Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Texan

Tulsa area pastors welcome GCR priorities during session

Written by Tammi Reed Ledbetter | News Editor

Posted Thursday, October 22, 2009

Hess Hester, senior pastor of Southern Hills Baptist Church in Tulsa asked the task force to encourage the kind of unity that Jesus sought for his disciples as a witness to the world of God's love.

BROKEN ARROW--The appeal for a Great Commission Resurgence found a warm reception among the 100 or more Oklahoma pastors and laymen gathering at First Baptist Church of Broken Arrow for a GCR Task Force listening session Oct. 22. "The bottom line is that we need a Great Commission resurgence that begins in our hearts, our churches and in North America that will extend to the ends of the earth," insisted GCRTF chairman Ronnie Floyd, pastor of First Baptist Church of Springdale, Ark., and the Church at Pinnacle Hills in Rogers, Ark.

"It is time for us to take a step back and look at our denomination--not just the structures and organizations and things of that nature--but look at ourselves, and where we are and have a call, once again, to spiritual renewal," said Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Executive Director Jim Richards, one of 22 members tapped by Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt to discover ways the SBC can more effectively and faithfully fulfill the Great Commission.

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President R. Albert Mohler joined the discussion via SKYPE, an internet videoconferencing service, as the three task force members fielded questions for over an hour. Hosted by Tulsa Metro Baptist Association as part of their annual meeting, the men heard from a crowd that expressed a high level of agreement with the task force's stated goal, sharing a desire to take a missions mandate seriously.

With 80 percent of churches plateaued or declining and only 10 percent experiencing growth through conversions, Richards expressed hope that the resurgence of interest in the Great Commission will stir the hearts of individuals, churches and the SBC to seek a spiritual awakening.

"God has used Southern Baptists up to this point in tremendous ways," he added, noting that the tools and resources are still available and many of the methods and modes used in the past can advance the Great Commission.

"Our denomination is experiencing a spiritual crisis," SBTC Executive Director Jim Richards told a Tulsa gathering during a listening session for the Great Commission Resurgence task force. He and GCRTF chairman Ronnie Floyd of Springdale, Ark., answered questions at First Baptist Church of Broken Arrow, Okla., Oct. 22. "It's time for God's people to come back and see the Great Commission as a personal assignment from the Lord Jesus and wake from the lethargy and apathy we have had."

As the newest state Baptist convention, Richards said the SBTC sends 55% of undesignated Cooperative Program receipts from the nearly 2,200 affiliated churches to the SBC for worldwide missions and ministry. The remaining 45 percent is prioritized for missions and evangelism and supports ministries such as colleges and children's homes as "a contributing partner rather than a sustainer," he explained.

Richards said the SBTC had "the luxury and the challenge of starting from scratch," launching a confessional fellowship with a Great Commission focus "in our DNA and core values."

He added, "We made some pledges in the beginning--that we would not have a large-numbered staff. Our commitment was that we would seek to send more [CP dollars] on and do more [in-state] with less."

As the task force envisions how the SBC can more effectively accomplish the Great Commission, Richards said, "There are new models and new ways for us to do ministry together," urging Southern Baptists to stay on task together, allowing for disagreement on finer points.

Oklahoma pastor Doyle Pryor of First Baptist, Sapulpa, who serves as a trustee of the International Mission Board, remarked, "There seems to be so many definitions of the Cooperative Program right now depending on who you talk to." He asked task force representatives for their working definition and "any foreshadowing" of "an effort to redefine that for Southern Baptists at large."

Richards said he understood it to be "an undesignated giving channel" owned by the SBC with state conventions as "invited partners" who serve as collection agents, retaining a portion for their ministries.

Mohler added that the only modification to have occurred since 1925 allowed churches to give directly to the national Cooperative Program allocation budget, although individual state conventions typically do not consider those contributions as CP gifts.

Retired pastor John Glover narrowed the focus, asking whether the task force would encourage increased giving to SBC causes by expecting state conventions to reduce the funds they keep. "Our task force cannot mandate anything for any state convention," Floyd said, focusing instead on their agenda to review all of the entities of the SBC. Ultimately, messengers to the annual meeting to be held in Orlando next June will have the responsibility of deciding whether to embrace their recommendations, he said.

"We are all a part of autonomous local churches and we also have autonomous state conventions," he said, as well as an autonomous national body. Another pastor lamented the decision made by the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma in 1987 to move from a 50/50 distribution of undesignated local church receipts, eventually settling on a 60/40 split in 1996.

Floyd responded, "If the churches of Oklahoma, for example, want to send more dollars on to the national SBC, that's the prerogative of the churches of Oklahoma."

