In what might be arguably the most significant meeting yet for the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force, 21 executive directors of Southern Baptist state conventions met with them Oct. 27 to offer some competing – and some complementing – views and vision about the Southern Baptist Convention and what is needed for a Great Commission resurgence.
Jim AustinJim Austin, executive director-treasurer of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, who joined his colleagues for the meeting in Dallas, told the Courier there was a “healthy exchange of ideas and perspectives.”
“I think we all have to continue to be willing to objectively assess the effectiveness of our work and to give assurance that we’re being good stewards of the Cooperative Program dollars,” said Austin. “That’s the purpose of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force – to analyze and ask questions – but I also want to be sure they have an opportunity to hear answers to their questions.”
Citing a confidentiality agreement among the state executives, Austin deferred further comment to David Hankins, executive director of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, who spoke on behalf of the group.
While much of the public discussion of the task force’s work has focused on ways the SBC might be reorganized, renewed passion for, and involvement in, the Great Commission mandate to make disciples of all nations won’t come through restructuring, Hankins told Baptist Press in an interview after his presentation.
“Talking about structure isn’t the right pathway to a Great Commission resurgence, and the Great Commission Resurgence paper says it’s not,” Hankins said. “It starts with lordship. We just hope we won’t forget those declarations and spend 90 percent of our time on structure when there are a lot more important issues to the Great Commission that need to be addressed, such as holiness, prayer, sacrifice, generosity, personal growth – those kinds of things.”
When the discussion turns to structure, however, Hankins said the state convention executives wanted to “lay out some parameters – we think are important.”
Hankins said those parameters consisted of four affirmations:
– The four-part structure of Southern Baptist life – churches, associations, state conventions and national convention – is still a useful structure for accomplishing the Great Commission.
– State conventions are necessary partners if Southern Baptists are serious about a Great Commission resurgence – “instrumental to the process, not detrimental.”
– While “a lot of study needs to be done” regarding the role of the North American Mission Board, state executives believe substantial changes should be made only after a thorough study in which stakeholders such as the state conventions have an opportunity to weigh in.
– The Cooperative Program is the vehicle of choice to undergird a Great Commission resurgence among Southern Baptists.
The state executives felt they were welcomed as genuine partners in the dialogue about Great Commission resurgence, Hankins said.
“We want to value partnership – in reality, in planning, in joint strategies and in attitude. That has to be worked at,” Hankins added. “It doesn’t mean there can be no serious questions asked, no disagreements, no hours of negotiations. All that is certainly permissible, with the spirit that we are valued partners and all have a stake in this.”
Hankins said at least four other issues are as important as whether Southern Baptists are effectively structured for accomplishing the Great Commission: increasing hostility toward Christian values, the need for Southern Baptists to make greater inroads among non-Anglo ethnic groups, an inadequate level of discipleship among church members, and whether congregations are willing to sacrifice comforts for the sake of the Great Commission.
While the Southern Baptist Convention’s structure may not be perfect, it is well-suited to the challenge of motivating and mobilizing churches for mission, Hankins said.
“The thing I see the denominational structure being able to do best on behalf of the churches is motivating and mobilizing,” Hankins said. “We really do have the power and opportunity to speak to our constituency, to catalyze them, to motivate them and then to mobilize them.
“If we can use those functions to get the churches revved up about this, it would show itself in evangelism – like we’re doing with God’s Plan for Sharing across America,” Hankins said of SBC’s unfolding evangelism initiative. “It would show itself in church.
“For my part, I’m not ready to give up on the SBC,” Hankins concluded. “I think we have great promise. I’m not ready to give up on our structures. I think they have great promise and great value. I’m not ready to give up on the Cooperative Program. I think it is still the best vehicle. So we hope all these things can be improved, shined up, but employed to move our churches forward in their task.”
– With reporting from Baptist Press