This is the sixth of several guest posts from the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s disaster relief team in Haiti. The 10-member medical team arrived in Port-au-Prince Monday and began ministering through a makeshift hospital on the edge of a tent city on Tuesday. In this post, Butch Vernon, pastor of Thoroughbred Community Church in Nicholasville and the chaplain for the group, shares about the group’s final day of work.
I’m writing to you on our last night in Haiti. Our prayer this morning in the van on the way to the hospital was that we might finish strong. Praise God He allowed us to do just that!
We had three babies born this morning and it was crazy hectic. My day was really different. The doctors suggested that I take pictures of the wounds up close so that we might use them later on in clinics to teach Haitians how to do their own clinics. To say I was out of my comfort zone in the surgical area as fingers and toes were amputated would be an understatement. However, God didn’t send me here to be comfortable, He sent me here to be obedient.
The day went by quickly. We were all so busy that time just flew by.
Linda with nurse Chris Lee. Linda was the only survivor from her family of 11.
There is a picture here of a little girl named Linda. She is about 15. Linda came in today malnourished and despondent. We found out that she had been buried in the rubble of her home for two days before being dug out. When she was finally freed she discovered that her family of 11 were all dead. Since then she has been wandering the streets with no where to go and no one to take care of her.
The little girl in the arm cast and leg cast was also involved in the quake. She was injured but treated. She came to us because the wounds were dirty. We cleaned them but even before we started she was crying hysterically. We couldn’t figure out what was wrong. We eventually got the idea that she thought we were going to amputate her leg. She never truly settled down until after we gave her some toys and gifts and allowed her to limp off with all her limbs intact.
We had another little boy who came in complaining of an ear ache. We couldn’t get him to allow us to touch it so we had to sedate him. The doc dug in his ear and pulled out a bean that had gotten stuck in the canal. It was one of the few light moments of the day.
A doctor ministers to a girl with a broken leg and arm.
Just as we were closing up and sitting around cutting up to release built up pressures, we heard all kinds of screaming and hollering and suddenly people were being rushed into the room. We found out that there had been a knife fight and four people were injured. It reminded us that we must always be ready to respond to what God sends our way.
It is a relief that as we leave there are other teams already in place to fill the gaps. Slowly but surely things are settling down to the point that we might be able to begin planning on sending other teams in. Please be praying that God will work out the logistics so that we can reach out to the Haitians while they are still the most receptive.
May God continue to allow His holy light to shine upon the people of Haiti.
This is the fifth of several guest posts from the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s disaster relief team in Haiti. The 10-member medical team arrived in Port-au-Prince Monday and began ministering through a makeshift hospital on the edge of a tent city on Tuesday. In this post, Butch Vernon, pastor of Thoroughbred Community Church in Nicholasville and the chaplain for the group, shares about the group’s fourth day of work.
A Haitian brother and sister at the hospital
What a day! We thought the hospital was losing 50 staff today but it ended up being more like 90. Yet we saw as many patients as we did any day this week. When we found out this morning how many people were gone and how thin the ranks were, Glenn Hickey, our team leader, and I went aside and prayed.
Before we got here another medical team had shared a testimony about how they prayed for God to stretch their medicines and God never let the suitcase run out of what they needed, although they kept track and knew that they had given out considerably more than they ever could have had. I felt led to pray the same thing for our two medical teams. I asked the Lord to let it be like we had extra doctors and nurses and to send in extras as we needed them. It was amazing! God allowed us to do more than we could ever have imagined and then when it seemed we were going to have to turn people away, He sent fresh doctors from nowhere! It was awesome. Our God rocks!
This is the fourth of several guest posts from the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s disaster relief team in Haiti. The 10-member medical team arrived in Port-au-Prince Monday and began ministering through a makeshift hospital on the edge of a tent city on Tuesday. In this post, Butch Vernon, pastor of Thoroughbred Community Church in Nicholasville and the chaplain for the group, shares about the group’s third day of work.
Kentucky doctors minister to a little girl brought to the hospital by ambulance
Another great day in sunny Haiti! Every day is different. We got to the hospital this morning and right after we got there a beautiful little baby was born. Kind of like Jesus in the manger, he ended up in a copy paper box.
Big prayer request: about 50 of the hospital staff left today to go back to their respective countries.
We probably saw about 600 patients today. We will have 10 new folks helping tomorrow. It could be a really, really busy day tomorrow.
