In exactly 31 days (one month) the Great Commission Task Force will deliver a report of recommendations to the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention. This is the precursor of a report that will be delivered to the entire Southern Baptist Convention when it meets in June.
I have been praying for the GCR Task Force and for this report since the Task Force was formed last summer by action of our Convention. This report has been 8 months in the works as the GCR Task Force has held numerous meetings and listening sessions with pastors and laypeople around the country. I have been to two of these meetings myself.
As a 40 year old pastor I am a busy guy. I’ve got my hands full with a great church family. We’ve got international mission work going on in Honduras, Ecuador, and Tanzania. We’ve got two church plants locally. We’ve got a benevolence ministry that services over 200 families per month. And on top of the numerous ministries our church offers for our members and community, we just entered a $3.6 million campaign to enhance and transform our campus. What I’m saying is that I don’t have a lot of time to waste time. And for the most part, I have ignored participating in national SBC matters because I have viewed much of it as very political and a waste of my time.
But the Great Commission is a different matter. I can get behind the Great Commission. I can get excited about a focus on reaching the world for Christ. That kind of thing really fires my engine. It also lights the fire for the people I pastor. Most of them don’t care about national SBC politics either. But trust me, they can be energized by the Great Commission.
From where I sit, our Convention has become remote and disconnected from the average church and church member. It has become almost irrelevant to a whole younger generation of pastors and laypeople. Denominations in general are struggling to find relevance and the SBC has not been immune.
But I have chosen to “put my toe in the water” on this national SBC issue of the Great Commission Task Force. And I have done it for two reasons:
1. As I previously stated, I am pro Great Commission.
2. My former pastor, Dr. Ronnie Floyd, is leading the GCR Task Force. I have great respect for Dr. Floyd and I trust him. And when it comes to the Great Commission NOBODY is better qualified to lead our convention on a national level than him.
And so, because of these two reasons I am taking time, time in the midst of everything else, to engage and get involved. I am looking forward with great anticipation to the report that will be released in 31 days. I have booked a plane ticket to the Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando this summer and I have a hotel room reserved. It will be the first convention I have attended. I am giving this national SBC stuff a shot. I am hopeful that something great could be about to happen.
And I desperately hope this is not all a waste of my time. If it is, my first convention may be my last.
Praying and Believing for the cause of Christ’s Great Commission,
Jeff
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