By Art Toalston

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–Regular processes of the Southern Baptist Convention will be followed if the convention’s messengers approve the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force’s recommendations, according to responses to a question during the Executive Committee’s Feb. 22-23 meeting in Nashville, Tenn.

Participants were Roger Spradlin, a California pastor who is both a GCR Task Force member and the Executive Committee’s vice chairman; Morris H. Chapman, president of the Executive Committee; and D. August Boto, EC executive vice president and general counsel.

The exchange occurred in the context of a discussion of how the Executive Committee would implement a portion of the task force’s vision calling for a transfer of 1 percent of Cooperative Program Allocation Budget from the Executive Committee to the International Mission Board.

The reallocation would involve approximately $2 million. Currently, the Executive Committee receives 3.4 percent of CP funds for its work in behalf of the SBC. Under companion GCRTF proposals, the EC allocation would be reduced to 2.4 percent and its work in promoting the Cooperative Program and biblical stewardship would be terminated. As envisioned by the task force, such promotion would be handled exclusively by the state Baptist conventions.

“We have to keep in mind,” Spradlin said during the Feb. 23 exchange, “that this task force really belongs to the SBC and answers directly to the convention….

“If  vote their approval of this particular component of the report, then that would become a mandate, essentially, for us because all of us at the Executive Committee serve at the pleasure of the SBC. That’s who elects us to this committee.”

Spradlin said he acknowledges “the tremendous difficulty that this group is going to face in being able to make those deep of cuts, if that is the will of the messengers.”

Boto, in response, referenced the word “mandate” in noting that the GCR Task Force is a special committee of the convention, appointed for a specific time and purpose, whereas the Executive Committee is one of the convention’s ongoing standing committees.

In accord with SBC Bylaw 18, Boto said, “If the Great Commission Task Force lifts up a vision that the convention well receives, then it would be your  responsibility to advise the convention on that recommendation, so the convention would have the benefit of not only the task force — the special committee’s view — but also the viewpoint of its standing committee fiduciary.

“Then the convention can make an informed choice about what to do with regard to that budget,” Boto said of a decision that likely would be on the agenda of the 2011 SBC annual meeting if the GCR proposals are approved at the 2010 SBC annual meeting, June 15-16 in Orlando, Fla.

Boto noted that the task force has been informed about the process for such matters “and they graciously received it.”

Chapman, in amplifying Boto’s statements, said, “Nothing a special committee does preempts what the Southern Baptist Convention has assigned in bylaws to the Executive Committee.” Messengers at the annual meeting may adopt the GCR vision, but that does not preempt the Executive Committee from fulfilling its normal duties of “studying, evaluating, deciding and recommending how to respond to those recommendations, because, by bylaw, the Southern Baptist Convention has assigned us the responsibility … of coming to them with recommendations,” Chapman said.

Spradlin, answering a question about the GCR Task Force’s plan for presenting its recommendations to the annual meeting in Orlando, briefly said earlier in the exchange, “We’re still seeking counsel regarding that, of whether the report should all hang together or whether it should be divided. We’re seeking input from attorneys and parliamentarians on how that process should unfold.”

If the Executive Committee’s promotion of the Cooperative Program and biblical stewardship is ended as the task force suggests, the staffing and program cuts would entail $1.3 million to $1.4 million of the $2 million reduction called for in the GCR proposal. The remaining $600,000 to $700,000 would then be cut from other facets of the Executive Committee’s work, which includes arrangements for the SBC’s annual meetings; the Executive Committee’s Empowering Kingdom Growth initiative in local churches and Global Evangelical Relations initiative with evangelicals globally; and the EC’s major publications.

Art Toalston is editor of Baptist Press.

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By Mark Kelly

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–Southern Baptists must be gripped anew by the lostness of the world, repent of their self-centeredness and focus their local churches on taking the Gospel to those who have yet to hear, the chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Great Commission Resurgence Task Force said Feb. 22.

Toward that end, Ronnie Floyd, pastor of First Baptist Church in Springdale, Ark., presented a “progress report” to the SBC’s Executive Committee on the task force’s work that included six “components” of a vision they believe Southern Baptists will rally around and experience renewed passion for the Great Commission — making disciples of all the world’s people groups.