Our team is essentially going to be heading up most of the areas in the hospital tomorrow. What’s really great is how well these guys and girls will handle it with a Christlike attitude. This is one of the finest teams of any kind that I have ever had the opportunity to serve with.
This is the third of several guest posts from the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s disaster relief team in Haiti. The 10-member medical team arrived in Port-au-Prince Monday and began ministering through a makeshift hospital on the edge of a tent city on Tuesday. In this post, Butch Vernon, pastor of Thoroughbred Community Church in Nicholasville and the chaplain for the group, shares about the group’s second day of work.
Just wanted to give a quick update. It’s getting late quick and we had a really long day and tomorrow will be the same.
Doctors minister to Haitian gunshot victim
We were in the hospital across from the national capitol building today. It was amazing. Probably had 500 patients through the whole day. Had one guy brought in on a wheel barrow who had been shot in the head. He was brought to the hospital in a pick up truck and the hospital basically said there was no chance. Pray for his family. We don’t know any of the situation.
We didn’t see a lot of the tragic things from the early days after the quake but it looks like there could be a real possibility of some serious health issues with these folks. Please pray that the Lord would stop any outbreaks.
It looks like we are going to be in the same place for the rest of the week. This should be great as it will allow us to continue to build relationships with the staff and other support personnel.
Continue to thank God for this team. They are incredible. We put some people in some situations today that were waaaaaaay out of their comfort zone but each one of them sailed through with flying colors praising the Lord for the opportunity to be stretched.
This is the second of several guest posts from the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s disaster relief team in Haiti. The 10-member medical team arrived in Port-au-Prince Monday and began ministering through a makeshift hospital on the edge of a tent city today. In this post, Butch Vernon, pastor of Thoroughbred Community Church in Nicholasville and the chaplain for the group, shares about the group’s first day of work.
Just wanted to update you on the first day of the clinic. When you pray for this trip, take the time to thank God for the team that He put together. These doctors and nurses and Glenn Hickey, our leader (called a Blue Hat in Disaster Relief terms) are amazing! They each have a truly Christlike attitude.
This is the first of what we hope will be several guest posts from the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s disaster relief team in Haiti. The 10-member medical team arrived in Port-au-Prince today (Monday) and will be ministering through a makeshift hospital on the edge of a tent city. In this post, Butch Vernon, pastor of Thoroughbred Community Church in Nicholasville and the chaplain for the group, shares about the group’s first two days.
Greetings from Port-au-Prince, Haiti! We made it. What an amazing trip. The airline (Delta) let us take 42 packages for no extra charge. The problem was, we had so much that 12 bags containing very vital medical supplies got left in Atlanta. Initially the Dominican airport officials very apologetically told us that it would be the next day before we could get them. We prayed for God to intervene in a very direct way and just a few minutes later they called us over and said the bags would be there by 9:00…and they were. Praise God!
Disaster Relief Associate Coy Webb briefs the 10-member medical team.
Please be in prayer for a 10-member Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief medical team that should be in Haiti by now if all is going as planned. The team left Louisville early Sunday morning and arrived in the Dominican Republic later that day. Today (Monday, Feb. 1), they were making an arduous nine-hour or more bus ride into Port-au-Prince.
The team is connecting with a similar team from Mississippi and teams from other state conventions are scheduled to arrive later this week. The doctors and other medical personnel on the teams will be providing vital life-saving services for the people.
The team will be staying in a mission house operated by the Florida Baptist Convention as part of their 15-year partnership with Haiti Baptists and working in makeshift facilities in Port-au-Prince.
Please be in prayer for the Southern Baptist Convention’s Great Commission Resurgence Task Force as it completes a three-day meeting in San Antonio on Thursday. The task force is finishing up work on a report it plans to make to the SBC’s Executive Committee Feb. 22-23 in Nashville. Chairman Ronnie Floyd has referred to this last intense burst of committee work as the “crucible of decision-making,” which I take means that the group is certainly down to finalizing language and proposals.
The Southern Baptist disaster relief assessment team is back in Miami and meeting with the assessment team from the Florida Baptist Convention to formulate the long term Southern Baptist response to the Haiti earthquake disaster. I think we can anticipate recommendations that will keep Southern Baptists busy for the long haul but that may also be a bit different than the kind of disaster responses we’ve had in the past.
