Christianity

GCR Report Online Now

You can download the report from the SBC’s Great Commission Task Force here: www.pray4gcr.com. The video above is an introduction to the GCR effort that you can show to your church. Chairman Ronnie Floyd presents the full report in the video below.

6 Comments

  • Donald Johnson

    By bundling the gospel with non-egal gender teaching, this effort will be less effective than it otherwise would be.

  • Nate

    I am going to have to read through this a few more times, but at first glance, I’m dissapointed. There is very little, if anything, in here about helping “typical” local SBC churches, other than to call them to give more money to IMB, NAMB, etc. Church planting is given a key role (and I am not against church planting), but the failure rate is incredibly high. Conversely, existing local churches, with buildings and property are left to rot because people don’t want to come in and do the hard work of revitalizing. Some can’t be turned around, and I understand that, but a sizeable number of church plants are twenty and thirty something’s that want their own model (e.g. not having to deal with older deacons, etc), while the 50/60/and 70 something believers are left to die. Most church plants target the young and forget the old. It’s great to be young, but you will eventually get old. I pray that your children won’t abandon you.

    Furthermmore, all the people on this task force come from mega-churches or big institutions. Considering the average SBC church has about 120 members, it would have seemed practical to get their take on what is needed at the local and state level. The mega-churches don’t live week-to-week and typically aren’t located in urban areas.

  • Jordan

    I look forward to reading the final report and posting my own blog about it (hopefully) tomorrow.

    Thanks for keeping us up to date, Dr. Burk!

  • Jordan

    My post about it is up, thankfully. I didn’t realize my summary/comments would be so long.

    Donald, I agree with Matt. Furthermore, do you realize that there were in fact women on the Great Commission Task Force?

    Nate, having read through the report myself, I’m very pleased with the final report. You make wonderful points, and those are dangers: but they are not inherent within the final report itself. The report focuses on the “young” rightly so–because the young are those who are LEAST evangelized of all Americans. The Southern Baptist Convention must reach out with the Gospel to the young if they are to be saved (Romans 10:14-18).

    Your comment about mega-churches somewhat off-set me (and I myself come from a church of about 120), but the local and state level have been given money to “do what is needed,” and that money has been misspent in places. Besides, we must adopt a mindset similar to the Corinthians: to give above and beyond our capabilities. “Sacrificial giving.” We must realize that the (largely) unreached Northeast, Midwest, and Western fronteirs need first-time churches more than we need renovated churches. (You can see, if you want, my blog post for a much fuller explanation of my thoughts on the final report.)

    Love to both of you in Christ,
    Jordan

  • Nate

    Jordan,

    I realized after I posted that my observations would probably come off a little skewed. I have re-read through the report multiple times now and I do see good and credible items in it. However, if you go back and re-listen to Danny Akin’s original sermon and re-read his original statements regarding his vision for this resurgence, there has been much that has been left out. This is understandable to some degree, since Dr. Akin spoke personally and now the SBC speaks corporately, but there is far more rhetoric than substance in this report.

    Furthermore, I am not against reaching the young; far from it. My point was more about asking why we are abandoning the old. We should be reaching the young and revitalizing older congregations. By the way, while the frontiers do need more new churches, the urban cities have many existing properties, buildings, and people that could be revitalized to reach the nations the report speaks about. The mindset that says older congregations are a liability to reach the young because of worship style, church government issues, etc. is arrogant. While some older congregations would rather reminisce about the “glory” days, most would love to see young families in their churches. The report does not speak about this issue. I am simply concerned that there isn’t any acknowledgment of this large reality in our convention.

    I also agree that we must give sacrificially and that the local assoc. and state conv. need to be policed better. Nevertheless, older congregations give far more per capita than younger congregations. They have been sacrificially giving for 30, 40, 50, 60 years while almost all reports show that younger believers don’t come near to giving 10%. Many of these older congregations that are being abandoned have given far more to the cooperative program than others. In fact, some mega-churches represented on this committee have given very little in the past to the cooperative program on a per member average, choosing instead to run their own “mission programs.” That is a different subject, but the point is that older congregations do give sacrificially.

    One could make an argument that the suburban flight of our churches in the last thirty years is a big reason why the urban cities are in such dire need of evangelization today. I will still hold that there is very little in this report that speaks to the abandonment of urban churches other than to plant new ones. There is an inherent danger if we don’t look at our past and realize that our abandonment of urban city churches for the upper middle class suburban sprawl has left a gaping hole. Church planting does need to take place, we need to reach the young because they are the future, but a continued abandonment of older congregations in our convention is a large problem that should have been addressed.

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