To open his 90-minute presentation, Floyd drew on Joel 2:12-17 to deliver a challenge about the need for urgent, wholehearted repentance if Southern Baptists are to participate in the evangelistic harvest that will accompany the outpouring of God’s Spirit in the last days — and can be seen already beginning in some parts of the world.

“I believe with all my heart that God is calling us to return to Him now in deep repentance of our sin, in brokenness over our sin, denying our pride and selfishness and returning to God with complete humility,” Floyd said. “The boasting, ego and pride that goes on in our lives, our churches and our denomination is unacceptable to God. The disunity in our churches and in our denomination is so wrong and sinful. We need to repent and return to God.

“With rhetoric we bemoan our dismal baptism numbers, our declining and plateaued churches, and our economic selfishness. The casting of criticism has resulted in a caustic cynicism that just adds to our rhetoric and writings,” Floyd continued. “We attempt to treat symptoms rather than the root issues of sin and carnality. The rhetoric needs to cease and the repentance personally and corporately must begin. We need to repent of our sins and return to God.

“e realize our number one need is to return to God in deep repentance and experience a fresh wave of His Spirit upon our lives, ministries and work of our denomination,” Floyd said. “We need a fresh and compelling vision that will only come when we are right with Him.”

Southern Baptists need to understand the “staggering” lostness of North America — where 258 million of 340 million residents are estimated to be lost — and the entire world — where 4 billion of 6.8 billion people have little to no access to the Gospel, Floyd said. Penetrating such massive lostness requires each of the 50,000-plus Southern Baptist churches to become its own “missional strategy center,” Floyd added.

“If we do not begin to understand the complexity of lostness in our own backyard and strategize to reach them, the lostness will never be penetrated with the Gospel,” Floyd declared. “Business as usual and what we are doing as a whole is not working. It is said, ‘Facts are our friends.’ This is true, as long as we pay attention to the facts and do not act as though they are non-existent. If we deny the present reality of where we really are, we are jeopardizing our future and the generations who will follow us. We need to return to God and recommit ourselves to advancing the Gospel to all generations.”

Floyd said he hoped the progress report the task force was bringing would be “clear and compelling” as it unveiled “some of the things we believe need to be done” to help Southern Baptists work together more faithfully and effectively to advance the Gospel. At the SBC annual meeting in Orlando next June, Floyd said, the task force will ask the convention “to accept this vision, endorse this vision and champion this vision.”

SIX COMPONENTS

The six components of the task force’s vision Floyd presented involve:

– Calling Southern Baptists “to rally towards a clear and compelling missional vision and begin to conduct ourselves with core values that will create a new and healthy culture within the Southern Baptist Convention.” The “missional vision” is “as a convention of churches, … to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every person in the world and to make disciples of all the nations.” The eight core values are Christ-likeness, Truth, Unity, Relationships, Trust, Future, Local Church and Kingdom.

– Recommending the North American Mission Board “prioritize efforts to plant churches in North America and to reach our nation’s cities and clarify its role to lead and accomplish efforts to reach North America with the Gospel.” The North American Mission Board needs to be “reinvented and released” by implementing a direct strategy for planting churches in North America “with a priority to reach metropolitan areas and under-served people groups,” Floyd said. The plan also calls for NAMB to assist churches in evangelism, discipleship and developing current pastoral leadership. It calls for NAMB to decentralize operations into seven regions and recommends releasing the entity from “cooperative agreements” with state conventions over the course of four years to free up money for national strategy.

– Requesting Southern Baptists “entrust to the International Mission Board the ministry to reach the unreached and under-served people groups without regard to any geographic limitations.” “Globalization has flattened the world,” Floyd said. “While years ago a people group was located within a specific geographical location, this is no longer reality. Reality today is that these people groups are located all over the world, including the United States…. Most of the 586 people groups that do not speak English in the United States have  strategy coordinators working overseas with the same groups. With geographical limitations removed, a new synergy can be created in international missions.” Floyd added: “We believe that with this bold and needed change, we are positioning our convention of churches for a major evangelistic harvest, a discipleship revolution and an unprecedented, exponential explosion in church planting.”