The assessment team has already signaled that it is unlikely that we will be sending down feeding units as we have in response to hurricanes and other disasters. Instead, it is more likely that we will do food distribution through Haitian Baptist churches that will allow families to pick up food staples and prepare it themselves.
A short video to encourage prayer and giving in the wake of the Haiti earthquake disaster is available for free download. The video was produced by the Florida Baptist Convention but they have given permission for us to tag it with information about how to give to support Haiti relief through Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief. The video would be a great one to use in worship services during this time of crisis.
One of the statements I sometimes read within the Great Commission Resurgence discussion is that Southern Baptists do not understand how their Cooperative Program funds are being used. This usually shows up in a tweet or within a blog post with the implication that if Southern Baptists did understand how their money is being spent, they would somehow be disappointed. I disagree with this sentiment, however, and feel that in general most Baptists do understand that they have put into place an extremely accountable and transparent system for managing their missions giving through CP.
Pockets of violence and looting, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, are hindering the delivery of relief supplies, like this shipment from the Samaritan's Purse relief organization. Photo by David Uttley/Samaritans Purse/Genesis Photos
Southern Baptists’ disaster assessment team is in Haiti after a grueling trip over the mountain range that separates the island nation from the Dominican Republic to its east. The five-member team, which includes Disaster Relief Associate Coy Webb from the Kentucky Baptist Convention, is now at work setting up the logistical structures that will be needed for a prolonged Southern Baptist response to the island.
Conditions are extremely difficult and disaster relief experts are warning volunteers desiring to help to make sure they are prepared physically, psychologically and spiritually for dealing with what will be harsh conditions for the foreseeable future. Specialized teams with very specific missions will be the first to go in initially with additional work crews added in the weeks and months ahead.
CBS News screen capture of Haiti damage from Baptist Press.
I am sure everyone is already in prayer for the people in Haiti and the chaotic situation there today but let me give you a few specific items to add to your prayer list in the wake of this terrible tragedy.
The Kentucky Baptist Convention has just announced its plans for a major media buy in conjunction with the “Find it Here” door-to-door evangelism initiative set for this Spring. The media campaign will allow us here in Kentucky to reach approximately 85 percent of our state’s adult population with a gospel message an average of three-and-a-half times during the three weeks leading up to Easter this year.
One of the things that I find exciting about this particular Great Commission push is the way it demonstrates the power of Baptist cooperation. In terms of implementation of “Find it Here,” we have nearly every area of Baptist life engaged in a coordinated way to share the gospel.
I’ve never heard anyone say specifically that missions work in the United States is less important than international missions work but I’ve certainly come across some who, in their commendable zeal to support our international missions effort, imply it. If I understand correctly, their thinking seems to be that since we have many existing churches in the United States — especially in the South — there’s no real need for a cooperative effort among Southern Baptists through associations, state conventions and the North American Mission Board to reach the lost here at home. The churches and individual Christians, the logic goes, should be all the missionary force we need here in the United States so all missions giving should therefore go for work outside our home country.
Often when we think about sharing the gospel across the United States, we think about our 48 contiguous states plus Alaska and Hawaii. But there are other parts of “America” around the world as well.
Kentucky Baptists are ministering in one of those places right now — American Samoa, an unincorporated territory of the United States in the South Pacific Ocean. The island suffered a devastating tsunami back in September and Southern Baptists have been helping ever since in a Hurricane Katrina-style clean-up and rebuilding effort.
In contrast to the myth that state conventions are bloated bureaucracies, most are actually finding themselves having to do a lot of belt tightening as they seek to serve their churches.
This post begins the GCR Myth Buster series I introduced earlier. Several posts on this topic will follow in the days ahead although I’ll also be posting other items as needed.
As a communicator, I have to say right up front that part of me hates to even talk about the “bloated bureaucracies” myth because simply writing the words tends to reinforce them. It’s kind of like telling a person not to think of an elephant. The mere act of reading those words forces you down that thought path whether you want to go or not. This myth has been so repeated, however, that it’s necessary to deal with it right off the bat in this series of posts.
Of course, the origin of the myth is no secret. When the original Great Commission Resurgence document was first presented, it contained the following statements:
“… our denominational structures have become bloated and bureaucratic at every level, from local associations to state conventions to the SBC itself. We believe our ministry effectiveness is being strangled by overlap and duplication, poor stewardship, and a disproportionate amount of Cooperative Program dollars being kept by the state conventions.”
