Many Southern Baptists have spent the better part of two years discussing the Great Commission Resurgence through blogs, podcasts, newspaper articles, and live listening sessions. A number were quite passionate in their viewpoints. More than 11,000 of our 16 million members even made their way down to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Orlando in June so that they could vote either for or against the national task force’s various recommendations.
The discussion on the convention floor was passionate as well. Only after an amendment was approved to strengthen the report to more fully embrace and support the Cooperative Program did the scales tip heavily in favor of approval.
The GCR discussion has served to educate many about the extensive nature of Southern Baptist work across local, regional, national and international lines. I always felt that one of the great benefits of the GCR discussion — even if it became a little too heated at times in some quarters and even if some information got a bit distorted — was that it got Baptists focused on and learning about the Cooperative Program. I feel sure that whatever their individual opinion may be about one particular allocation or another, those Baptists who engaged in the GCR discussion left it better informed and generally more appreciative of this highly effective way of cooperatively supporting missions and ministry work.
And yet, in the weeks following the SBC, it has becoming increasingly obvious to me that we still have a long, long way to go in educating our churches both about the GCR and the great tool that Baptists have in the Cooperative Program. As I have the opportunity to meet and talk to Baptists in my own state, it’s pretty apparent that outside of the pastors, DOMs and denominational workers, very few Southern Baptists even know what the GCR is. And not many more really understand the Cooperative Program with much clarity.
Understandably, the focus of most Baptists in the pews is on the ministries of their local church. They give — and in many cases give generously — to their local church and to the missions offerings. But unless the GCR or CP is something their pastor talks about specifically and on a regular basis, they don’t often know or understand the details.
That’s why I want to encourage all readers who may be pastors or church leaders to take the time to educate your congregations about the Cooperative Program. Please don’t assume that even your most senior and long-term members understand what it’s all about.
Doing so really is easy. Great materials abound. Kentucky Baptists can have materials sent to their church at no charge simply by ordering online at www.kybaptist.org/cpmissions. Most other state conventions have similar sites where information is available. CP material is also available from the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee at www.cpmissions.com.
And follow up on ordering the materials by taking time to talk about the Cooperative Program, our various denominational structures and about GCR. Plan times on Wednesday or Sunday night or at some other appropriate time in your church to emphasize our cooperative work. The SBC promotes a CP Sunday each April but church members need to hear about CP more than just once a year if they are to ever have a solid and productive understanding of the ways we work together to further the Gospel.
These may seem like very simple suggestions but this kind of education is essential. In the end, it won’t matter how the CP pie is divided if the support for it is no longer there in our churches. It won’t matter if percentages are divided 50-50 between the states and SBC or if 100 percent goes to your own favorite entity because 100 percent of 0 is 0.
I personally believe that as CP goes, so goes the GCR. And on both of these counts, we’ve got to close a big awareness and knowledge gap for a large percentage of Southern Baptists.
Members of the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s 1:8 Leadership Experience West team play a parachute game with a group of children at a housing complex in inner-city Denver. Now in its third year, the 1:8 Leadership Experience has expanded to two teams in order to accommodate the demand. Thirty-three students from Kentucky colleges are participating this summer. (Photo by Evelyn Fuson)
The Kentucky Baptist Convention is receiving great reports this summer in response to the work of some of our Baptist Campus Ministry students who are actively working to learn about and carry out the Great Commission through the 1:8 Leadership Experience.
Hello Steve,
from Jim Walters, Senior Pastor at Bear Valley Church in Lakewood, CO.
Your team of 16 college students (organized by Keith Inman) just departed our city after three weeks of serving our church through its Multihousing Ministry. Over the years, I have been on many mission trips and have hosted many teams. This team, of KY college students, was the most outstanding group of young adults doing ministry that I have ever witnessed. They were an absolute delight and encouragement to our church, our multihousing workers, and scores of residents who are lost and lonely.
We cannot say enough good about them, but below is the report from our Multihousing Coordinator, sent to me this morning.
