Note: You will find below an email letter sent out by Dr. Ronnie Floyd, chairman of the GCR Task Force. It expresses so well his heart, mine, and all the members of the Task Force. Let me encourage you to: 1)read it and 2)pray for our work in the days ahead. We truly have an awesome, indeed an impossible, assignment that will only be accomplished through the prayers of God’s people who intercede for us with our heavenly Father. As never before, we need to find the mind and the heart of our God as Southern Baptists move ahead. May we be found faithful do what we do for the glory of God and the good of the nations.

Dear GCR Prayer Partners:

Since the last time I communicated with you, there have been so many things happen in Southern Baptist life. Your Great Commission Resurgence Task Force has been focused on our assignment and working diligently. During this same period of time, we have been as surprised as you to learn that both of our mission boards and our Executive Committee will be searching for new leaders. With you, we trust in our Sovereign God to do His will among us.

As Chairman of the GCR Task Force, I want to clarify to everyone what I know we are not charged to do by our convention. We are not in the personnel business, but in the Great Commission business. Each of these three entities that have the need for new leaders will choose their own leaders. Their trustees have selected their own search committees, and we have confidence that God can work through this system to place the right people at the right time to provide leadership for the future. While it is not our role to select leadership, it is our role to pray for each of these entities and their need for future leadership and I have been faithful to do that daily. I hope you will join me in this privilege of interceding for them.

Please do not let these sudden vacancies take us off point on our urgent assignment of providing leadership to our convention that will move us towards this Great Commission Resurgence we are all praying for and desire. Our task force takes seriously the overwhelming charge extended to us at the 2009 convention that Southern Baptists want to move towards a new, higher, and greater commitment to the Great Commission. As we work towards creating this Great Commission vision and paradigm for the future, we are cognizant of our assignment and embrace it with prayer, faith, and courage.

While search committees have the immense task of selecting leaders for their respective entities, any leader will serve for only a limited number of years, or if you may, one generation. Our assignment on the GCR Task Force may result in affecting not only one generation, but many in the future. I appeal to you in Jesus’ name to come alongside us now as we labor together in this significant assignment. We are in great need of your most fervent intercession for us daily.

Over these next few days, I am asking you to pray for a very important meeting that will take place in Dallas, Texas on Tuesday, October 27. I have requested that each State Executive from our 42 state conventions meet with us. Due to matters of scheduling and some who have annual conventions at this same time, we are very grateful that 22 of our state convention executive leaders will be able to meet with us. I have asked their Chairman, Bill Mackey of Kentucky, to lead their group in a presentation to us about what is on their heart about the Great Commission. Following their presentation, we will dialogue with one another about the Great Commission related to the future of the Southern Baptist Convention. This pivotal meeting may be unprecedented in at least recent history and needs our highest support in prayer and hopefully even a day of fasting. It is my prayer that we can all go together towards a bold, visionary Great Commission future. The need is urgent and calls us to act together now.

Finally, we are listening, learning, and committed to leading our convention towards experiencing this Great Commission Resurgence. We do not have all the answers. As Chairman, I am in desperate need of God and His leadership. There are days I am overwhelmed with this task and feel it upon my life heavily. Our task force is agonizing not only over our desperate need, but also about what we must do to move together towards seeing every person in America and the world afforded the privilege of hearing the Gospel and coming to Jesus Christ.

Therefore, prayer partners, pray for our upcoming meeting. Pray for your GCR Task Force to have clarity, direction, power, and courage from our Lord and His Spirit. Thank you for standing with us in prayer. As you pray for us and watch for the outcome of our work, join with us in anticipation about what our God will do among us. Continue to share the need for prayer with others, encouraging them to enlist as a prayer partner on www.pray4gcr.com.

1,000 Thank Yous for Praying,

Ronnie W. Floyd
Chairman, Great Commission Resurgence Task Force
of the Southern Baptist Convention