The statement was probably meant as hyperbole inserted to help make a point. The authors realized the choice of words was unfortunate almost immediately, however, and quickly softened the language. Unfortunately, calling the words back has been kind of like trying to recall a hand grenade. The damage was done and I often still hear the phrase “bloated bureaucracy” bandied about. In fact, it’s kind of taken on a life of its own as one of those phrases associated with the GCR conversation.
Dr. Hershael York, chairman of the Great Commission Task Force for the Kentucky Baptist Convention, has provided this update for Kentucky Baptists from the committee’s first organizational meeting held on Tuesday:
Hershael York, Kentucky Task Force Chair
On Tuesday, Jan. 5, the Great Commission Task Force of the Kentucky Baptist Convention met for the first time. Our goal is to examine the work of the KBC to determine how we can work more faithfully and effectively together in serving Christ and fulfilling the Great Commission. Throughout the coming year, we plan to study our mission efforts so that we can make recommendations to the churches and to the KBC that will result in a true resurgence of Great Commission commitment.
The heart of our purpose is about mission. We will study the ways the Kentucky Baptist Convention serves it churches and reaches out to the lost in an effort to determine the most effective ways to obey Jesus’ command in Matthew 28:19-20. We are convinced that Kentucky Baptists already are doing a lot of things well and that our desire to honor the Lord and reach the lost is evident. The challenge for us as a task force is to recommend ways that we can improve our strategy, structure and funding base in order to reach the next generation and the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We want our work to be an encouragement and not a distraction for our KBC staff, agencies and institutions. We are excited about the Find it Here emphasis and all of the good things that are happening in the Kentucky Baptist Convention. We hope our process will only strengthen, broaden and deepen that work.
Dan Summerlin, left, pastor of the Lone Oak First Baptist Church of Paducah, and Jeff Crabtree, director of missions for the Warren Association of Baptists, chat during a break of the first meeting of Kentucky's Great Commission Task Force on Tuesday. (KBC photos by Kristie Randolph)
Kentucky’s Great Commission Task Force held its first organizational meeting at the Kentucky Baptist Building on Tuesday. Please be in prayer for this special committee as it proceeds with its work during the coming year.
The committee was appointed at the KBC’s annual meeting in November after messengers approved a recommendation to form a committee to study “how Kentucky Baptists can work more faithfully and effectively together in serving Christ through the Great Commission.” The task force will work throughout the coming year to study the work of the KBC’s Mission Board, agencies and institutions, and will report any recommendations it might have to messengers attending the 2010 annual meeting at Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington.
Unlike the MythBusters television series, this series of posts will feature no explosions, speeding cars or endangered crash test dummies. I do hope you'll find it enlightening, however, as we examine some of the common misperceptions within the GCR.
Dr. Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and a member of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Great Commission Resurgence Task Force recently wrote a series of blog posts about what he described as myths regarding the GCR Task Force. He dealt with such topics as: “The GCR is about more money for the seminaries,” “The GCR is about farming out church planting to non-SBC groups,” and “The GCRTF is trying to influence and control presidential search committees,” as well as others. (I’ve included links to his other posts at the bottom of this item.)
I found the series to be helpful both in the information provided about the specific myths and also for the insights into the heart of one who is so closely linked to this effort. I don’t think there’s anyone who would question Dr. Akin’s passion for missions and his sincere desire to see Southern Baptists be as effective as possible in fulfilling the Great Commission.
Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt is calling all Southern Baptists to a special day of prayer on Jan. 31 to help us all focus on seeking God’s will as major decisions impacting the denomination are made in 2010.
Please be in prayer for the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s Great Commission Task Force as it begins its work with an organizational meeting on Jan. 5.
The committee was appointed at the KBC’s annual meeting in November after messengers approved a recommendation to form a committee to study “how Kentucky Baptists can work more faithfully and effectively together in serving Christ through the Great Commission.” The task force will work throughout the coming year to study the work of the KBC’s Mission Board, agencies and institutions, and will report any recommendations it might have to messengers attending the 2010 annual meeting at Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington.
It's not too late to make your Lottie Moon Christmas Offering gift! Because CP covers the adminstrative costs, 100 percent of your gift goes to the international mission field.
