I just signed my name to the Great Commission Resurgence document. Below you will find the Preamble and 10 Great Commission commitments. The Preamble to the GCR document reads... "Southern Baptists have always been a Great Commission people. Christ’s command to go, disciple, baptize, and teach is woven into the very DNA of our churches. By God’s grace, over the last thirty years the SBC has undergone a Conservative Resurgence that has brought substantive changes to many of our churches and all of our Convention’s seminaries and boards. We, the undersigned, are thankful for the Conservative Resurgence and believe that God has called Southern Baptists to a Great Commission Resurgence as the next step in the renewal of our denomination. It is our conviction that a Great Commission Resurgence must embrace the following ten commitments:
I. A Commitment to Christ’s Lordship. We call upon all Southern Baptists to submit to the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ in all things at the personal, local church, and denominational levels. (Col. 1:18; 3:16-17, 23-24)
II. A Commitment to Gospel-Centeredness. We call upon all Southern Baptists to make the gospel of Jesus Christ central in our lives, our churches, and our denominational ministries. (Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 15:1-4; 2 Cor. 5:17-21)
III. A Commitment to the Great Commandments. We call upon all Southern Baptists to recommit to the priority of the Great Commandments in every aspect of our lives and every priority we embrace as a network of local Baptist churches. (Matt. 22:37-40)
IV. A Commitment to Biblical Inerrancy and Sufficiency. We call upon all Southern Baptists to unite around a firm conviction in the full truthfulness and complete sufficiency of Christian Scripture in all matters of faith and practice. (Matt 5:17-18; John 10:35; 17:17; 2 Tim 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21)
V. A Commitment to a Healthy Confessional Center. We call upon all Southern Baptists to look to the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 as a sufficient guide for building a theological consensus for partnership in the gospel, refusing to be sidetracked by theological agendas that distract us from our Lord’s Commission. (1 Tim. 6:3-4)
VI. A Commitment to Biblically Healthy Churches. We call upon all Southern Baptists to focus on building local churches that are thoroughly orthodox, distinctively Baptist, and passionately committed to the Great Commission. (Matt. 16:13-20, 18:15-20; Acts 2:41-47; Rom. 6:3-5; 1 Cor. 5)
VII. A Commitment to Sound Biblical Preaching. We call upon all Southern Baptists to affirm and expect a pastoral ministry that is characterized by faithful biblical preaching that teaches both the content of the Scriptures and the theology embedded in the Scriptures. (2 Tim. 4:1-5)
VIII. A Commitment to a Methodological Diversity that is Biblically Informed. We call upon all Southern Baptists to consider themselves and their churches to be missionaries in non-Christian cultures, each of which requires unique strategies and emphases if the gospel is to penetrate and saturate every community in North America. (Phil. 2:1-5; 4:2-9)
IX. A Commitment to a More Effective Convention Structure. We call upon all Southern Baptists to rethink our Convention structure and priorities so that we can maximize our energy and resources for the health of our local churches and the fulfilling of the Great Commission. (1 Cor. 10:31)
X. A Commitment to Distinctively Christian Families. We call upon all Southern Baptists to build gospel-saturated homes that see children as a gift from God and as our first and primary mission field. (Deut. 6:1-9; Psalm 127, 128; Eph. 6:4)"
I for one am glad to see this vision take off. What about you?
4 comments:
I am up for all except #5. Other than the fact that I have some real problems with several point in the BFM 2000, I find no such guide or direction that leads Great Commission people to sign off on a confession.
#5 states-"...refusing to be sidetracked by theological agendas that distract us from our Lord’s Commission."
I think that putting this comment in the group does exactly what it asks us not to. The BFM 2000 was at the time it was presented, and continues to be a "theological agenda".
Other than that I would love to see the rest of these things happen
It may have begun to change in the past few years, but for quite a while SBC churches were much about evangelism and weak on "discipling the nations." It's easier for a youth group to hand out tracks or flyers than to do follow up. I would like to see more feeding the sheep and less of the tent revival mentality that signs people up and moves to the next town. Fulfilling the Great Commission means making disciples, not just winning new converts. We need to be fishers of men AND keepers of the aquarium, not one of the other.
Mr. Anonymous,
I have no such concern with point number 5. In fact, I am in agreement with Dr. Akin when he says... "Our agreement on The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 is an asset, not a weakness. It is a plus and not a minus."
Clark,
I actually voiced a similar complaint or observation to Dr. Hunt last month at a Young Baptist Leadership Summit. His response was that it is hard to disciple unreached people, and that we are not reaching as many people with the Gospel as we once were. I am with you, in that we can do much better in discipling believers. I am with him, in that we must first evangelize.
My prayer is that we will truly become a Great Commission Convention... that means evangelizing, baptizing, and stabilizing.
Sorry, forgot to put my name. I was anonymous.
I think making disciples should be a part of the reaching people for Christ. Yes it is hard to disciple unreached people, especially when we haven't discipled the "reached" people.
Robert
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