On May 10, the South Carolina Great Commission Resurgence Task Force met in Columbia for the fifth time, not counting two to three regional meetings. All of us had been praying daily for a breakthrough, and what occurred that day, according to all in attendance, was nothing short of a miracle.
Ralph Carter Jr.For two months, regional subcommittees had been working toward developing proposals for consideration. In April, we seemed a long way from finding a plan that even a majority could agree upon. In the May 10 meeting, 11 proposed recommendations were put forth for consideration by our state convention meeting in November that were virtually unanimously approved. A few were slightly amended, but, all in all, the committee expressed overwhelming approval of the recommendations. In fact, most of them were unanimously approved, with only two or three of the recommendations receiving even as many as two negative votes.
While we are waiting another month or so to release all the details of the proposal, there are some things of which we want you to be aware at the present.
1. The motivating factor for every member of our task force was a sense of urgency in regard to impacting spiritual darkness in our world.
2. Without the heartfelt support and sacrifice of the CEOs of our ministry partners (Anderson University, Charleston Southern University, North Greenville University, Ministries for the Aging, Connie Maxwell Children’s Home, The Baptist Courier, the Baptist Foundation, and the Baptist Building), this could not have happened.
3. There was a spirit of cooperation demonstrated on the part of every committee member, without exception.
4. This plan will allow us to contribute substantially more money to the IMB without crippling the ministries of our ministry partners.
5. This plan will call for South Carolina Baptists to sharpen their focus and raise the level of attention given to church planting and church revitalization.
6. This plan calls for a concerted effort to be launched to encourage every church giving less than 10 percent of its undesignated receipts to give at least 1 percent more within the next four years.
7. This plan offers a means by which to help our ministry partners recover some of the revenue lost due to decreases in CP support.
8. The recommendations, purposefully, were all considered twice – in the May 10 meeting, and once again following an all-day prayer vigil on May 31. The spirit in both of those sessions could not have been more harmonious.
9. The desire of the committee throughout this process has been to come with recommendations that would unite us as South Carolina Baptists and not be divisive.
Within a short period of time, the committee will release a full report. From the outset of this task, many of you have commented to me that you are praying for our committee. Thank you for faithfully doing that; we are deeply indebted to you.
– Ralph Carter, Chairman of the GCR Task Force