– Moving the primary responsibility for Cooperative Program promotion and stewardship education ministry assignments from the Executive Committee to the state conventions. Historically, promotion of the Cooperative Program was seen as the responsibility of the state conventions, Floyd said. The task force’s plan envisions state convention leaders creating a consortium that, in cooperation with the president and CEO of the Executive Committee, would “plan and execute an annual strategy that will promote the Cooperative Program to our churches as well as challenge our churches in biblical stewardship.” While the plan envisions state conventions reassuming the stewardship assignment, “it is the responsibility of local churches to challenge their people to walk in obedience to God by honoring Him weekly with at least the first tenth of all income as well as additional offerings to our local churches,” Floyd said.

– Reaffirming the Cooperative Program “as our central means of supporting Great Commission ministries” and establishing a broader category of “Great Commission Giving” to celebrate all the financial support — CP giving and designated giving — local congregations provide for Southern Baptist missions. “We are not recommending any changes to the Cooperative Program but are reaffirming it as our central means of supporting the Great Commission ministries of the Southern Baptist Convention,” Floyd said, saying the task force calls upon every church “to work diligently at giving more through the Cooperative Program.” At the same time, however, “we also believe our local associations, state conventions and national entities should celebrate whatever amount a church gives through the Cooperative Program. In the spirit of one of our desired core values, which is unity, we need to work together in love for the sake of the Gospel.”

– Raising the percentage of Cooperative Program funds received by the International Mission Board in the 2011-2012 budget year to 51 percent and funding the increase in part with monies previously allocated to the SBC Executive Committee for Cooperative Program promotion and stewardship education. The proposal would reduce the SBC Operating Budget allocation of 3.40 percent by 1 percentage point, or roughly $2 million, and add it to the IMB’s budget, currently at nearly $320 million. Calling the proposal “both symbolic and substantial,” Floyd said, “This means that for the first time in our history, more than one-half of all monies that come from our churches through the SBC Cooperative Program will go to the reaching of the nations…. We believe this is a great move forward and we need to do all we can to reach the nations.”

‘WATERSHED MOMENT’

The task force will release its final report May 3, in anticipation of presenting it to messengers to the SBC’s June 15-16 annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., Floyd said. In the meantime, he said, Southern Baptists must individually and corporately turn to God.

“e know our greatest need is for a mighty spiritual revival to sweep through our churches across this nation. We must repent of our sins and return to God in order to see this great movement of God,” Floyd said. “As we near the coming of our Lord Jesus, we want all of our strategies to position us to be a part of this coming great Gospel harvest.

“We believe this vision we are unfolding to you tonight provides major momentum for the continuation of this Great Commission Resurgence movement and vision,” he said. “However, a real, long-lasting Great Commission Resurgence must happen personally, as well as in our churches, and in all of our Southern Baptist local associations, state conventions and national entities.”

The Orlando meeting “can become a watershed moment for the reaching of the nations,” Floyd concluded. “May June 15-16, 2010, be the moment that will define the future for generations to come and show that Southern Baptists are a unified people, Bible-based, Gospel-centered and set on fire by the Holy Spirit, believing we must join together like never before in presenting the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every person in the world and to make disciples of all the nations.”

Mark Kelly is an assistant editor with Baptist Press.

By Mark Kelly and BP Staff

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)–On a show of ballots, Southern Baptist Convention messengers June 23 authorized their president, Johnny Hunt, to appoint a task force to study how Southern Baptists can work “more faithfully and effectively together in serving Christ through the Great Commission.”

The motion, presented earlier in the day by R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, survived an effort to amend it before being adopted by an overwhelming margin.

The opportunities for advancing the Gospel are unprecedented and many Southern Baptists are looking for a visionary missions challenge, Mohler said as he spoke on behalf of his motion.

“We are looking at an unprecedented set of opportunities before us, especially when it comes to reaching the world for the Lord Jesus Christ. We sense from our churches an incredible desire to be even more active in the task of getting the Gospel to the ends of the earth,” Mohler said. “It’s the task of this generation to be responsive both to the opportunities that are before us and to the conviction and commitment of our churches. We need to set that passion loose and in this generation Southern Baptists will either move greatly ahead or we will fall more tragically behind.”

