Great Commission Resurgence

I have read with great interest the responses to the final report of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force. Surely, there are people with great passion for the Great Commission that are in favor of this report. There are also people who are equally passionate about the Great Commission that are opposed to this report. Allow me to confess that I am not a dispassionate observer in this process. I too, am passionate about the Great Commission.

There is no doubt that we must do better in fulfilling the Great Commission. Statistics tell us people are dying and going to hell at a rate of 1 person every 1 .6 seconds. All around us we see the torn, tattered lives of people living without hope. Culturally, we have raced away from God and righteousness at an amazing rate. The only answer to these crises is Jesus and it is our assignment until Jesus returns to take the message of God’s love in Christ Jesus to this world. We must approach the task of the Great Commission with a new urgency.

It is my prayer that the rhetoric dies down and that the people called Southern Baptists approach our annual convention in a way that honors our God. This is not us against them. It is all of us for the Great Commission. Every church should elect its full contingent of messengers and send them to Orlando. Every church should pray unceasingly for God’s will to be done in the life of our convention. Messengers should read the report for themselves, listen and participate in the debate as is appropriate and the vote what they believe to be God’s will. This is the Baptist way. Being for the report or opposed to it does not indicate a deeper commitment to the Great Commission it simply indicates a different understanding of how best to fulfill the Great Commission.

Simply adopting a report will not bring about a Great Commission Resurgence. New structure and rearranging funding will not (in my humble opinion) bring about a Great Commission resurgence. We will have a Great Commission Resurgence when individual Southern Baptists become concerned about the souls of their neighbors, family members, and friends. We will have a Great Commission Resurgence when autonomous churches approach the work of evangelism and missions with an urgency that is equal to the task. We will have a Great Commission Resurgence when revival breaks out in the midst of the people called Southern Baptists. The problem we face is a heart problem; it is a spiritual problem that requires repentance, revival, and recommitment among the people of God.

May we not go to Orlando and debate the Great Commission Resurgence Report with fervor and then fail to approach the task of winning the lost where we live with the same fervor. The Great Commission began in the heart of a loving God and instills itself in the hearts of people who love God. If we love God we will with urgency and with renewed commitment take the gospel to the world.

Attempting to connect the dots…

Wayne
Romans 1:16

Quotable:
"If ye love me, keep my commandments."

"And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."
~ Jesus