If you’ve not already made your gift to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions you can still do so even if you don’t get it in before Christmas. This offering is the ideal way for Southern Baptists to support international missions for a couple of really good reasons:
Because your Lottie Moon gift is to a Southern Baptist Convention-approved designated offering, it means 100 percent of your gift goes to the International Mission Board. Typically, when you put a gift in the offering plate to support your church, most of what you gives stays with the church to support your local work and other church-sponsored missions and ministries. If you attend an average Southern Baptist church, just over 93 percent is used at the local level with about 7 percent going on to your state convention which then divides it according to the Cooperative Program funding allocation approved by annual meeting messengers between state, national and international Southern Baptist work. But when your gift is designated for this special offering, all of it goes for the vital work of international missions.
Because the Cooperative Program is already at work covering the administrative costs of the International Mission Board, 100 percent of your gift through this special offering can go directly to supporting the work of missionaries on the mission field. This may sound a bit similar to the first statement but it’s really not. What I am saying here is that once you’ve given your Lottie Moon gift and it gets to the International Mission Board, none of that gift has to be used to cover overhead such as electricity at the Richmond headquarters, accounting work to manage the gift, administrative salaries for those handling planning and logistics, etc. All of that is already covered by CP so your gift goes straight to missions work. You will not find a more efficient transfer of your giving directly to the cause in any other charity.
In my last post on Appalachian Regional Ministry, I mentioned that a number of Eastern Kentucky ministries are led by Mission Service Corps missionaries. MSC is a task force of missionaries who give full or part time service for two years or more.
Missionaries Greg and Alice Whitetree of the North American Mission Board, who serve at the Freeda Harris Baptist Center in Lookout, Ky., provide after-school programs, emergency food and clothing for people in the community as part of Southern Baptists' Appalachian Regional Ministry. (NAMB photo by Carol Pipes.)
The world has tremendous needs and Baptists are right to think long and hard about the best ways to ensure that every dollar given is used to spread the Gospel. This has led us to think primarily about international missions in the current focus on the Great Commission Resurgence. I think it’s equally important for us to think about the work that still must done in our own backyards as well.
We may be getting close to knowing what the actual proposals from the Southern Baptist Convention’s Great Commission Resurgence Task Force are going to be. Following the group’s latest meeting in Atlanta this week, Chairman Ronnie Floyd said the group had made “enormous” progress and planned to bring a substantial report to the SBC Executive Committee meeting in February.
A Baptist Campus Ministry student ministers to children in the Dominican Republic.
Since so much of the energy of the Great Commission Resurgence is focused on international missions, I’ve tried in this Great Commission Kentucky blog to direct attention to some of the many ways Kentucky Baptists are participating in international missions through their state convention. One of the most significant of these is Baptist Campus Ministry.
In Kentucky, we have 12 full-time campus ministers located on the largest colleges and universities in the state and another who serves several schools in the Owensboro area. We also have nine part-time campus ministers who serve many of the smaller campuses where we don’t have ministry centers.
A Southern Baptist volunteer serves food in Gori, Georgia, in Sept. 2008.
Baptist Global Response is one of the ways that state conventions play a direct role in international missions. BGR is basically an extension of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief but with the emphasis placed on responses to international disasters.
Kentucky most recently sent a BGR team to the Philippines in October following massive flooding there that left some 1.2 million homes damaged or destroyed and 400,000 people homeless. While there our volunteers assisted both with “mud-out” projects and with training nationals to safely do the cleanup work themselves.
KBC Executive Director Bill Mackey recognized outgoing KBC President John Mark Toby and thanked him for his year of service during the evening session of the KBC annual meeting.
The Kentucky Baptist Convention had an excellent annual meeting at Severns Valley Baptist Church in Elizabethtown this week. Attendance was up slightly this year with 840 messengers and 270 other church members and guests joining together for worship, reports, business, fellowship and inspiration.
The approved recommendation calls for the formation of a committee that will study “how Kentucky Baptists can work more faithfully and effectively together in serving Christ through the Great Commission.” The task force will work throughout the coming year to study the work of the KBC’s Mission Board, agencies and institutions, and will report any recommendations it might have to messengers attending the 2010 annual meeting at Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington.