Although some had expressed concerns before the annual meeting that the task force proposal was targeted at reorganizing convention structures, Mohler asserted, “This is not an effort to reinvent the Southern Baptist Convention.”

There is “absolutely no reason to fear asking that question , Mohler said. “We have every reason to feel an excitement and an enthusiasm about asking in every single generation, indeed in every season, is there more we can do and can we do even more if we are more faithful in the task of deploying the conviction and the passion of Southern Baptists in service to the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Noting that the Southern Baptist Convention was organized in 1845 “for the solitary purpose of getting the Gospel to ends of the earth,” Mohler declared: “There is a generation ready and waiting to be challenged to do something great for the cause of Christ. I say we take this opportunity.”

One messenger who spoke against the motion asserted that the decline in baptisms reported by Southern Baptist churches could be attributed to a rise in Calvinist convictions. Another messenger argued that it didn’t require a task force to discover the Bible’s call to witness and minister to the lost. A third messenger offered a substitute motion to have the SBC’s North American and International Mission boards conduct the study themselves, rather than incurring the expense of creating a task force.

The effort to redirect the proposal failed, however, and a final messenger, who identified himself as “a young Southern Baptist,” called on messengers to vote for the proposal “for the sake of the younger generation and the future of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Great Commission resurgence.”

The motion calls for the task force to study the issues and bring their report, along with any recommendations, to the 2010 SBC annual meeting, June 15-16 in Orlando, Fla. SBC President Johnny Hunt said in a news conference earlier in the day that if the motion passed, he intended to name task force members the following day.

The GRC Task Force

Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt appointed 18 people to the “Great Commission Resurgence Task Force” June 24 during the morning session of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Louisville, Ky.

“I trust you will be encouraged by the balance that will be representing Southern Baptists in their assignment,” Hunt said before he read the list of names.

Appointed to the committee were:

– Ronnie Floyd, senior pastor of First Church in Springdale, Ark., chairman.

– Jim Richards, executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

– Frank Page, pastor of First Church in Taylors, S.C.

– David Dockery, president of Union University in Jackson, Tenn.

– Simon Tsoi, trustee of the International Mission Board and retired pastor.

– Donna Gaines, pastor’s wife at Bellevue Church near Memphis, Tenn.

– Al Gilbert, pastor of Calvary Church in Winston-Salem, N.C.

– J.D. Greear, lead pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, N.C.

– Tom Biles, executive director of the Tampa Bay Association.

– Daniel L. Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

– R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

– John Drummond, a layman at St. Andrew Church in Panama City, Fla.

– Harry Lewis, senior strategist for partnership missions and mobilization at the North American Mission Board.

– Michael Orr, pastor of First Church in Chipley, Fla.

– Roger Spradlin, pastor of Valley Church in Bakersfield, Calif.

– J. Robert White, executive director of the Georgia Convention.

– Ken Whitten, pastor of the Tampa-area Idlewild Church in Lutz, Fla.

– Ted Traylor, pastor of Olive Church in Pensacola, Fla.

“We promise to represent you well,” Hunt said, “and you pray for us that God would use us to be an impetus that can help us to even do a better job of what we’ve been doing in the area of the Great Commission.”

Hunt told Baptist Press he would “lead the task force, giving them direction, as I promised the convention,” but that Floyd would chair the group in its deliberations.

Compiled by Baptist Press assistant editor Mark Kelly and staff writer Erin Roach. Mark Kelly is an assistant editor with Baptist Press.

By Jerry Pierce

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)–Encouraged by attendance exceeding 8,600 registered messengers on the first day of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 23 — twice as many as he expected — SBC President Johnny Hunt said there is a “sense of urgency” among the brethren.

Hunt attributed much of the interest at this year’s meeting to his Great Commission Resurgence initiative. In a news conference following his re-election to a second term, he also addressed questions ranging from his opinion of controversial Seattle pastor Mark Driscoll to his view of Calvinism among Southern Baptists.

