NASHVILLE, Tenn. — With
the substance of changes varying for each respective component of its February
progress report, the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force issued a “draft”
final report, posted May 3 at www.pray4gcr.com, containing seven
recommendations it plans to present to messengers at the SBC annual meeting in
Orlando, June 15-16.
- Stating that “our churches need a new missional vision,” the task force calls
for the Southern Baptist Convention “to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to
every person in the world and to make disciples of all the nations,” identical
to its progress report.
Likewise, the GCRTF outlined the same values from before (Christ-likeness,
truth, unity, relationships, trust, future, local church and kingdom). However,
they developed them as a separate component instead of an element of the vision.
Both the mission and values are presented as separate recommendations (#1 and
#2).
- The GCRTF final report also calls for “a new level of sacrificial giving”
among Southern Baptists” and to “celebrate all giving to our common work” by
calling “all monies channeled through the causes of the Southern Baptist
Convention, the state conventions, and associations as Great Commission Giving.”
This recommendation repeats the emphasis of the task force’s progress report of
Feb. 22 to create new nomenclature that would apply equally to contributions
whether given through the Cooperative Program for the whole of SBC work or by
designated donations to individual ministries.
A new element added to the concept of “Great Commission Giving” is that the
task force asks Southern Baptists to “adopt goals of giving no less than
$200-million annually though the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for
International Missions and $100-million annually through the Annie Armstrong
Easter Offering for North American Missions by 2015.”
As a frame of reference, the latest reports available for both mission boards
showed: IMB received $141 million of a stated 2008 goal of $170 million — a
$175 million goal was set for 2009 (no report yet) and the 2010 goal has not
been announced; NAMB received $56.5 million of a stated 2009 goal of $65
million and has set a 2010 goal of $70 million.
The task force did not set a Cooperative Program giving goal.
The task force’s recommendation “3” asks for “the adoption of the language and
structure of Great Commission Giving” and that the trustees of the respective
mission boards adopt the offering goals “outlined in this report.”
- The task force repeats a call for phasing out cooperative agreements between
the North American Mission Board and state Baptist conventions. However,
departing from its progress report, the GCRTF extends its recommended timeline
for making the change from four years to seven years.
NAMB has stated the agreements would affect directly $51 million, but about $62
million total in all that NAMB contributes to state work, and that more than
three-fourths of all the money involved (about $48 million) would be taken from
Canada and 36 “pioneer states” — some have large populations and even contain
several top 10 global urban centers, but all are referred to as “pioneer”
because of the relatively few SBC churches in each.
The GRCTF expressed an expectation that NAMB more directly control this
retained money for “reaching the United States and Canada with the Gospel and
planting Gospel churches.”
The report calls for “liberating” and “reinvention” of NAMB, but does not
repeat an earlier recommendation that NAMB create seven regional centers “responsible
for the three main emphases of the board” (which in effect would have displaced
operations at Alpharetta).
However, recommendation “4” requests the “Executive
Committee of the Southern Baptist Committee” to consider “any revision” to NAMB’s
ministry assignment “that may be necessary in order to accomplish the
redirection of NAMB” and that NAMB’s trustees consider the report in “all
matters under their purview.”
- Stating that the U.S. has as many as “586 unreached and underserved people
groups,” the task force generally followed its earlier view that the
International Mission Board should be unleashed “upon American soil” to reach
these non-English speaking people. The GCRTF affirmed that NAMB “retains the
leadership mission of reaching North America with the Gospel,” but asks in
recommendation “5” for the removal of “any geographical limitation” on the IMB’s
mission “to reach unreached and underserved people groups wherever they are
found.”
- The task force asks in recommendation “6” that the SBC’s Executive Committee “consider
working with the leadership of the state conventions in developing a
comprehensive program of Cooperative Program promotion and stewardship
education” — an assignment the SBC EC already performs. The Executive Committee
received the assignment for Cooperative Program promotion in 1995 and in 2006
messengers transferred stewardship education from LifeWay to the SBC Executive
Committee.
The recommendation includes the wording that the move is to happen “in
alignment with this report” which apparently points back to a statement in the
report that “state conventions must take the lead in both CP promotion and
stewardship education.”
In its earlier rendition, the GCRTF said this move was needed because “the
Great Commission Resurgence needs Great Commission partners” and pushed for
taking $2 million from the SBC Executive Committee and adding it to the IMB’s
budget as a “symbolic and substantial” act. This amount represents about a
third of the Executive Committee’s CP allocation.