Here are some of the expected areas of Great Commission focus:
“Find it Here” theme interpretations – Messengers will be hearing a lot about the “Find it Here” door-to-door evangelism campaign with theme interpretations set for each session as well as a special report on plans for the spring campaign during the morning session. The KBC is coordinating the “Find it Here” campaign in conjunction with Kentucky associations, churches and the North American Mission Board. This initiative is part of the GPS (God’s Plan for Sharing) strategy that NAMB is using to reach every person in the United States and Canada with the Good News of Jesus Christ by 2020. [Read more →]
Excitement continues to build for “Find it Here,” a major evangelism initiatve that the Kentucky Baptist Convention is coordinating in conjunction with Kentucky associations, churches and the North American Mission Board. This initiative is part of the GPS (God’s Plan for Sharing) strategy that NAMB is using to help us reach every person in the United States and Canada with the Good News of Jesus Christ by 2020.
Hankins presents to GCRTF. (Photo by Dr. Al Mohler)
Baptist Press has just released a report on yesterday’s meeting between the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force and executives from 22 state conventions. All parties have been describing the meeting as being one that was cordial, respectful and frank. It sounds like the meeting was helpful in sharing various perspectives which should prove valuable to the committee as it does its work.
DALLAS (BP)–In what might be arguably the most significant meeting yet for the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force, 22 executive directors of Southern Baptist state conventions met with them Oct. 27, to offer some competing, some complementing views and vision about the Southern Baptist Convention and what is needed for a Great Commission resurgence. [Read more →]
Dr. Mackey is serving as the president of the fellowship of state convention executives this year and helped to organize what is expected to be a presentation followed by a dialogue time at the request of Task Force Chairman Ronnie Floyd. He said Dr. David Hankins, executive director of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, will make the primary presentation on behalf of the state executives. Hankins is a former pastor, former chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee and served as the vice president for Cooperative Program for the SBC Executive Committee prior to becoming executive director in Louisiana.
There has been some discussion in recent months about the possibility of changing or adjusting the definition of what constitutes a Cooperative Program gift. The official definitions were only nailed down precisely by the Southern Baptist Convention at the annual meeting in June 2007 and by the Kentucky Baptist Convention at its annual meeting in November 2008.
This isn’t to say these definitions are really new though. In both instances, the committees working on crafting the language simply sought to put into writing what has been in practice since the establishment of CP in 1925.
The official SBC definition is as follows:
“The Cooperative Program (CP) is Southern Baptists’ unified plan of giving through which cooperating Southern Baptist churches give a percentage of their undesignated receipts in support of their respective state convention and the Southern Baptist Convention missions and ministries.”
Some 22 of the leaders are anticipating being able to attend the meeting which will feature a presentation from Dr. Mackey and at least one other state convention executive followed by a dialogue session. I encourage everyone to be praying for this meeting and for the important work of the task force. Dr. Mackey has shared with me that he is appreciative of the invitation and is looking forward to the state leaders contributing their thoughts about how best to move forward in helping all Southern Baptists to be most effective in fulfilling the Great Commission. (You can read some of Dr. Mackey’s thoughts about the work of the task force in this earlier post.)
As Southern Baptists have focused on fulfilling the Great Commission, the discussion has largely centered on the work of our two mission boards — the International Mission Board and North American Mission Board. I’ve also shared quite a bit about how the Kentucky Baptist Convention is engaging in missions both across the street and around the world as well. Today, though, I want to talk about one of our Great Commission partners that sometimes gets overlooked — the local association.
I’m spurred on by a great report I received recently from the Christian County Baptist Association, which serves 43 churches in the area surrounding Hopkinsville, Ky. Bobby Melton, the director of missions there, was reporting on missions projects and trips that the association’s churches had engaged in during 2008-09 and it definitely impressed me. According to Melton, nearly 1,800 volunteers had participated in more than 70 community, state, national and international missions projects or trips during the time frame.
Designated gifts are wonderful things. Just ask any pastor who has experienced the joy of having someone in his congregation share that they want to make a special donation to buy the new piano needed in the sanctuary, make the lead gift to get the church’s capital campaign off the ground or make up the difference between what the youth group raised and what they need for their upcoming summer missions trip. These important and valuable gifts are often answers to prayer with their givers inspired by the Lord to meet a very specific need.
Giving a designated gift is fun as well. It’s nice to know that when I give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, the World Hunger Fund or to any of the other excellent special offerings we have in Southern Baptist life that the money I give is going to a very specific cause and to nothing else. I get great joy from the thought that my gift is making it possible for someone I will probably never meet in person to receive a Bible, hear a gospel message or eat a meal. Being able to picture these specific needs being met become a part of my worship and helps me to rejoice in the Lord and give Him the glory for what He is doing in the world.
