Updated Thursday, April 17, 2008

Curtis: Churches need what WMU offers

By Norman Jameson

BR Editor

Baptist churches cannot do without what Woman's Missionary Union (WMU) offers, said Nancy Curtis, the organization's executive director 1977-93.

Speaking at WMU of North Carolina's annual Missions Extravaganza, Curtis, who now lives in New Mexico, said WMU is a church-wide missions organization and "no one does it better."

"No one else really does it at all," she said, speaking to the theme "Living on the Edge."

Curtis reminded the highest number of participants since 2002 that "WMU is always about its middle name," which is "missionary."

"WMU has always been and will always be about missions," she told the 1,343 registered participants.

While many shorthand comments refer to Woman's Missionary Union as a missions education organization, Curtis disagreed, claiming that WMU is "missions in all of its elements."

Curtis said WMU history "has never been easy." In its earliest days, a male had to bring the WMU report to the Baptist State Convention's annual meeting, and men feared WMU would take over the Convention. Pioneer Fannie Heck said "ridicule" was the harshest weapon.

"WMU has always been a minority organization, with the work done by the zealous, committed and faithful few," said Curtis, who claimed WMU has always been "an overwhelming minority."

That minority started a program of summer teachers in the mountains where there were no schools, and started a state missions offering in North Carolina to bail out the early version of the Convention which was saddled with an $18,000 debt.

Although the program of WMU "with a balance of missions and action cannot be equaled by any other group," she said, WMU today "still faces apathy, opposition and even ridicule."

There is no ego in this "organization of servants," she said. "We've made a world of difference by being co-laborers with God."

"With its systematic, organized plan of prayer and financial support WMU transports members to other countries through literature," Curtis said.

WMU's "detailed plan" makes children aware of a lost world and of how Christians take the Good News to that world. WMU's efforts have encouraged Baptists to give billions of dollars to missions and it faithfully promotes the Cooperative Program, she said.

"WMU helps churches focus on Baptists' first love, which is missions," Curtis said. "If not WMU, who? There isn't anybody."