Kansas City, USA — The Southern Baptist International Mission Board has taken a small step back from its controversial ban on appointing missionaries who use a "private prayer language," or speak in tongues in private.
Mission board trustees, meeting May 7-9 in Kansas City, Mo., voted overwhelmingly to turn the policies into guidelines instead.
The board is still discouraging the use of private prayer language, but an attorney for the agency, Matt Bristol, said adopting the term "guideline" means that the provisions "will be applied with a degree of flexibility" considering the circumstances of each candidate.
The trustees had adopted the policy in November 2005 out of concern about the growing popularity of Pentecostal practices, including glossolalia, by Christians overseas and at home.
Baptists and other Christians disagree over whether "baptism in the Holy Spirit," accompanied by speaking in tongues, ended with the apostolic period or continues today.
Still, some Southern Baptist leaders had protested the mission board's policy, saying the use of private prayer language should not be a test for potential missionaries. Previously, missionaries had been barred from speaking in tongues publicly, but their private prayer was not monitored.