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.

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.

Hershael York, chairman of the committee, has scheduled two listening sessions that will be open to all Kentucky Baptists. The first will be held Monday, June 7, at 7 p.m. at Severns Valley Baptist Church in Elizabethtown, and the second will be held Tuesday, June 8, at 7 p.m. at Central Baptist Church in Winchester.

According to York, the meetings are designed to give Kentucky Baptists an opportunity to discuss with committee members their ideas about how the Kentucky Baptist Convention can more effectively carry out the Great Commission.

“Kentucky’s Great Commission Task Force wants to hear how people in Kentucky Baptist churches feel about what we’re doing, about what our priorities are and should be,” said York. “We want to hear what’s happening in their churches, as well as how they feel about what’s happening in the KBC.”

In the months following the listening sessions, Task Force members will be preparing to make recommendations to convention messengers at the Nov. 16 annual meeting, to be held at Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington.

“What I want Kentucky Baptists to leave with is a sense that they’ve been heard, and they’ve had the opportunity to voice their opinions,” he said. “We want to make sure that what we’re thinking and how we’re moving is in line with what Kentucky Baptists are thinking and feeling.”

The Task Force was established during the KBC’s 2009 annual meeting at Severns Valley Baptist Church in Elizabethtown on Nov. 10, when messengers approved the formation of a Great Commission Task Force for the state convention.

The approved recommendation called for the formation of a committee to study “how Kentucky Baptists can work more faithfully and effectively together in serving Christ through the Great Commission.”

So far, the Task Force has heard reports from leaders of Kentucky Baptist agencies and institutions, as well as team leaders from the Mission Board staff.

All members of the Task Force have been invited to attend the listening sessions.

Members of the Kentucky committee are:

• Hershael York, pastor of Buck Run Baptist Church, Frankfort. York is chair of the committee.
• Paul Badgett, pastor of First Baptist Church, Pikeville
• Charles Barnes, member of Hurstbourne Baptist Church, Louisville
• Joy Bolton, executive director of Kentucky Woman’s Missionary Union, Louisville
• Jeff Crabtree, director of mission for the Warren Association of Baptists, Bowling Green
• Rusty Ellison, pastor of Walnut Street Baptist Church, Louisville
• Greg Faulls, Bellevue Baptist Church, Owensboro
• Chad Fugitt, First Baptist Church, Monticello
• John Hale, a deacon at First Baptist Church, Mount Vernon
• Bill Henard, pastor of Porter Memorial Baptist Church, Lexington
• James Jones, pastor of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, Campbellsville
• Bill Mackey, KBC executive director
• Don Mathis, 2009 president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention and staff evangelist at Eastwood Baptist Church, Bowling Green.
• Jessica Milburn, member of Union Baptist Church, Union
• Sam Rainer, pastor of First Baptist Church, Murray
• Kevin Smith, pastor of Watson Memorial Baptist Church, Louisville
• Dan Summerlin, pastor of Lone Oak First Baptist Church, Paducah

Severns Valley Baptist Church is located at 1100 Ring Road in Elizabethtown. Central Baptist Church is located at 101 West Lexington Avenue in Winchester. Both listening sessions will take place at 7 p.m. EST.

The next scheduled meeting for Kentucky’s Great Commission Task Force is set for June 24.

–Robert Reeves