Great Commission Resurgence

There is a stirring in the air that is a breath of fresh air. I am pleased that some Southern Baptist have recognized the need to engage in a desperate and what could be heated conversation that is long over due.

I can finally see some a glimmer of hope for the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in the latest call for resurgence. I have been quite concerned about the viability and sustainability of our historically Great Commission convention.

As a student and proponent of the Conservative Biblical Resurgence of the 1980's within the SBC, I have become very disillusioned with the militaristic rhetoric and dogmatic elitism that has emerged in our convention in the new millennium. I think it is time for the convention to wake up to the evadable: the convention has a very short “shelf life,” if there isn’t a resurgence of the Great Commission.

The axiom’s that the Great Commission Resurgence advocate are maybe what is necessary to help a dying convention extend it's life, but more important than extending the SBC life is finishing the task Christ gave his followers 2000 years ago. I think the statements are a good move in the right direction to help recreate the aroma of the SBC.

Here is the value of the axioms as I see it:

1. The Axioms reinforce what the SBC has believed historically, reproduced in their seminaries and modeled through their missionaries. However, there has develop a great disconnect between what many Southern Baptist believe and live; between what churches say they do and what they actually do; between what the agencies where designed to produce what they actually produce.

2. Some have said “our [the SBC] convention is in worse shape now than it was 15 years ago” as a rationale for doing nothing to change. They have used this rational as reasoning for not signing the axioms. What did Einstein say one is when we keep doing the same thing, but expect different results? Insanity. If the SBC, historically the largest mission sending protestant convention, is broke, as some say, this is all the more reason to adjust our actions, spending and programming. The convention has had a spiralling down problem for years. At least now some are trying to stem the tide and change the direction.

3. The axioms call for a serious self evaluation of each agency, seminary and board in an effort to downsize of duplicated duties to create leaner and more efficient mission agencies and training institutions.

5. It is time for the local churches in to be the missional agencies instead of funding larger agencies to do the work of the church. This is a form of prosititution. When the local church send's $1,000 of dollars to agencies to do their missions for them, it is virtually prositituing the gospel because the local church isn't willing to do what they have been called to do. Missions starts with local churches reproducing local churches. Sending our money to others to do our mission is not the most effective church planting approach. The cry of the missional church is to go and not just to gather. It is time for the church to be the church in the community. As the church becomes the mission agency we will need leaner and more strategic agencies to come along and support the mission.

It is time for all the churches of all denominations to call for a resurgence of the Great Commission. it's time to become lean and strategic