Click on the arrow below to hear the audio of their 15-minute discussion:
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Be in special prayer for the presentation of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force report at 2:45 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon. There is obviously not a consensus on all aspects of this report so be in prayer that messengers will carefully listen to all that is said — both pro and con — and be sensitive to the Lord’s guidance in making a decision about how to vote. Pray that human politics will have minimal influence and that the vote is a true reflection of Southern Baptists’ feelings about God’s leading. An artificial result built upon one side or another’s prowess at getting people to the meeting will have no lasting positive impact on the churches of the Convention.
KBC Great Commission Task Force Chairman Hershael York moderates the listening session at Central Baptist Church, Winchester.
The Kentucky Baptist Convention’s Great Commission Task Force held two listening sessions this week to hear from Kentucky Baptists regarding its task to study ways the Convention can “work more faithfully and effectively together in serving Christ through the Great Commission.”
With the Southern Baptist Convention and the big vote on the SBC’s Great Commission Resurgence Task Force report just over a week away, it might be easy to forget that Kentucky will be having listening sessions for its own Great Commission Task Force on Mondayand Tuesday night of this week. Don’t do that, though, as these listening sessions will provide great opportunities for Kentucky Baptists to have their voices heard regarding ways our Convention can most effectively fulfill the Great Commission. It is important for Kentucky Baptists to speak out and share their thoughts to help our committee have the greatest understanding possible about Kentucky Baptists’ hopes, dreams, priorities, etc.
Mike’s comments are especially important given the fact that secular media are likely to report on this aspect of our meeting as if we are a political convention like the Democrats or Republicans. Reporters will tend to draw attention to differences and, for the purpose of telling the story simply, likely want to present Southern Baptists as being divided into factions over the GCR.
The report from the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force includes some great challenges for Southern Baptists. As we think about these challenges and recommendations, I believe the original GCR motion provides an excellent framework to help us.
The original motion commissioned the group to bring a report and any recommendations “… concerning how Southern Baptists can work more faithfully and effectively together in serving Christ through the Great Commission.”
Kentucky Baptists will get a chance to share their ideas about how our Convention can most effectively fulfill the Great Commission through two upcoming listening sessions being planned by the KBC’s Great Commission Task Force.
Here’s the KBC release about plans for the listening sessions:
LOUISVILLE – Kentucky Baptists will have two opportunities to provide feedback to members of Kentucky’s Great Commission Task Force on June 7 and 8.
Although I don’t play very often, I enjoy the board game, Risk. The object is for players to win the world. They start at rough parity in terms of the geography over which they have influence and in the course of the game either grow stronger or decline until they are eliminated.
Risk is primarily a game of strategy but gets its name because there are key times when players have to make decisions about how bold they should be in pressing forward. The player that makes the best decisions in positioning his resources and pacing his advance is the one who ultimately wins the game.
Please be in prayer for Kentucky’s Great Commission Task Force as it meets today in Princeton, Ky.
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.
Passage of the resolution came near the end of the Mission Board’s regular two-day May meeting at the Cedarmore Conference Center near Bagday, Ky, and followed by just a day the GCRTF’s report that suggests adding a giving category known as “Great Commission Giving” to recognize aggregated designated giving in a way similar to Cooperative Program giving.
The Southern Baptist Convention’s Great Commission Task Force met earlier this week and has announced that it came to a unanimous consensus on the content of its final report to SBC messengers to be presented in Orlando in June. Dr. Ronnie Floyd, chairman of the task force, said the report will be released at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time, Monday, May 3, on the task force’s website at www.pray4gcr.com.
I have been asked on numerous occasions about the progress report issued in February by the Southern Baptist Convention’s Great Commission Resurgence Task Force. I have certainly had some concerns but I am encouraged by the response of the task force to feedback and look forward to the release of the final version on May 3. I am prayerful that new language in the report will relieve concerns and permit a little more flexibility in its implementation.
Southern Baptists certainly support the call to renewed commitment to God’s mission through the Great Commission. I am grateful that the task force has placed such a strong emphasis on prayer and spiritual vitality.
I had the privilege recently of hearing Dr. Ronnie Floyd, chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Great Commission Resurgence Task Force, speak via Internet connection to the annual workshop of the Baptist Communicators Association in Chicago. I really appreciated him sharing his heart for reaching the lost and for helping Southern Baptists take a careful look at the ways we are seeking to fulfill the Great Commission. Dr. Floyd is obviously a man who deeply loves the Lord and he and the other members of the task force have certainly been given a huge challenge to help cast vision and direction for the Convention.
