Posted on 02/23/2010 12:54:18 PM PST by Between the Lines
Southern Baptists need to repent of their pride, boasting and disunity and return to God and His vision.
That was the sobering call Dr. Ronnie Floyd made Monday as he presented a highly anticipated report charting out a new course for the nation's largest Protestant denomination.
"We (task force) have been gripped by the reality of the lost condition of our world and about our condition as a denomination, but through this journey we have also been set on fire by the call of God to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ," Floyd, chairman of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force, stated in a progress report. "Surely Southern Baptists can agree that we need a new and compelling vision for the future."
Last summer amid talks of a "Great Commission Resurgence," delegates of the Southern Baptist Convention overwhelmingly approved a motion authorizing the appointment of a task force charged to bring a report and recommendations to the denomination concerning how Southern Baptists can work more faithfully and effectively together in serving Christ through the Great Commission.
Put it simply, the panel was asked to address the question: What needs to be done?
For the past several months, the 22-member panel has been hammering out a vision and outlining steps that would move the denomination past the infighting and toward penetrating the massive "lostness" in the world.
Their first action was to get on their knees and cry out to God, Floyd said. And that's the first action Floyd has called the rest of the 16 million-member convention to take.
"We need a fresh and compelling vision that will only come when we are right with Him," he said in his report, which has been the talk of the Twitter world among Southern Baptists since its release Monday evening.
Membership in the SBC began to dip in recent years and the number of baptisms has continued to fall. The latest report shows a membership decline in 2008 by 0.2 percent. And while the population in the country more than doubled since 1950 and the number of SBC churches grew, the convention still baptized 33,887 less people in 2008 compared to 1950.
"With rhetoric we bemoan our dismal baptism numbers, our declining and plateaued churches, and our economic selfishness. The casting of criticism has resulted in a caustic cynicism that just adds to our rhetoric and writings. We attempt to treat symptoms rather than the root issues of sin and carnality. The rhetoric needs to cease and the repentance personally and corporately must begin," the Arkansas pastor said. "We need to repent of our sins and return to God."
The next critical step for revival to spread in the SBC is getting the 44,000 churches to grasp the reality of lostness in the United States and in the world, Floyd said.
Among the 340 million people living in North America, three in four are estimated to be "lost and perishing," he reported. At the global level, 4 billion of the 6.8 billion people in the world have little to no access to the Gospel and 1.5 billion have never even had the possibility of hearing the name of Jesus.
"Missiologists will tell you that 90 percent of the entire world is lost without Jesus," he highlighted.
"To the degree we grasp lostness will be the degree we are willing to do whatever is necessary to penetrate it. If we do not understand lostness intellectually and theologically, we will not change nor will we do what must be done to penetrate it."
Floyd believes many Southern Baptist churches today have developed "theological amnesia or theological Alzheimer’s disease" when it comes to lostness.
"I am convinced we have not only forgotten what it is like to be lost, but we act as if lostness does not exist, there is really no hell, and many times conduct ourselves as Universalists," he said, as he reaffirmed Christ as the only way to salvation.
The task force report, which was presented to the Executive Committee and leaders of SBC national entities, outlined a vision based on six components and rooted in eight core values.
Among the recommendations is the reinvention of the North American Mission Board – the domestic mission arm of the SBC. The NAMB's priority is to assist SBC churches in planting churches, particularly in metropolitan areas, where the majority of the population lives, and under-served people groups.
The report also recommends entrusting to the International Mission Board – the international missions agency of the SBC – the ministry to reach the unreached people groups in the world and in North America. Many unreached groups that may be difficult to reach overseas are residing in the United States, the report points out.
Southern Baptists will also be asked to raise the International Mission Board allocation for the 2011-2012 budget year to 51 percent. If approved, it would mark the first time in SBC history that more than one-half of all funds that come from local churches through the SBC Cooperative Program will go to the reaching of the nations.
A final report of the GCR Task Force will be released on May 3. It will then be presented and discussed at the SBC's annual meeting in June.
"The 2010 Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Orlando, Florida, can become a watershed moment for the reaching of the nations," said Floyd. "May [the annual meeting] be the moment that will define the future for generations to come and show that Southern Baptists are a unified people, Bible-based, Gospel-centered, and set on fire by the Holy Spirit, believing we must join together like never before in presenting the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every person in the world and to make disciples of all the nations."