Sometimes we have a tendency to think that state conventions minister only in their states or that the International Mission Board ministers only overseas in far away lands. The reality though is that both organizations minister both at home and around the world. A prime example of this shows up in partnership missions.
The Kentucky Baptist Convention’s Partnership Missions Department works hand-in-hand with the International Mission Board to help Kentucky Baptist churches get practical, real-life experience in working with people groups around the world. On the flip side, IMB ministers in Kentucky by helping Kentucky Baptists who participate in partnership missions get excited about sharing the Gospel and sending stronger, more committed Christians back home to the local mission field.
The words of Jesus in the Great Commission are clear. Reach the nations for Christ and teach new believers to live out the gospel. We have a unique opportunity at Oneida Baptist Institute to carry out both of these commands—simply by going about our daily work.
Though OBI was founded as a school for eastern Kentucky mountain children, it has grown into a boarding school for grades 6-12 that reaches teenagers from our own county, across the Commonwealth, all over the U.S. and around the world.
In Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of this series, I’ve focused on how similar the rhetoric surrounding the Great Commission Resurgence today is to the rhetoric regarding the newly formed Cooperative Program in the mid 1920s. In this final post in this series, I think you’ll see this to an even greater extent in the missions debates of the two eras.
Then, as now, the focus of discussion surrounding the Cooperative Program was on concerns about the best ways to carry out missions and evangelism. Once the Cooperative Program was adopted in 1925, promotion of the plan within the churches began in earnest. State papers and denominational leaders stressed that if church members would simply tithe one-tenth of their income to their churches, the resulting $150 million would establish CP gifts from the churches at a level that would provide for “all of our (Southern Baptist) activities with reasonable adequacy.”
In looking at the current Great Commission Resurgence conversation and the original discussions surrounding the formation and implementation of the Cooperative Program, I’ve been amazed at the similarity of the rhetoric. As I said in Part 2, Baptists seemed to be pretty on board with the general concept of the Cooperative Program in 1925. The idea of pooling resources to meet the needs of a wide variety of Baptist causes rather than taking up a special offering for each really seemed to make sense. After the Southern Baptist Convention approved the Cooperative Program, messengers to most state conventions quickly followed suit.
However, it didn’t take long for differing ideas about the way to view CP to surface. One of the very first concerns expressed was that the Cooperative Program was moving Southern Baptists toward “centralization” and away from a model that truly valued the autonomy of the local church. In 1926, the president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, Dr. A.T. Jamison, denounced “denominational machinery” in lamenting that that “the cause is always weakened when local people look to some general central agency and pass up responsibility to them.” The same week that sermon was reported on, Kentucky’s Western Recorder newspaper also decried that “the accepted voices of religious faith have seemed to speak in terms of expediency and ‘efficiency’ oftener than in those of spiritual power and devotion.”
As noted in Part 1, today’s Great Commission Resurgence discussion in Baptist life has really been going in various forms at least since 1913 when the Southern Baptist Convention put together an “Efficiency Committee” to make recommendations to Southern Baptists about better ways to operate and cooperate. That discussion eventually led to the formation of the Cooperative Program that we know today and it is in the conversation surrounding the CP’s beginning that we see so many of the parallels with what is happening in Baptist life now.
One of the reasons for the formation of the Efficiency Committee was the recognition among Baptists that the societal method of giving was neither efficient nor effective in helping Baptists fulfill the Great Commission. Under that system, each Baptist organization essentially had to go hat in hand from church to church asking for support. This created a never-ending stream of speakers seeking access to church pulpits. The Western Recorder noted that the society system caused “an unfraternal competitive spirit” between the various causes.
Something tells me that Yogi Berra may not be following the Great Commission Resurgence discussion in Southern Baptist life these days but one of his oft quoted malapropisms is certainly an appropriate one for the current conversation – “It’s deja vu all over again.” Because of the strong involvement and encouragement of young leaders in this important conversation, many may think that the ideas being expressed and the rhetoric being used is fresh and new. A look at Baptist history surrounding the adoption of the Cooperative Program, however, shows that the current discussion is really the continuation of one that is now more than 90 years old.