Please be in prayer for Kentucky’s Great Commission Task Force as it meets today at the Kentucky Baptist Building in Louisville. At this month’s meeting, the committee will hear from the heads of a couple of the agencies and institutions of the Kentucky Baptist Convention as well as the team leaders of the Mission Board staff.
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 has been an exciting and busy few weeks in Kentucky as nearly 1,700 Kentucky Baptist churches have been involved in the Find it Here door-to-door evangelism campaign. We’re estimating that approximately 42,000 volunteers participated in distributing more than 1.4 million Gospel presentations to homes all across our state in the weeks leading up to Easter. At the same time, more than $182,000 worth of paid advertising provided “air support” for the Gospel delivery. Newspapers all over the state reported on the special effort by Baptists to share their faith.
For nearly 85 years now, the Cooperative Program has helped Southern Baptists send missionaries all over the world to share the Gospel in fulfillment of the Great Commission. Such international missions support is certainly not the only purpose of the Cooperative Program (which was established to also support a wide variety of Baptist causes on the state and national levels) but it is definitely one of its top priorities
Even in a year when the Kentucky Baptist Convention is managing a recession-limited budget, Kentucky churches are expected to send more than $4.37 million to the International Mission Board through the Cooperative Program. We can add to that figure record-setting giving by Kentucky churches to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. I just saw a report today that showed that Kentucky churches have already given more than $4.9 million through Lottie Moon and that we anticipate hitting the $5 million mark sometime in May. (Last year, the total for the year was $4.4 million.)
I’m not exactly sure why this is happening but there are definitely places in the online conversation about the Great Commission Resurgence where I am seeing an element of competitiveness that at times is far too negative. I also think that it’s unhelpful and unnecessary during this important time of decision for Southern Baptists.
Webster defines “snarky” as “sarcastic, impertinent, or irreverent in tone or manner.” I thought it was a relatively new word but the dictionary traces its origin to 1906. In the GCR conversation, snarkiness tends to come out as kind of a general disdain for a viewpoint that doesn’t correspond with that of the writer.
Others used their time off to share with other college students through Beach Reach. In Beach Reach, the students literally take to the streets and to the beaches to share their faith in traditional Spring Break venues. Free pancake breakfasts and free van rides are used to open doors for conversation and ministry.
International Mission Board President Jerry Rankin wrote recently about how Christ’s command to reach the world in Acts 1:8 is not intended to be understood as meaning that we are only to reach out to the world after we have reached our local communities, state and nation. We are to be reaching out in all of these areas simultaneously.
He is exactly right. One aspect of this that I have been particularly struck hard about in the last couple of days is just how simultaneous this witness really is considering the globalization of our society. Earlier this week here in Louisville, the “Right Here, Right Now” People Groups Fair was held on the campus of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary to introduce students to the huge diversity of people groups living in Kentucky and, especially, Louisville.
I mentioned in the last post that I would be sharing video from the current Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief mission to Haiti. Take a look at this powerful testimony from one of our Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief chaplains who has been in Haiti this week as he shares about ministering to Haitian pastors.
It’s looking like Kentucky Baptists will send more than 12,000 Buckets of Hope to Haiti as part of the SBC-wide effort to provide practical aid to the people devastated by the Jan. 12 earthquake. The goal here in Kentucky was to collect 10,000 buckets so our people have been especially generous.
Just getting the buckets to Haiti has been quite a testimony of cooperation. In most cases, the buckets went originally to one of our Baptist churches, then on to an association office serving as a cluster point and then finally to Louisville. In Louisville, the students here are putting the buckets on wooden pallets, shrinkwrapping the pallets and then loading those pallets onto trucks for the long ride south. Handling the buckets is hard physical work and much appreciation is due to Bob Perkins and the entire team at Southern that has been coordinating this labor. Kentucky Baptist disaster relief workers are also helping with this part of the project.
It’s extremely exciting to see the strong start that Kentucky Baptists have gotten off to with the Find it Here door-t0-door evangelism initiative. Many churches have already begun placing the bags and brochures on door knobs in their assigned areas and are being received well by homeowners across the state.
