Jerry Rankin posted an article this morning that gets at the heart/root of the matter relating to what happened last week at the SBC in Orlando. You can read the entire article here. I urge you to do so. Below are some strong quotes from the article that I want to highlight here:
"All afternoon messengers to the SBC attentively followed the debate, passionately concerned about the outcome of recommendations by the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force. It was the highest attendance in eight years and a clear majority endorsed changes that should enable us to impact lostness across America and around the world.
"Yet, that night as the time for the IMB report approached it seemed that half the convention center exited. Did they really not care to hear what was being done to reach unengaged people groups and celebrate the impressive response to the gospel being seen overseas? Are they unconcerned about what their missionaries are doing as they go out on their behalf to labor in threatening and hostile areas to fulfill the Great Commission? The next night’s attendance of those hearing the North American Mission Board report was the sparsest crowd of any session.
"Was all our discussion and emotional dialogue about the priority of the Great Commission just rhetoric? It was often stated that everyone is for the Great Commission. There may be disagreement about how we should do it and to what extent changing structure and processes can help us make progress in the task, but is our commitment just in principle and doesn’t really represent the focus and concern of our lives?"
"Yet, that night as the time for the IMB report approached it seemed that half the convention center exited. Did they really not care to hear what was being done to reach unengaged people groups and celebrate the impressive response to the gospel being seen overseas? Are they unconcerned about what their missionaries are doing as they go out on their behalf to labor in threatening and hostile areas to fulfill the Great Commission? The next night’s attendance of those hearing the North American Mission Board report was the sparsest crowd of any session.
"Was all our discussion and emotional dialogue about the priority of the Great Commission just rhetoric? It was often stated that everyone is for the Great Commission. There may be disagreement about how we should do it and to what extent changing structure and processes can help us make progress in the task, but is our commitment just in principle and doesn’t really represent the focus and concern of our lives?"
And again....
"Much of our debate centered around concern that Great Commission giving would undercut CP as if we were blind to fact it is already being eroded. I was distraught to hear strong support for deferring these actions in order to study the impact it would have on our programs and entities. It would have been one thing to advocate further study to discover how we could accelerate reaching lostness, but to be more concerned about OURSELVES and OUR PROGRAMS…! During the next year more than 20 million people among 6,000 unreached people groups will die and go to hell while we act out of concern that we may not be able to continue our programs. God help us."
"No, whether or not we have a Great Commission Resurgence won’t happen as a result of the vote last week in Orlando. It will be determined as churches gather for budget planning this fall. It will be decided by people in the pew deciding to be faithful stewards. It will happen when we have a church membership who have done more than just take comfort in having escaped the penalty of hell themselves, but their lives are so transformed by the unmerited grace of God they will be sharing it throughout their community and finding ways to lead their church to be involved in taking the gospel across North America and the world." (emphasis mine)
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