The 2010 Southern Baptist Convention will be remembered for – and perhaps historic because of – a single defining (and maybe redefining) moment in the life of the denomination.
Don KirklandAt approximately 2:45 p.m. on June 15, task force chairman Ronnie Floyd will present to messengers the blueprint for the SBC’s proposed and well-publicized Great Commission Resurgence.
By now, most Southern Baptists who are going to the annual meeting June 15-16 in Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center already have decided whether to vote yes or no to the proposal.
Will the GCR document’s seven recommendations be voted on as a whole? Chairman Floyd hopes so. In an interview with James Smith, editor of the Florida Baptist Witness, Floyd said, “The Great Commission Resurgence Task Force believes that our seven recommendations form a unified vision that will chart our future together. Therefore, it is our desire to see the recommendations discussed and acted upon together.”
The method of voting, the chairman also told the newspaper, “will ultimately be decided by the messengers of the convention. We will wholeheartedly support their decision.”
In his interview with the Baptist Witness editor, Floyd also expressed “grief” at the possibility that messengers would reject the GCR report, though he believes it will be approved.
Messengers will indeed be divided on this report, which would redefine the Southern Baptist Convention in terms of methodology, but certainly not theology.
The GCR report offers in comprehensive fashion a broad vision, with details to be worked out by the trustees of various SBC entities and by state Baptist conventions.
Floyd, in the Florida interview, said the report respects the responsibilities of boards of trustees, giving them “another shot at studying what we’ve come up with.”
Some Southern Baptist leaders, particularly those in state conventions, are concerned that not enough time has elapsed between the final version of the GCR document and the Orlando vote. They say that more “studying” of the proposal is called for to better determine the impact of some of the recommendations on state ministries. Their request? Postpone the vote until the 2011 SBC meeting.
It is more likely that the mood of the messengers will be to vote the GCR document up or down rather than lay it aside.
Nothing has stirred the feelings of Southern Baptists more than the retooling of the giving plan to pay for what we do as a denomination. The Cooperative Program, a mainstay of SBC life since 1925, would be aligned with designated giving (also a fact of denominational life) to establish Great Commission Giving. Great Commission Giving would celebrate all contributions to Southern Baptist causes.
The GCR Task Force has said over and over that the Cooperative Program would keep its prime position as the main means of support for Southern Baptist causes, that no harm is intended for the venerable CP – that, in fact, the new giving plan might actually strengthen the Cooperative Program, which is in decline.
The fear by opponents of Great Commission Giving is that good intentions may, and possibly will be, offset by bad results – that more and more churches, even smaller ones, might resort to the designated giving that is typical of many megachurches.
Admittedly, some nagging questions about some elements of the report remain. Can they be answered with any certainty before the vote? Not all of them. Some would yield answers only after certain recommendations have been set in motion.
In all of this, messengers to the Orlando Southern Baptist Convention must keep their eyes facing forward and hold steadfastly to the primacy of the Great Commission. It is a mandate that now and always must supersede methodology.
In his final words to the disciples (to his “learners”), Jesus placed a heavy accent on his followers replicating, reproducing themselves in the world. All else for them then, and for us now, is subordinate to that.
All that we do as Southern Baptists must contribute to the disciple-making process, which extends beyond mere evangelism to “teaching them” to obey the commands of Christ.
A resurgence of the Great Commission among Southern Baptists – if it is to be genuine, to be effective – will neither begin with a yes vote nor end with a no vote in Orlando.
Task force chairman Floyd has called for a “resurgence of the Great Commission through each of our lives and churches.”
This brings it all home, where the Great Commission Resurgence will work – or not work. We must seek the mind of Christ, the heart of God. What matters to our Lord must be what matters to you and me, to our churches. We must answer in obedience the summons of the Savior to “love one another as I have loved you.”
All that we do as a convention, as churches and as individuals – our activities, our energy, our time, our discussions, our expenditures of money – must be evaluated according to a single standard: Does it help fulfill the mandate of the Great Commission?
No matter how messengers in Orlando vote on the GCR report, the Orlando meeting should, and must, jar us awake to the reality of people in need of the good news of Jesus Christ, no matter where they live.
The story is told of a faithful church member of whom it was said, “The self-giving love of Jesus overflows from his life, and he is infectious.” Infectious means contagious, catching, spreading, irresistible, compelling, captivating.
Yes, we need more “contagious” Christians whose lives overflow with God’s redemptive love. Everyone touched by the spillover from their lives will be forever changed.
We – as Southern Baptists, as evangelicals, as good church-going folk – would do well to weigh the words of Archbishop William Temple, who said in 1945, “The church is the only society on earth that exists for the benefit of its non-members.”
Whatever the Orlando outcome, the Great Commission Resurgence begins right here. Right now. With you and with me.