring the gospel to the multitudes, whom he and many others characterize as "lost."

"Having two sons serving overseas, I saw, up close and personal, the massive lostness of the world," said Akin. "Not only are they not Christian, they know nothing of Jesus."

Like other evangelicals, Akin believes people who have not accepted Christianity will go to hell when they die. As important, Christians will face a maker who will ask them why they didn't do more to save others.

"I don't want to stand before God and say I did very little with what you gave us," Akin said.

A haunting sight

Of the many sights he has seen on his travels, one keeps him up at night. On a trip to Thailand with wife Charlotte, he and a couple of missionaries were on their way to a restaurant when their car passed a half-mile-long strip of prostitutes, many who apparently were between the ages of 12 and 15.

"Buddhism isn't going to do a thing to stop that," he said. "Hinduism isn't going to do a thing to stop that. What could change the hearts of the pimps and the men who exploit these girls is the gospel."

But Akin knew that less than 3 cents of every dollar given to his denomination goes abroad. So he set about to change that. Although the Great Commission Resurgence has no financial mandates for change, its approval set the wheels in motion for more money collected in donations to the Southern Baptist Convention to flow to international missions.

The plan also calls for more missionaries. Southern Baptists were scaling back overseas deployments from 5,600 to 5,000. Under the new plan, the denomination will gradually increase those ranks to as many as 10,000 missionaries by 2020, Akin said.

The unwelcoming world

Critics say there's a limited potential for new converts in many countries where Akin wants to go. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life recently reported that neither Christianity nor Islam had much opportunity for growth in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, where at least 90 percent of people already identify as either Christian or Muslim.

In many Middle Eastern countries, proselytizing is strictly prohibited and missionaries risk deportation.

In addition, some say the world is no longer hospitable to the missionary project.

"Refocusing on global Christianity will force Southern Baptists to confront religious pluralism," said Bill Leonard, professor of church history and a Baptist scholar at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem. "What they feel is conviction sounds like bigotry in some places."

Pursuing different goals

It's no secret that missionary work has changed. Fewer missionaries are starting new churches, with the vast majority tackling social ills such as HIV/AIDS, malnutrition, illiteracy, the child sex trade. While Akin commends these projects, he fears they may be diverting precious resources from eternal gains to more immediate ones.

"It's always easier to dig a well than to look someone in the face and say 'Can I share the Gospel of Jesus Christ?'" Akin said.

The Great Commission Resurgence also calls on Southern Baptists to embrace missionary work in the United States, by reaching out to new immigrants and accelerating new church starts outside the Bible Belt.

But it's the refocus on international missions that, while always important to the denomination, now assumes supreme priority.

He's a 'mobilizer'

At Southeastern, that's been Akin's direction for some time. The seminary, with about 2,000 graduate students and another 450 undergraduates, urges all students to go on short-term mission trips abroad.

"Danny is a mobilizer," said the Rev. Johnny Hunt of Atlanta, a former president of the denomination and a close friend of Akin's. "He's good at casting a vision."

For Akin, it comes down to the exclusive message of the gospel: "If I believe there is a hell rushing at you, I do you no favor by saying, 'In the end we'll get to the same place,' " Akin said. "I don't believe that. My assignment is to help you avoid that crisis in eternity."