I’ve Read. I’ve Watched. I’ve Discussed. Now…

OK. I’ve read the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force Final Report (GCRTFFR). I’ve watched the video presentation of said report. I’ve watched the interview which has been suggested to me by friends on Twitter. I’ve stated some of my initial responses to the report through Facebook and Twitter.  Now, allow me to share with you the perspective of this O40BI5PCSCP (just wanted to add to the proliferation of acronyms within our convention)…this ‘Over 40, Baptist Identity, 5 Point Calvinist, Small Church Pastor’…

As I look at the final report, I begin by acknowledging the introduction which sets out the need which is before all of us.  The lostness of our world is vast.  Sounds like,

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God (2 Timothy 3:1-4).

Now, the difficult times do not mean acquiescence to the status quo. This must be a call to arms! We must stand and fight the good fight of our faith. At the front of this fight must be our commitment to carrying out the command of our Lord through His Great Commission to us.

Upon leaving the ‘setting’, we turn our attention to the list of Components.

Component #1: A new Misson(al) 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.”

AMEN! Now, I’m not real crazy about the need for the use of the trendy ‘missional’ or ‘missional vision’ which could just as easily have been stated, “…our mission is to present…”, but then I have people in my church who don’t like the term Student Ministry or Youth Pastor. SO, I get it.

Before rushing on to number two, I need to pause here and thank the Task Force for being so deliberate and intentional in asserting both components #1 and #2. Many have lampooned or said, “Well, this is what we are already doing. Duh!” or “Well, thanks for restating Scripture for us.  It’s not like Jesus didn’t do it well enough the first time.” I for one appreciate this group not taking for granted that we need to affirm and reaffirm the foundation of our Gospel commitment. I serve a church in the midst of an association in which the leadership of many of the churches see no need to go on record as affirming our Baptist convictions and renewing our commitment to biblical standards for our churches.  I also know of pastors who have been asked to leave the churches in which they served because they dared to implement Great Commission commitment to the ministry of their churches.  One was told that if they started doing all of that witnessing stuff new people might start coming and mess everything up. SAD! We cannot presume upon our foundation. We must always be willing to stand up and be counted as Bible-believing, Gospel-living Christians.

Component #2: Transparent Values–

“CHRIST-LIKENESS–We depend on the transforming power of the Holy Spirit 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 each other 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.”

Again, AMEN! Especially the centrality of the LOCAL CHURCH as the one(s) commissioned to go into all the world.

Component #3: Great Commission Giving.

Here’s the focal point of this component for me– “We call upon Southern Baptists to honor and affirm the Cooperative Program as the most effective means of mobilizing our churches and extending our reach. We also call upon Southern Baptists to celebrate all giving to our common work. We will recognize the total of all monies channeled through the causes of the Southern Baptist Convention, the state conventions, and associations as Great Commission Giving.”

One significant improvement of this component over the preliminary report is the definitive focus of Great Commission Giving to Southern Baptist Convention, Southern Baptist State Conventions, and Southern Baptist Associations ministry/mission involvements.  Thus a concern of many with whom I have spoken, namely that giving to para-church or other non-/inter-denominational ministries would be included, is absent. There is nothing wrong with leading your church to support financially other biblically sound ministries.  Just don’t call it supporting the SBC.

I also appreciate the commitment to honor and affirm the effective importance of the Cooperative Program for our ongoing missions and ministries as a convention of churches.  This has proven to be the most effective means of equipping and sending ministers of all callings, from pastors to missionaries, into the fields. Diluting or dissolving this funding approach, as is the concern of many of my friends, would be detrimental to our future work as a convention. I am willing to take Pastor Floyd at his word in his latest interview.  He, and others on the TF, asks us to assume the best rather than the worst when it comes to the CP and GCG. I am willing to do that…watchfully. :-)

Allow me to express a significant concern, desire at this point. I still want to hear more, see more, be given concrete evidence/assurance that those on the GCRTF who are pastors of our ‘mega-churches’ are doing more as pastors to lead their churches to be leaders within our convention by example when it comes to CP support. I am gladdened that both pastors Floyd and Hunt have led their churches to increase the percentage of CP giving.  I am not impressed with asserting, as does Floyd, that his church increased their giving by 58% last year. Using a general example of average CP giving among SBC mega-churches to be approximately 2%, the 58% increase results in 1.16% more for a total just over 3%. This still falls short of the continually decreasing national average of 6%, an average which the GCRTFFR laments. I would be significantly encouraged to hear about a plan from either of these men, or similarly placed SBC mega-church pastors, to move their churches to be exemplary leaders in CP giving within our convention of churches. As of now, I am unaware of any such pastor on the TF stepping out and outlining a concrete plan to do something along these lines. I am hoping that these church pastors are not giving token increases in the momentary spotlight only to neglect continued effort once the spotlight is gone. I would welcome any of them, Ronnie Floyd, Johnny Hunt, JD Greear, et al., to drop in and share their thoughts and plans regarding this matter in the comment section of this post.

WELL, time for writing this post must be cut short. I have to take care of some other responsibilities. I am not finished with my thoughts and responses to the report.  I plan to get to ‘part 2′ later today. As you can tell by the hat I now wear, I am planning to be a supporter of the GCR recommendations presented in Orlando. Much of my support is enthusiastic. On some matters I have concerns which I pray will not materialize. In all, I am looking forward to the future God has prepared for our churches and our work as a convention of churches in fulfilling our Great Commission calling.