Great Commission Resurgence

I want to take a break from the 40 Days with Jesus blog today to highlight, what I believe, is an important issue for all of us. Let me start by affirming this, I am proud to be a Southern Baptist. I choose to remain a Southern Baptist, not because I of my heritage or my job, but because I feel that we are one of the most doctrinally and missionally sound denominations in the world. God is using our denomination, and will continue to use the SBC, as long as we remain true to the task to which He has called us. That task is the Great Commission...to go into all the world and make disciples. It is cool to think that when you give each Sunday at Good Hope you are supporting the largest mission sending agency in the world.

Having said all of that, I do affirm what other leaders within our Convention have been sensing for a while now. As good as the SBC is, there is room for improvement and refocus. Just like any other institution with age, there is a wonderful litany of programs and initiatives that we have taken on. The problem is that, with time, that litany continues to grow. Most organizations gravitate toward complexity and doing more stuff...we usually don't have a mechanism that evaluates and says "no" to ineffective or superfluous things. Churches are guilty of this, too. That's why I am huge fan of the book Simple Church by Geiger and Rainer. Please read this book, if you've never read it. I have 2 copies in my office if you'd like to borrow one! We have to define our priorities as an organization...those 3 or 4 things that we really want to do well...and then focus all of our effort and resources into those initiatives. If we don't, we'll turn inward and spend all of our energy and resources on maintaining the bloated institution we've created!

Last year at the Southern Baptist Convention we voted to form a task force to evaluate our entire convention to see what needed to change. Their report came out today. Their inquiry and consequent findings have been associated with the movement called "The Great Commission Resurgence." I will be in Orlando at the convention this summer to vote in favor of the changes they recommend. Honestly, I think this is just the beginning of the changes that need to be made...but you have to start somewhere! I encourage all of you to read over this report, watch the video, and process the changes recommended. Let me know if you have any questions. I would love to help you understand what we are trying to do to make the SBC a viable strong arm for the Lord in reaching the world for Jesus!

The report can be found here .