Great Commission Resurgence
If you attended or followed the news out the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Louisville last week, you’ve probably heard a lot of discussion about the “Great Commission Resurgence.” This refers to a call from SBC President Johnny Hunt for the SBC to put a renewed focus and energy on fulfilling the Great Commission.The discussion resulted in a decision by the SBC messengers to ask Dr. Hunt to appoint a task force to closely examine the work of all SBC entities to study how Southern Baptists can work "more faithfully and effectively together in serving Christ through the Great Commission." The task force is to study the issues and bring a report to the 2010 SBC annual meeting in Orlando.
In a strict technical sense, the study of SBC entities has no direct impact upon the Kentucky Baptist Convention because churches, associations, state conventions and the SBC are all autonomous bodies. In a practical sense, however, this conversation will have an important impact on all Southern Baptist work, including the work of the KBC. As cooperating bodies, we want to work in concert with each other in order to bring glory to God, reach people for Christ and be good stewards of our resources.
Even as the Great Commission Task Force examines the work of national entities we will want to also be looking at own efforts here in Kentucky to fulfill the Great Commission. This is not new for us as a Convention as we periodically go through the process of evaluating our work, establishing goals and objectives and adjusting our structures and methodologies.
Exactly what the final outcome in the SBC or in Kentucky will be, no one knows at this point. The new SBC task force will soon be getting organized and beginning its work and the broader GCR discussion will play out in different ways across the 43 state conventions.
I am supportive of the Great Commission Task Force. Although I initially had some concerns, including the fact that evangelism was not listed explicitly as one of the priorities in the original GCR document, most were addressed in revisions to the document. Dr. Hunt has frequently referred to “intentional evangelism” in his discussions.
Dr. Hunt has also expressed that he has no desire to touch the structure of the SBC and has declared his respect for the responsibility of trustees who are charged with directing the various SBC entities.
We can trust that the Lord is at work through the process. Already, the passion and energy being generated by this discussion has shown that this is an important and, historic time, in the life of our Convention.
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posted by: Dr. Bill Mackey on June 30th, 2009