The interim report of the GCRTF has already generated much excitement and many conversations. This is good and healthy. The Taskforce hoped its report would excite Southern Baptists, and it seems clear it has. It is also the case that the Taskforce wanted to hear from our people and receive their feedback. That also is taking place and we rejoice in this. Our prayer all along has been that the work of the Taskforce would … [Read More]
Ronnie Floyd: The Cooperative Program and Great Commission Giving
Editor’s Note: The Great Commission Resurgence Task Force is now releasing a series of blogs unpacking various points of their recommendation with greater depth and clarity. Below is the first installment.
The Cooperative Program and Great Commission Giving
(Ronnie Floyd)
As people are processing the Great Commission Resurgence Progress Report, some are trying to understand the Cooperative Program and its relationship to Great Commission Giving. Since so much information needed to be shared initially through our report, it is now essential … [Read More]
The Spiritual and the Structural Coincide: Some Thoughts on the GCR
“Our problems aren’t structural, they are spiritual.”
I can’t tell you how many times I have read or heard some variation of the above sentiment in the past eight or nine months. Sometimes it is voiced by stakeholders who are in the “structure,” people like state paper editors, seminary professors, and other denominational employees. It is perhaps understandable that these folks would want to divert attention away from whatever issues may or may not be present … [Read More]
When Words Aren’t Enough: A Report from the Field, Part 1
For much of the month of January, a colleague and I have been in an international setting serving with overseas workers. We have worked together daily in an educational context, and I have been reminded continually of the significance of the Great Commission. To say I am impressed by the workers of our mission board is an understatement, but I don’t want to embarrass my friends by being overly effusive about their labors. None of … [Read More]
The Future of the Southern Baptist Convention (Pt. 6)
#6) Southern Baptists have a hopeful future if we have the courage to rethink our Convention structure at every level, clarify our mission so that we maximize our energy and resources for the fulfilling of the Great Commission, and provide a compelling vision that inspires our people to do something great for God.
Are Southern Baptist a Great Commission people? If you listen to our rhetoric then the answer is yes. And yet, though Southern Baptist … [Read More]
Messenger Insight Vidcast with Nathan Finn
In addition to the previously mentioned podcasts, Doug Baker of the Baptist Messenger is conducting short vidcast interviews with Southern Baptist pastors, thinkers, and other leaders. One of the first vidcasts is with our own Nathan Finn, who along with Alvin Reid was in Oklahoma last weekend for a conference. The topics discussed include the Conservative Resurgence, the GCR, competing visions among Southern Baptists, the Cooperative Program, and ethnic diversity in the SBC. The vidcast, which … [Read More]
Doug Baker on the SBC’s Ominous Future
Doug Baker has written a very insightful editorial about what’s at stake for Southern Baptists in the current debates about the GCR and related issues:
“Were the moderates right?” The sheer posing of such a question sent a collective gasp across Alumni Chapel. During a recent panel discussion when Southern Seminary President R. Albert Mohler, Jr., uttered these words in a place where moderates once dominated one of the world’s largest seminaries, it was not as … [Read More]
Myth #4: The goal of the Great Commission Task Force is to dismantle if not destroy the Cooperative Program as we know it today.
Recently a Baptist Press article lamented that, “Some leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention tell us that the CP is dead or is no longer effective or efficient, or needs to be redefined. Simply stated, these leaders tell us the CP doesn’t work; it’s a relic of the past; it’s the old way; it’s a program, and programs are an anathema; and that CP is all about old denominational loyalty.” Then just a few days … [Read More]
Why I am Southern Baptist
As I sit in Asia working with some of our IMB missionaries, I am blessed to see the work we do together. And, honestly, everyone here sees the importance of our denominational cooperation for the purpose of global missions. (You can follow along on our trip here.)
But, right now, things seem to be a bit “in flux” back home. So, perhaps I can add a little encouragement today as I sit with a group of … [Read More]
Southern Baptist Identity: An Evangelical Denomination Faces the Future
This week Crossway has published a new collection of essays titled Southern Baptist Identity: An Evangelical Denomination Faces the Future. David Dockery edited the volume, which is substantially (though not entirely) based upon the two Baptist Identity Conferences held at Union University in 2004 and 2007. You can still listen to the audio presentations from those conferences by clicking here and here.
The contributors to Southern Baptist Identity include Dockery, Al Mohler, Stan Norman, Greg Wills, Timothy George, … [Read More]
