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NASHVILLE, Tenn.?A declaration released by SBC President Johnny Hunt calling for a “Great Commission Resurgence” among Southern Baptists had drawn 1,696 signatures on its website, greatcommissionresurgence.com, as of May 6.
Jim Law, senior associate pastor and administrator of the Atlanta-area First Baptist Church in Woodstock where Hunt is the senior pastor, told Baptist Press in an e-mail that the declaration is “a collaborative effort of men whom Dr. Hunt respects greatly. It has been in his heart and mind for months and he has discussed it with a number of people.”
Law said Hunt would be releasing a list of the original signatories, those who helped craft the declaration, at a later date.
Hunt “will be presenting this to the [June 23-24] convention in Louisville and asking the messengers to consider appointing a task force to study this document and bring back appropriate recommendations on it,” Law said. “The purpose of this is so that we may be a more effective people to carry the good news of the gospel to the ends of the earth.”
The 10-point declaration calls for:
1) A Commitment to Christ’s Lordship;
2) A Commitment to Gospel-Centeredness;
3) A Commitment to the Great Commandments;
4) A Commitment to Biblical Inerrancy and Sufficiency;
5) A Commitment to a Healthy Confessional Center;
6) A Commitment to Biblically Healthy Churches;
7) A Commitment to Sound Biblical Preaching;
8) A Commitment to a Methodological Diversity that is Biblically Informed;
9) A Commitment to a More Effective Convention Structure; and
10) A Commitment to Distinctively Christian Families.
Mark Bainter, a deacon at Ovilla Road Baptist Church who signed the document, told the TEXAN: “What was most attractive for me was that they’ve put together here a good strong foundation that we can have a lot of people work together on…. We should be focused on the gospel and the overall mission of the SBC?what’s laid out there are things everyone in the convention can agree on.”
Texas pastor Jeremy Green also signed the declaration while noting some were concerned about the details of axioms eight and nine.
“In both cases, I felt that I could wholeheartedly affirm what the document does say, without trying to make assumptions about what it does not say,” Green said, adding that he hoped Hunt would appoint a well-rounded study committee.
