Last week I attended the Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando, FL. One of the major topics of debate was the Great Commission Resurgence (GCR) recommended by the Great Commission Task Force of the SBC. Since I realize that many of you will be unaware of what was recommended and approved, I will summarized the major propositions and then give you my feedback.
Proposition #1: Adopt a new mission statement.
“As a convention of churches, our missional vision is to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every person in the world and to make disciples of all the nations.”
Proposition #2: Adopt Core values, as a Convention, which should define what we do and how we act. The core values were the following:
•CHRIST-LIKENESS: We depend on the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, and prayer to make us more like Jesus Christ.
•TRUTH: We stand together in the truth of God’s inerrant Word, celebrating the faith once for all delivered to the saints.
•UNITY: We work together in love for the sake of the Gospel.
•RELATIONSHIPS: We consider others more important than ourselves.
•TRUST: We tell one another the truth in love and do what we say we will do.
•FUTURE: We value Southern Baptists of all generations and embrace our responsibility to pass this charge to a rising generation in every age, faithful until Jesus comes.
•LOCAL CHURCH: We believe the local church is given the authority, power, and responsibility to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every person in the world
•KINGDOM: We join other Christ-followers for the Gospel, the Kingdom of Christ, and the glory of God.
Proposition #3: Encourage Cooperative Program giving and other Great Commission giving.
Proposition #4: Refocus the North American Mission Board by focusing more on church planting, particular in more populated regions and areas beyond the southern states, and to slowly withdraw for current partnerships.
Proposition #5: Free up the International Mission Board to be able to focus on international people within the United States (which removes a previously held limitation).
Proposition #6: Promote the Cooperative Program more effectively and stress the importance of biblical stewardship.
Proposition #7: Increase the giving from the Executive Committee to the International Mission Board from 50% to 51%.
The Urgency of the Great Commission Resurgence
The following is from the report given by the GCR task force. If you are a Christian and these numbers do not lead you to weep, pray, and give, your heart has become calloused to the plan and purposes of God!
There are almost 7 billion human inhabitants of planet Earth. At the most generous estimate, somewhere around 1 billion are believing Christians. That means that over 6billion people are lost, without Christ, and thus without hope. Of these 6 billion, over 3.5 billion have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Over 6,000 people groups are without any Christian witness. There is no way that Southern Baptists can make real progress toward reaching these unreached people groups unless we experience a genuine Great Commission Resurgence. We must see a tidal wave of evangelistic and missionary passion, or the numbers of unreached people groups will only grow, and lostness will spread.
In North America, evangelical Christians are falling behind the level of population growth. Put simply, we are failing to reach new immigrant populations, the teeming millions in urban areas, and a generation of youth and young adults who are living in a time of vast change and confused worldviews. Lostness is not only our concern when it is found across oceans – it must be our concern when it is across the street. North America represents a vast continent of lostness, where millions still have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and where many communities and ethnic groups are woefully underserved by Gospel churches.
In our own congregations, we see falling rates of baptism and other signs of concern. In 2008, Southern Baptist churches baptized more than 33,000 fewer people than in 1950 – and that was with more than 17,000 additional churches. Baptism rates among teenagers have fallen dramatically, and many young people become disengaged with the church soon after graduation from high school. In 2008 we baptized only 75,000 teenagers. In 1972, we baptized 140,000. Why?
Research conducted by LifeWay Research on the Millennial generation and research by Thom Rainer on previous generations indicate that every American generation from early in the twentieth century forward has been less evangelized than generations before. Tracing generational patterns from the World War II generation to the Millennials, the estimated number of Christians has fallen from 65 percent to 15 percent. Churches in America are losing ground with each successive generation.
We desperately need to reach our communities for Christ – and this starts with our own young people. Furthermore, we must see this generation of young Baptists take their places on the front lines of the Great Commission Resurgence. Humanly speaking, that is our only hope for a bold advance of the Gospel in the coming generation.
My Thoughts on the GCR and the future direction of the SBC
I have been Southern Baptist all my life. I have developed a deep appreciation for our heritage, our theological conviction, and our unwavering commitment to take the gospel to the nations. This is why I am Southern Baptist. I, as a young Southern Baptist pastor, have grown concerned over the past few years with the amount of money given to administration and pet programs at the expense of missions. I realize that healthy levels of administrative positions are needed to make organizations function, and leadership is critical for any convention. However, over the past several years more and more missionaries have been turned away while more and more money is spent on local programs.
When a Southern Baptist church gives to the Cooperative Program around 60% (it varies by state) of that money goes to the state convention while 40% goes to the national convention. The national convention then divides that 40% up between the International Mission Board, the North American Mission Board, the six seminaries, and other agencies. While I am pro-state and local associations, there is a far greater need (in my opinion) that more money being going to send missionaries to places where the gospel is not known and churches are not established.
While I realize it is controversial to some, this committed Southern Baptist longs to see a day when local/state conventions, while still healthy and able to function, are trimmed down in such a way that more international missionaries are sent to the field. This means reprioritizing our convention, our churches, and our lives!
So why do I place my full support behind the GCR?
1.I think these changes mean that our best days are still ahead of us as we, as a convention, focus more than ever before on reaching the nations for Christ.
2.The GCR continues to emphasize the need for “cooperative” giving through the Cooperative Program. This is a foundational tie that holds Southern Baptists together.
3.We are simplifying! Just as the church has become over-programmed, we as a convention have become over-programmed and must get back to the simple goal (which should be reflected in our convention structure) of reaching people for Jesus.
4.The GCR focus on church planting. To be the largest Protestant denomination, we should be leading the way church planting around the world.
5.The GCR focuses on places beyond the South. While I am a Southern boy at heart, I live and pastor in a pioneer state (IL). We must reach the major cities and other populated areas in places other than the Southeastern region of our country.
I will close by giving some food for thought. To be honest, I have not thought through all of the following recommendations, but they are worth our consideration. The following recommendations are from our newly elected SBC president Bryant Wright who will serve in 2011. Dr Wright suggests:
1.That each state strive to keep no more than 25-30 percent of the CP funds in state. Funds staying in state currently range from 43-86 percent (see documentation here). The local church should be the primary vehicle in carrying out state and local missions.
2.That at least 50 percent of the CP funds from our local churches go to the International Mission Board (IMB) vs. the present average of approximately 16 percent. How can we keep saying that supporting the CP is supporting missions when only about 16 percent of the funds go to the IMB?
3.That we increase the percentage of funds directed to the North American Mission Board (NAMB) to help us reach our nation for Christ, with a primary focus on church planting – especially in unreached areas.
4.That we dramatically increase the percentage of CP funds going to our seminaries that are training thousands of men and women who will lead the way in carrying out the Great Commission. The called in this younger generation have a passionate love for Christ and are willing to go to the hard places.
Wright admits, “this is a major change that would need to be implemented over 3-5 years to allow the state conventions to adjust in their planning. But implementation toward this goal needs to begin immediately.”
Much more could (and probably should) be said about the GCR and the future of the SBC. While we still have our problems and will still face many challenges, today is a great day to be apart of what God is doing through Southern Baptists.
For the sake of the nations,
Pastor Wes
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