The 50/50 split between state and national causes has been encouraged in past discussions, Floyd said. "Going back to the beginning of the Cooperative Program in 1925, that was the whole mentality for state conventions to try to operate with fifty cents of every dollar that comes in and send the other fifty cents to the national convention for the purpose of propagating the gospel to the ends of the earth."

Floyd said, "It doesn't matter whether it's the Arkansas convention, Southern Baptists of Texas or Kentucky or Oklahoma Baptist convention, we have to ask ourselves what responsibility do we have to the unreached people groups of the world who have yet to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ?"

That responsibility looms large, he said, while restating the priority of Acts 1:8 in "reaching our state, our country, our world."

With the average church sending six cents of every dollar to the Cooperative Program through state conventions that retain, on average, two-thirds of those undesignated receipts, Mohler said that leaves only two cents going to the SBC for budget allocations.

With one penny for international outreach and the other funding North American missions, seminaries and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Mohler said a younger generation questions why stated priorities do not line up with actual funding.

"A movement animated by the right priorities will get us to the right place," he insisted.

One long-time pastor put the blame on the small portion of tithers in Southern Baptist congregations. "There has to be some kind of major stewardship commitment," Floyd agreed, calling for churches to teach individual believers their responsibility "to honor the Lord with the first tenth." He cited a recent study that revealed the average evangelical Christian contributes only 2.44% of his income. "That is unbelievable to me."

"We've pursued the American dream rather than the Kingdom of God and his righteousness," Richards said. "Thanks for calling us back to where all of us ought to be," he told the pastor.

Mohler recalled a recent chapel address by Alabama pastor Al Jackson who said Southern Baptists must choose between sacrifice and failure in faithfulness in order to fulfill the Great Commission.

Other participants encouraged the task force to seize opportunities to share the gospel among unreached people groups in the U.S., encourage the participation of local churches in overseas mission efforts and involve a younger generation of leaders.

Mohler expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to serve among a younger generation that is eager to "buy into the Southern Baptist Convention" as a means of reaching the nations with the gospel. "We don't have to worry about whether we have a delivery system," he said, bur rather "whether we're fueling that system."

Audience participants closed out the session, praying for the work of the task force in upcoming meetings, with specific appeals made for God's blessing on the ministries of SBC entities.

Throughout the meeting Floyd drove home his conviction that the key to a Great Commission resurgence lies within the local churches. "That is where the headquarters of the Southern Baptist Convention really is. We have got to understand that and take the denomination back to the local church," he said. "In reality those churches have been given that authority to take the gospel to the ends of the earth."

Local churches must also assume responsibility for the discipleship mandate found in the Great Commission, even while some SBC entities address that priority, Floyd said in answer to one question. "It really comes back tothe local church--that pastor and his commitment to where he's going to take his people."

Asked to share what he has found encouraging and discouraging about the process of deliberation, Floyd chose to focus on his desire for the task force to offer a bold and courageous plan. "When I'm praying for the Great Commission to be fulfilled in my life, I'm a lot more conscientious about sharing the gospel with people," he said. "It's amazing what God does when you pray."

Mohler acknowledged his frustration that some Southern Baptists don't seem to want to "ask hard questions" if it requires change.

Tulsa pastor Hess Hester of Southern Hills Baptist Church expressed regret that divisions occurred among Southern Baptists in the process of pursuing a conservative resurgence. "We will never have revival within our denomination, have a Great Commission resurgency until we experience a greater sense of unity," Hester said. He asked whether the task force had discussed that need in light of Jesus' prayer for his disciples to experience unity so that the world might know he sent them.

"I really believe the Southern Baptist Convention needs a new culture," Floyd responded. "The way we relate to one another and the way we do business needs a reinvention," he said, describing current practices as more similar to I Cor.3 than I Cor. 13. "The moment someone disagrees you couldn't tell any difference between that person and some lost pagan out here by what they say, think, write and express in opinions behind the scenes or in public."

Floyd added, "We're living in a very independent entrepreneurial world has now so infiltrated the church that we have forgotten we are crucified with Christ according to Galatians 2:20 and not called to live in disunity with our brothers and sisters in Christ."

He said Richards had called their attention to the importance of walking together through the process of evaluation and recommendation. "That involves, hopefully, the repairing of some of the bridges that may have been blown up," Floyd said.

Repeating Hester's reference to John 17, Mohler said the basis for unity lies in the appeal for God to "sanctify them in thy truth" which comes from the Word. "The conservative resurgence salvaged the SBC, but it did not redeem it," he said. "We have to move forward together in a great spirit of conviction and joy.”