Baptist Campus Ministry students from campuses across the state are also helping with the Find it Here Gospel distribution. If the platform you’re reading this post on does not allow you to see the embedded video at the top of the post, click here to go to the video and hear the comments of a number of our students about what they are doing and why.
Kentucky's Great Commission Task Force will meet Thursday at the Kentucky Baptist Building in Louisville.
Please be in prayer for Kentucky’s Great Commission Task Force as it meets March 11 at the Kentucky Baptist Building in Louisville. The committee’s February meeting was snowed out so I am sure they will be looking to make up some lost ground if possible. At this month’s meeting, the committee will hear from the heads of a number of the agencies and institutions of the Kentucky Baptist Convention.
As I have shared here before, one of the powerful ways that Kentucky Baptists are reaching the world for Christ is through the international missions work of Baptist Campus Ministry. Each year, thousands of students from countries around the world come to U.S. colleges to receive the benefits of American higher education. Many will be returning home to take on leadership positions in business and government. Their presence on our campuses gives us a wonderful opportunity to minister and share the Gospel at a time in their lives when they are open to listening to and considering new ideas.
The World is Coming to Kentucky’s College Campuses
Every week it seems as if I hear of another international student coming to faith in Christ through our Baptist Campus Ministry on our university campuses. There is a reason for this news.
Dr. Ronnie Floyd, chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Great Commission Resurgence task force presented an interim report from the group to the SBC’s Executive Committee in Nashville earlier tonight. The report itself was not available live but Floyd had previously recorded a version of the report for the web that has just been released.
Please be in prayer for Ronnie Floyd, chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Great Commission Resurgence Task Force as he presents an update of the committee’s work to the SBC’s Executive Committee in Nashville on Monday night, Feb. 21. As soon as he finishes that live report, a previously taped video version will be released on the task force’s Web site at approximately 10:30 p.m. EST.
Although the task force has not yet fully completed its work, this report is expected to be a pretty solid overview of what the group plans to present to Southern Baptist messengers attending this year’s convention in Orlando in July. The report will also be the first concrete information that the committee has released to Southern Baptists about its proposals.
Kentucky Baptists have sent two of our very best disaster relief volunteers — Larry and Elaine Koch — to the island to serve as coordinators for all Southern Baptist work through April. Larry is retired as disaster relief associate for the KBC and Elaine, a nurse, is a seasoned disaster relief volunteer. The couple is coordinating volunteer teams from Southern Baptist state conventions for the North American Mission Board and assessing the remaining needs of the area.
If Southern Baptists are to be a part of seeing the Great Commission fulfilled, one of the barriers we must ultimately overcome is that of racial prejudice. Much progress has been made but Sunday morning continues to be one of the most racially segregated times of the week in America. In this guest post, Curtis Woods, the Baptist campus minister for Kentucky State University in Frankfort, Kentucky, shares how Baptist Campus Ministry students are helping to bring people together on the campus of this historically black school.
KSU BCM: A Story of Hope
“The people of God are not merely to mark time, waiting for God to step in and set right all that is wrong. Rather, they are to model the new heaven and new earth, and by so doing awaken longings for what God will someday bring to pass,” says Philip Yancey.
Kentucky Great Commission Task Force at its first meeting in January
Please be in prayer for Kentucky’s Great Commission Task Force as it holds its second meeting today at the Kentucky Baptist Building in Louisville. 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.
A fitting wrap-up of the Dateline Haiti series is this video dispatch just released from the International Mission Board from an interview of Butch Vernon, the chaplain of our 10-member Kentucky Baptist Convention Disaster Relief medical team that arrived home earlier this week. If you’ve been following the series, you know that Butch was the author of the posts from the field.
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.
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.
From KBC DR Assoc. Coy Webb: Ky Baptist vols so far have cleaned 38 homes, prepared 670 meals, presented gospel 19 times to E. Ky residents. 10 hours ago
Many Southern Baptists have spent the better part of two years discussing the Great Commission Resurgence through blogs, podcasts, newspaper articles, and live listening sessions. A number were quite passionate in their viewpoints. More than 11,000 of our 16 million members even made their way down to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Orlando in June so that they could vote either for or against the national task force’s various recommendations.