I say ”more than 90″ because you can easily take the current conversation as far back as 1913 when the Southern Baptist Convention appointed an “Efficiency Committee” to take a look at how Southern Baptists were going about their work. The committee, which was the Great Commission Task Force of its day, reported back to the Convention in 1914 with recommendations on cooperation among the SBC’s three boards — Foreign, Home and Sunday School — and with the state conventions. The committee also addressed the issues of the collection and division of funds and, in its final report in 1915, even dealt with the question of combining the Home and Foreign Boards. (The committee said this was a bad idea at that time, by the way.)
While most of the focus of the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Louisville this past June was on the formation of the Great Commission Task Force, I have to say that for me the best part was what took place before messengers ever formally assembled for business. I had the opportunity to be a part of Crossover Louisville ‘09 and really felt I was seeing Southern Baptists at our very best as we worked together to meet needs and share our faith.
Well before the phrase Great Commission Resurgence was coined, the Kentucky Baptist Convention was about the process of refocusing its objectives and goals to develop better ways of strengthening local churches for the task of fulfilling the Great Commission. A special Mission Study Committee was appointed by the convention president in 2002 which led to the development of a five-year plan that was slated to run from 2004- 2009. Through “Kentucky Baptists Connect,” churches, the Mission Board staff and the agencies, institutions and auxiliary of the Convention have been working toward achieving specific measurable objectives in evangelism, missions, leader training, networking and strengthening churches.
The original Kentucky Baptists Connect effort officially closed out with the end of the Convention’s fiscal year this past Monday but work on objectives and goals related to a three-year extension began Sept. 1. Kentucky Baptists Connect was extended for reasons on both ends of the spectrum. On one end, the process of achieving many of the goals helped reveal additional needs, opportunities and challenges that need to be addressed. On the other end, some important goals have not yet been reached and it was deemed appropriate to maintain the momentum and keep striving for the mark.
I’m pleased to share a guest post from Joy Bolton, executive director of the Kentucky Woman’s Missionary Union. Joy provides leadership to state WMU work and consulting in all areas of WMU work. She coordinates the state missions promotion, Kentucky WMU Annual Meeting and works closely with the Kentucky WMU Executive Board.
Joy shares here that truly preparing for a Great Commission Resurgence isn’t so much about restructuring organizations or shuffling funding from one entity to another as it is about individual Christians getting serious about sharing the gospel with a lost world.
Preparing for a Great Commission Resurgence
Southern Baptists need a Great Commission Resurgence. The fact that we are even talking about it is a good sign that the Holy Spirit is at work in our midst, quickening our hearts. I believe that there is a deep desire for us to really be the people of God on mission in a lost world.
A Great Commission Resurgence will have much in common with a spiritual awakening. It will be Holy Spirit driven and lives will be changed. Like a spiritual awakening, it will be longed for and prayed for before it becomes reality.
You’ll find below the video of the Great Commission Task Force’s Q&A luncheon in Rogers, Ark. last week. The task force should be commended for making this available so that the many Southern Baptists who couldn’t be there in person can see and hear what those who attended experienced.
The task force may want to consider making video like this available of their actual meetings as well. Such transparency can help build credibility for the process and allow all interested Baptists to become more educated about the complexities of the issues along with the members of the committee.
An important deadline for the upcoming “Find it Here” door-to-door evangelism campaign being sponsored by the Kentucky Baptist Convention, North American Mission Board and Kentucky associations is coming up soon. “Find it Here” is a wonderful opportunity for Baptists to put the talk about fulfilling the Great Commission into action but in order to do so, churches need to let their local association know that they are participating.
Here are the details:
LOUISVILLE – Kentucky Baptist churches are being reminded to get their orders for brochures and bags for next spring’s “Find it Here” door-to-door evangelistic campaign in to their association offices as soon as possible.
We had three babies born this morning and it was crazy hectic. My day was really different. The doctors suggested that I take pictures of the wounds up close so that we might use them later on in clinics to teach Haitians how to do their own clinics. To say I was out of my comfort zone in the surgical area as fingers and toes were amputated would be an understatement. However, God didn’t send me here to be comfortable, He sent me here to be obedient.
We had another little boy who came in complaining of an ear ache. We couldn’t get him to allow us to touch it so we had to sedate him. The doc dug in his ear and pulled out a bean that had gotten stuck in the canal. It was one of the few light moments of the day.