Let me say, as a Catholic, that in my estimation this “Repentance” message is very wise and very welcome. I pray for true repentance in my own soul,and for my family and my country. It’s a hard message but it’s “as serious as a heart attack.”
....or a return to the London Baptist Confession of 1644....now THAT would be a sure cure for their “theological amnesia”.....
Repentance leads to spiritual revival. We could all use that.
“pride, boasting and disunity”
Shoot, their taking away all of our distinctives. If we did this we would be like them Methodists or Independants. Next they will be coming after the beer. This sounds a lot like spiritual obamacare for the Baptists.
Maybe he should just try the Bible and realize that God has already done everything to make him righteous. I guess I'm just glad that my faith doesn't depend on the number of people in my church. But the Church Groeth movement does seem to be all the rage these days (beware LCMS).
From the report:
Let me make something very clear: There is no other way to God than through Jesus Christ. Repentance of sin is necessary to salvation. If one does not know Christ, he or she spends eternity in hell. Based upon our theological understanding of salvation, Jesus is the one and only way to God; therefore, we have no alternative but to do whatever needs to be done to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ into places where the gospel has never been before. The level of our urgency will be determined by our understanding and belief in the lostness of the United States and the entire world.
What’s the difference between Baptists and Methodists?
Methodists acknowledge each other at the liquor store.
Why worry about the lost? If God wants the heathen converted, let Him do it!
Maybe the SBC is seeing less passion as it becomes more Calvinist...
Calvinism does not absolve anyone from the great commission.
Aknowledgement of God’s omniscience reduces one’s own duties to love others in no way.
I pray for revival within the SBC. We need a revival within this nation and the Church is at fault for the spiritual condition we are in as a nation.
How does one arrive at such an "estimate"?
"OK, there's 70 million Catholics.......they're all heading for the inferno straight off the bat..........then there's the Episcopalians and their homo priests.....etc, etc".
Furthermore, if "three in four are..... lost and perishing" can we therefore conclude that the remaining one fourth is home and dry or "saved", if you will?
What is the value of this number crunching? Is it really any concern of mine? Does it alter in any way the fact that I'm supposed to live out the Gospel irrespective of what fraction of humanity believes the Christian message? I mean, in my daily sphere of work and family, what is this supposed to mean?
My faith preaches a "brick by brick" approach. One person at a time, as Mother Teresa used to say.
This is not just a Baptist thing but is rampant throughout all of Christendom. All of us must repent, period. We are far too divided and argue over foolish things way too much. I really believe that the sorry state our nation is in related to this. We must get down to the basics as St. Paul once preached to early Christendom which was highly divisive and full of infighting. This passage from I Corinthians 1:10-31 resonates powerfully to our current situation and should be our rallying call to become effective:
10 Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters,* by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you should be in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you, but that you should be united in the same mind and the same purpose. 11For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters.* 12What I mean is that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul’, or ‘I belong to Apollos’, or ‘I belong to Cephas’, or ‘I belong to Christ.’ 13Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14I thank God* that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16(I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) 17For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.
Christ the Power and Wisdom of God
18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written,‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’
20Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. 22For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
26 Consider your own call, brothers and sisters:* not many of you were wise by human standards,* not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, 29so that no one* might boast in the presence of God. 30He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31in order that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in* the Lord.’
That is exactly what a lot of churches including my own are forgetting.
Amen
Well, one way of estimating is to look at church membership. In many parts of the country, you are a freak if you go to church on Sunday. The Pacific NW has very few churches for its population, and they are not well attended.
You can use surveys. If 75% believe God is an impersonal force, for example, then you would know there are a lot who don’t know the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
If anything, I’d guess this underestimates the number of lost in the USA. We wouldn’t have debates on homosexual marriage, or be borrowing 50% of our federal budget, if we were majority Christian.
As the report says, it impacts where and how one spends money for church planting. “Planting” churches somewhere so folks can drive 3 miles instead of 4 when going to church is less useful than planting churches where there are none. And I believe a part of their message is to wake up!
34 Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. 35 You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest. 36 The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! 37 You know the saying, ‘One plants and another harvests.’ And it’s true. 38 I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest.” - John 4
What does scripture say?
” 19For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.” - 1 Cor 9
If we - and that means me, not you - don’t weep for our selfishness and sin and ask God to forgive and heal, then revival won’t come. The problem with most churches today are those of us in them who prefer American Idol to spending time with God.
I’m glad to see the SBC call for repentance!
13”You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
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