This past month I have had the opportunity to volunteer a couple of times for a non-profit community development organization that is making a real impact in the inner city of Baltimore.

With the goal of finding ways Southern Baptists “can work more faithfully and effectively” together in fulfilling the Great Commission, messengers to the convention’s annual meeting June 23-24 gave the green light to a task force to examine the denomination for one year and report back to the 2010 meeting in Orlando Fla.

Debate over the proposed Great Commission Task Force and an Internet document dubbed the “Great Commission Resurgence Declaration” had dominated pre-convention talk, with some Southern Baptist leaders backing it and others expressing concern. In the end, though, the 8,700-plus messengers at the annual meeting overwhelmingly supported the task force via a motion that gave Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt authority to appoint the panel — something he did on the meeting’s final day, naming 19 members. The actual GCR document that had sparked the discussion never was proposed, much less came to a vote.

It’s true…His ways are not our ways and that’s why He is God and we aren’t! Someday He’ll make it plain to us. Right now we just need to let our true colors show as a result of “swelling” that has entered our lives. The end result will be that others will see the beautiful colors of our God reflected through our distress. Are your true colors showing?

First Church, North East, had their annual re-enactment of the last supper on Palm Sunday. “It was so moving many in the audience were brought to tears,” FBCNE ministry assistant, Cathy Gray, said. “It was quite impressive. It made you think.”

By Bob Simpson, BCM/D Assoc. Executive Director and BaptistLIFE Editor
As I write this, I am sitting in an airport waiting to return home from a weekend celebrating the second birthday of one of my granddaughters. Her name is Stella. (Lorraine and I have six grandchildren – three boys and three girls). And, our oldest granddaughter, [...]

Captain Chesley B. (Sully) Sullenberger and I have something in common. He is the same age as I am. After that, the comparison denigrates quickly. So much has been written about Sully’s cool, calm demeanor in the face of certain disaster. You will recall that he was the pilot of the ill-fated U.S. Airways flight 1549 that hit a flock of birds shortly after takeoff from New York’s LaGuardia airport on Jan. 15, 2009.