Working as a member of the South Carolina Great Commission Resurgence Task Force appointed by 2010 convention president Fred Stone has raised my personal learning curve to a steep incline. The diversity and size of the group have been challenges from the very beginning. Certainly we all came to the table with ideas and leanings. I mean, we are Baptists, aren’t we? There’s an expected level of friction when Baptists get in the same room. Yet, the learning process has taught me the distinctions of people working together. It’s been very instructive.
Holmes“Team” is a buzz-word that either launches great work or inhibits it. Management guru Tom McGehee indicates four basic levels of group tasks. Connection is the ability to share information. Coordination is being able to act in concert with one another. Cooperation is marked by the pursuit of mutual gain. Collaboration is the ability to multiply strengths to produce a product no one could accomplish alone (see “Whoosh!”, Tom McGehee, Perseus Publishing, Cambridge: 2001). Ultimately, great teams are not data, learning to play patty-cake efficiently, or even making each part feel better. Collaboration is the deal. Real teamwork isn’t about finding common ground or creating consensus. It’s about higher ground, another level. As Richard and Henry Blackaby affirm (“Spiritual Leadership,” Broadman & Holman, Nashville: 2001), spiritual leaders move people to God’s agenda. That is the higher ground.
So, chairman Ralph Carter and vice chairman Steve Hogg have led the GCR task force to that higher ground. This has not been an automatic, or easy, task. Task force members have been opinionated and vocal, combinations that often translate to fireworks. There have been appropriate times of prayer. On more than one occasion, we’ve had to take some time-outs. Consistently, however, the members of the task force have sought the higher ground that is larger than our preferences and best for the kingdom.
The information is now being shaped into a format for presentation to our churches. It is not inerrant and isn’t everything everyone preferred. However, this report does accomplish many of the specifics to advance the kingdom at home and around the world. Please surround the presentation, discussion, and eventual action on our report with your prayers. The recommendations will influence our work for many years to come. Let’s cover them in prayer.
Our annual meeting Nov. 15-16 in Columbia will highlight the GCR task force report and recommendations in our Tuesday evening session. Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Seminary and author of the original “Axioms for a Great Commission Resurgence,” will be our special guest for an informal Q&A time Tuesday evening, and in the keynote address that evening. I’m praying that each of us will learn the dynamics of collaboration so that we can seek the higher ground of mission to reverse the serious declines that have marked our work in recent years.
Go ahead. Reserve the date, Nov. 15-16, at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. It’s going to be a great meeting and a time for us all to find that higher ground – together.