Thoughts on the GCTF Report
I want to express gratitude to the members of Kentucky Great Commission Task Force who have served over the past eight months and to all Kentucky Baptists who have prayed for the committee members. I am grateful for the work of Dr. Hershael York in leading the committee, writing much of the report, and giving generously of his time in sharing the report personally with KBC entity heads, KBC staff and directors of missions. http://www.kybaptist.org/kbc.nsf/pages/kygc-report.html" title="http://www.kybaptist.org/kbc.nsf/pages/kygc-report.html">Click here to read the report.I also want to thank Charles Barnes, chairman of the Mission Board’s Business and Finance Committee, for his days of work on the financial plan of the report. Once the task force had voted on the goal of moving to a 50/50 division of Cooperative Program receipts with the Southern Baptist Convention and certain reductions, it became his task to work with me and KBC Business Team Leader Lowell Ashby to come up with a financial plan that would move KBC toward the goals.
Given the recommendations, I think it is an equitable plan for absorbing the loss of funds from the anticipated phase-out of our cooperative agreement with the North American Mission Board ($1,017,000), managing reductions in CP allocations for Kentucky missions and ministries, and challenging everyone to do and give “more for Christ.”
The focus of the report is on the Great Commission and getting the gospel to the unreached people groups of the world through the Cooperative Program. We all know that more resources are needed to fulfill the Great Commission and this was a prime motivation for committee members.
A key element and the first recommendation of the report is a call for spiritual repentance and renewal that results in renewed commitment to the Great Commission. If the report is approved by messengers this November, we will have an emphasis called “More for Christ” that I hope will permeate the soul of every Kentucky Baptist and every church. Each individual and church will be encouraged to seek the Lord on how they can do more for Christ in reaching people, increasing baptisms, developing disciples and supporting missions through CP.
The report’s second recommendation calls for the KBC to move to a 50/50 split with SBC of CP receipts within seven years after taking out 4 percent in shared expenses. This will mean increased allocations for the International Mission Board, North American Mission Board, the six seminaries and other SBC ministries. At the same time it will mean reduced allocations for KBC missions and ministries.
The report’s third recommendation is to call on churches to increase the percentage of their giving to missions through CP so that we see a convention-wide increase of 3 percent each year for seven years. The report notes that this can be accomplished if each KBC church will increase its percentage by just one-quarter of a percent each year.
In these challenging economic times, the question has been raised about what will happen if the growth in CP does not come at this level. In such a scenario, the task force and Business and Finance Committee would need to consider a recommendation to either extend the time for reaching the even 50/50 split or further reduce the missions and ministries of KBC, or both. This is my biggest concern about the future and KBC missions and ministries.
The report’s final recommendation is to allow the task force to stay in place for the duration of the seven-year plan to enable it to monitor progress and report annually to Kentucky Baptists. I think the intent is for the task force to be actively involved in encouraging individuals and churches to take on the CP missions challenge to do more for Christ.
It is the hope of the task force that young leaders and others will be encouraged by this aggressive plan to shift significant funds to world missions and that they will respond to this opportunity to support missions through the Cooperative Program.
Obviously, the report calls for Kentucky Baptists to conduct a spiritual inventory to discover under God how we can all do more for Christ. If every church member and church will do more, implementing the plan will not be a burden on any one individual or church and it will be amazing to see how God uses us!
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posted by: Brenda Smith on August 31st, 2010