By an overwhelming vote, estimated at 3 to 1, messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention’s 2010 annual meeting in Orlando raised their ballots June 15 to set in motion a blueprint for addressing with fresh enthusiasm the command of Jesus to make disciples for him who would be obedient to his teachings.
Don KirklandThe report of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force had been the major topic of talk among Southern Baptists for months, especially after the panel’s final version of its report went public in May.
The fashion in which the measure was approved gives ample evidence of its support, at least among messengers assembled in the Orange County Convention Center for the historic vote. It has the potential for changing the landscape of Southern Baptist life from top to bottom.
Prior to the 2010 meeting, proposals had surfaced that messengers put the vote on hold, delaying the balloting until the 2011 SBC meeting in Phoenix. Right up to the Orlando meeting itself, it was not certain whether the seven-point report would be voted on as a single unit or separated into its various components to be voted on individually. It is an indication of the mood of the messengers that they would reject either option, choosing to vote the resurgence document up or down on the spot and in a single gulp.
Southern Baptists, you can mark this one down on your calendars as a day of significance in the life of the denomination. But will its importance in how the world’s largest evangelical body of believers envisions its mission and goes about accomplishing it be real, or in theory only? That is the crucial question now as the Great Commission Resurgence package moves into the domain of the individual state Baptist conventions and their member churches.
As all know, the report — viewed as exhaustive by all and even exhausting by some — is at best only a set of recommendations, relying on whatever sense of “ought-ness” lies in the hearts of Baptists, who ultimately will determine the success or failure of the GCR initiative. This is as it should be in a denomination so structured, and it puts the accent where it should be: on the people in the pews, who will pass along their views to their state conventions, which can take the first steps in implementing the provisions of the GCR at their fall conventions.
Watch closely the proposed budgets of the state conventions. The resurgence depends for its success, in large part, on the allocation of state Cooperative Program funds with a renewed emphasis on sending a greater percentage of CP money out of state to fuel expanded work, especially by the International Mission Board. It is to be expected that some push-back will come from state Baptist conventions where ministries, including universities and other affiliated entities, feel threatened by loss of funds for what they see as vital Great Commission work not to be undervalued in the resurgence.
In the weeks and months to come, Southern Baptists at every level, and the South Carolina Baptist Convention in particular, will wrestle with issues growing out of the Orlando convention. The South Carolina Baptist Convention will have its hands and its heart full as it looks at the recommendations of the Great Commission Resurgence in the light of its potential impact on state ministries, including the institutions.
The most controversial element in the GCR package is the new giving plan known as Great Commission Giving, recognizing and praising designated giving, which many believe will return Southern Baptists to a societal form of missions support in which each entity must solicit its own funds from the churches. Messengers in Orlando said again what the task force has said all along, that the Cooperative Program remains the primary source of funding for SBC ministries. In added wording, messengers approved the inclusion of language that attempts to make it even clearer that Great Commission Giving is to be viewed as a “supplement to rather than a replacement for the Cooperative Program.” Still, many are wary of what the results of the new plan will be, despite any reassuring words about its intent.
Ronnie Floyd, who chaired the GCRTF, has sought to prevent the report and the June 15 vote from dividing Southern Baptists. First, he emphasized that the “watching world” should not exaggerate any difference between those Baptists who support and do not support the provisions of the report. “We are a Great Commission people,” he said.
Floyd also addressed Southern Baptists, issuing an obvious reminder that is no less important because it is obvious: “We are still brothers and sisters in Christ. We differ on no article of faith.”
The Great Commission Resurgence is launched at a pivotal time in the life of the Southern Baptist Convention. Morris Chapman retires at the end of September after 18 years as president of the SBC Executive Committee, to be succeeded by former South Carolina pastor and past SBC president Frank Page. Southern Baptists must still select leaders of both the North American Mission Board and the International Mission Board.
In brief remarks after his election, and later, as he addressed messengers on behalf of NAMB, where he is vice president for evangelization, Page referred to our being “Jesus people.” The Executive Committee president-elect made it clear that he would treat others as Jesus people and expects to be treated the same way. Page also pledged to the Executive Committee and to Southern Baptists, “I will love you with all of my heart, and I will work for you with all of my might.”
Such a spirit on the part of the top official in the Southern Baptist Convention, if it is adopted by all Southern Baptists, will do much to affirm the truth expressed by Ronnie Floyd that we are indeed “brothers and sisters in Christ.”
Before the Great Commission Resurgence goes a step further, this is an ideal time for Southern Baptists to pause for a moment, take in a deep breath, let the emotions settle down after much debate, and settle in to putting into practice — individually, in our congregations and in our state Baptist conventions — the methodologies (whether they be old or new) that will spread the gospel throughout a world that needs to know about and make a commitment to Jesus.
Frank Page has cited two primary goals in his upcoming role as president of the SBC Executive Committee: “unity (among Southern Baptists) as we’ve never seen before” and that “the world finally realizes that Baptists are loving, sharing people who will care and who will minister in Jesus’ name.”
These can and should be the goals of every Southern Baptist, of every South Carolina Baptist, especially as we live and work together in challenging times, in trying times, to show obedience to our Lord and to express in all ways available to us our love for the family of faith, even as we share God’s love with those yet to hear of Christ’s love for them.