“I feel there’s a lot of energy in the halls,” said Hunt, pastor of Atlanta-area First Church in Woodstock. “Everybody’s talking the same talk: ‘We need this Great Commission Resurgence.’

“We are saying times have been desperate,” Hunt added. “Now I really do sense fellow Southern Baptists are saying we need to get serious.”

Asked about Driscoll, Hunt responded: “I don’t know him, never met him. A lot of young men like to follow his blogs and podcasts. It’s just been interesting.”

Referring to motions from the floor placing Driscoll and the network he founded, Acts 29, in a bad light, Hunt said, “he entire premise of being a Baptist is sort of thrown under the bus when you start telling someone who they can or cannot fellowship with.” He said it is a matter that it should be left to the conscience and the priesthood of the believer.

About church methodology, Hunt said the SBC is a “great family fellowship” using varied methodologies which provide a healthy balance.

Hunt said it might be that some of the perceived tension across generations of Southern Baptists is rooted in several things, including methodology, dress and music.

Encouraged by what he said is the turnout of younger Southern Baptists, Hunt said, “f we can move beyond our perceptions” and begin to “listen to heart of some of these young leaders,” Southern Baptists might be encouraged “to catch their passion.”

Hunt relayed his experience at a recent International Mission Board appointment service in Denver where 101 mostly young missionaries were sent out, with the “majority going to extremely hard and dangerous places.”

“With that type of commitment to Jesus Christ that they’re willing, many of them, to write their will before they leave with the understanding some of them will probably never return, I have a very difficult time spending my time talking about their jeans, whether hair is spiked or colored” or their musical tastes, Hunt said.

By building relationships with younger leaders, “if we see some areas of concern, at least we have earned the right to speak into them.”

On the continuing banter between Calvinists and those critical of the doctrine that attempts to describe God’s work in salvation, Hunt said the debate has raged for more than 400 years and is part of Baptist history.

“We have wonderful men and women on both sides. I think the Baptist tent is large enough for both,” he said.

Asked by a reporter if an invitation was made for President Barack Obama to address the SBC, Hunt said he knew of no such invitation.

But Hunt, the first known Native American SBC president, said, “I feel like we will have a resolution to really honor our president, especially in the context of being the first African American to be elected. We have much to celebrate in that.”

Hunt said he had ample opportunity to invite Republicans to speak, “but we felt that would send a wrong signal because we wanted to send prayer support to the new president and we are mandated to pray for our president.”

Speaking to proposed federal hate crimes legislation that some say could infringe on biblical preaching, Hunt said he was not overly worried as long as pastors “stay in the context of preaching biblical truth. And if the day comes that we would be imprisoned for the proclamation of the Gospel becoming that much of an offense, we would join about two-thirds of the rest of the planet.

“God forbid that I would travel to the Middle East to encourage those already in hostile settings while at same time being afraid to proclaim the message that I encourage,” Hunt said.

Returning to the Great Commission Resurgence, Hunt answered a question regarding media access to the meetings of the proposed GCR task force. He said media presence would be “counterproductive because we want people to be at liberty to share their heart.”

It could be “embarrassing where we’re just seeking wisdom,” Hunt added, “but we would love to have any and all of you at the meetings and as soon as it is over we’d be delighted to share what we came to by way of context.”

Hunt said he has “no desire whatsoever to touch the structure of the SBC and the truth is, I couldn’t if I wanted to. It would violate policy.” Hunt said perhaps more clarity in his early statements about the GCR document could have helped ease fears of drastic change.

Even if the GCR task force were rejected, traction already has been gained by efficiency studies at the Georgia and Florida conventions and at the Southern Baptist mission boards, Hunt said.

In responding to the first question asked at the news conference, Hunt predicted if the GCR were to pass that evening, he likely would name the members of the task force June 24 and it would include several seminary professors, a college president, an associational director of missions, pastors of churches of varied sizes spanning the country and ethnically diverse members.

“I don’t have all the names so I’d probably miss some,” Hunt said. “But I’d be quick to say it will be a very fair committee.”

Jerry Pierce is managing editor of the Southern Baptist TEXAN, newsjournal of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. With additional reporting by Tammi Reed Ledbetter, TEXAN news editor.