- Recommendation “7” does not mention CP promotion or stewardship education,
but asks messengers to the 2010 annual meeting to request the Executive
Committee to “increase the percentage allocated to the International Mission
Board to 51 percent by decreasing the Executive Committee’s percentage of the
SBC Allocation Budget by 1 percent” — meaning 1 percentage point of the 3.4
percentage points allocated to the SBC Operating Budget/Facilitating
Ministries. This move essentially removes funding for the Executive Committee
to complete the assignment stated in recommendation “6.”
This recommendation is framed around the idea of breaking what has been
described as a 50 percent barrier for CP giving to the International Mission
Board. Currently IMB receives half of all Cooperative Program receipts for
national causes. The task force said “While this is a matter of genuine and
understandable denominational pride, it has become too comfortable. It is time
to increase that percentage above 50 percent.”
The SBC Allocation Budget distributes Cooperative Program gifts according to
the following percentages:
- 50 percent to IMB
- 22.79 to NAMB
- 22.16 for theological education (21.92 percent is divided among the six
seminaries according to full time enrollment, and 0.24 percent supports the
Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives)
- 3.4 percent for the SBC Operating Budget/Facilitating Ministries
- 1.65 percent to the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
Both the progress report (updated with corrected NAMB data) and the final
report may be viewed at www.pray4gcr.com.
Seven recommendations
Seven recommendations
to the Southern Baptist Convention are specified by the Great Commission
Resurgence Task Force in the final report released May 3.
The recommendations, for example, include a call for “the adoption of the
language and structure of Great Commission Giving as described in this report
in order to enhance and celebrate the Cooperative Program and the generous
support of Southern Baptists channeled through their churches.”
The recommendations as stated in the GCRTF report are:
“1. That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in Orlando,
Florida, June 15-16, 2010, adopt the following as the mission statement of the
Southern Baptist Convention:
As a convention of churches, our missional vision is to present the Gospel of
Jesus Christ to every person in the world and to make disciples of all the
nations.
“2. That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in Orlando,
Florida, June 15-16, 2010, adopt the following as Core Values for our work
together:
- CHRIST-LIKENESS
We depend on the transforming power of the Holy Spirit and prayer to make us
more like Jesus Christ.
- TRUTH
We stand together in the truth of God’s inerrant Word, celebrating the faith
once for all delivered to the saints.
- UNITY
We work together in love for the sake of the gospel.
- RELATIONSHIPS
We consider others more important than ourselves.
- TRUST
We tell each other the truth in love and do what we say we will do.
- FUTURE
We value Southern Baptists of all generations and embrace our responsibility to
pass this charge to a rising generation in every age, faithful until Jesus
comes.
- LOCAL CHURCH
We believe the local church is given the authority, power, and responsibility
to present the gospel of Jesus Christ to every person in the world.
- KINGDOM
We join other Christ-followers for the gospel, the Kingdom of Christ, and the
glory of God.
“3. That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in Orlando,
Florida, June 15-16, 2010, request the Executive Committee of the Southern
Baptist Convention to consider recommending to the Southern Baptist Convention
the adoption of the language and structure of Great Commission Giving as
described in this report in order to enhance and celebrate the Cooperative
Program and the generous support of Southern Baptists channeled through their
churches. We further request that the boards of trustees of the International
Mission Board and North American Mission Board consider the adoption of the
Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong offering goals as outlined in this report.
“4. That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting June 15-16,
2010, request the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention to
consider any revision to the ministry assignment of the North American Mission
Board that may be necessary in order to accomplish the redirection of NAMB as
outlined in this report; and that the Board of Trustees of the North American
Mission Board be asked to consider the encouragements found within this report
in all matters under their purview.
“5. That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting June 15-16,
2010, request that the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention
and the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention consider
a revised ministry assignment for the International Mission Board that would
remove any geographical limitation on its mission to reach unreached and
underserved people groups wherever they are found.
“6. That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting June 15-16,
2010, request the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention to
consider working with the leadership of the state conventions in developing a
comprehensive program of Cooperative Program promotion and stewardship
education in alignment with this report.
“7. That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting June 15-16,
2010 in Orlando, Florida, request the Executive Committee of the Southern
Baptist Convention to consider recommending an SBC Cooperative Program
Allocation Budget that will increase the percentage allocated to the
International Mission Board to 51 percent by decreasing the Executive Committee’s
percentage of the SBC Allocation Budget by 1 percent.”
The full Great Commission Resurgence Task Force report was posted May 3 at
www.pray4gcr.com. The recommendations will be presented on June 15 at the
Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.