What The great Commission Resurgence Means for Young Leaders

About a month ago some in the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention put forth a new challenge for the church. This concept (Toward a Great Commission Resurgence) was birthed out of a deep desire to see Southern Baptist Churches commit to live and do the Great Commission with renewed passion and vision. This is not an attempt to add to the Great Commission (nothing can be added to the perfect words of Christ in Matthew 28), rather it is an attempt to reengage the leaders and the churches of the convention to embrace the Great Commission with passion and thoughtful exuberance. To date over 2600 hundred Southern Baptists have committed to support these ideas. I encourage you to take a moment and read it and if you agree to sign it (http://www.greatcommissionresurgence.com). I want to spend the rest of this blog talking about why I think this could be a watershed moment for us as Southern Baptists and why I think it is especially important to those of us under 40.

The other day I was in my hometown of Nashville having lunch with a friend who is now pastoring a church in the area. His present church is dynamic and Great Commission driven. They are reaching and connecting people to Christ for the Kingdom. They are an SBC church, but he has little or no interest in what is happening in the life of the convention. He sees it as a large entity more interest in self preservation than on dynamic Kingdom minded ministry. I hate to say it, but I have felt the same thing at times. I have wondered why we argue over things that are not essential to the gospel or that the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 does not clearly address. I have thought at times the we have some redundancy in our organization. I have wondered if the money given is not better used by the local church for mission and ministry. these are all valid questions. Even after pondering those questions I still believe that the Cooperative Program is at its core brilliant. I still believe that the BFaM2000 is more than adequate for guidance in our agencies and mission endeavors. I still believe that evangelism and missions are essential to church health and growth. I still believe we have the best theological education at our seminaries. I still believe we are as committed to the Scripture and to strong biblical preaching. I still believe our best days lay ahead if we will renew and recommit to Christ and to carrying out His Great Commandments and His Great Commission. We should embrace the great heritage of the past and at the same time renew our vision of the future. I am not saying my pastor friend does not believe these things. I think in his heart he does. In his words he just has not seen much proof of it lately. It is my prayer that God would use something like the GC Resurgence to stir many hearts like his not for what is, but for what could be. We need guys like him who are passionate about the gospel and sharing it with people.

It is my prayer that The Great Commission Resurgence will help reengage young leaders to be a part of the convention. I pray that they will see that we are stronger as churches when we work together. I hope the convention will recognize the significant contribution and creative ideas young leaders are making to grow the Kingdom. I pray they will begin to staff boards and committees with young leaders with fresh ideas about the methodology needed to reach a lost world in the 21st Century. I believe that through the TaGCR movement we will be reminded of why we are Baptist to begin with.

So why do I like the idea of the TaGCR? First is that leaves room for different methodologies and ideologies while at the same time reminding us of what we ought to have in common. Sometimes there are too many voices talking about our differences and not enough reminding us of what we share. As we move forward and face new challenges we will no doubt experience more places where we need to disagree agreeably. This document gives us a framework by which to stay focused. I am prayerful that God would use this "resurgence" to transform our convention in such a way that when people think of us they don't think about the infighting or the Disney boycott or the declining baptism numbers. I pray that when they think of the SBC they think of us more in terms like: "my neighbor who told me about Jesus," "that church who served the the poor," "that family who adopted an orphan," "that church who prayed and visited me in the hospital," or "those people who always have the name of Jesus in their hearts and on their lips." That is what it is going to take have a true resurgence of the Great Commission, but this document sure helps steer us in the right direction. Let me know what you think.