Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Great Commission Resurgence

Here are some thoughts about the SBC Great Commission Resurgence Task Force proposals. I am all for focusing on the great commission; I believe that often the SBC has fallen to a numbers game that has lost sight of making disciples. I don't think any of the changes proposed will address this issue. I believe that the SBC should be streamlined and maybe even redesigned for a more effective role in the 21st century, but here are some problems:

1. the SBC is being led by Mega church mentality, which doesn't represent the smaller churches or rural areas.
2. the current trend seems to be marginalizing the state conventions and NAMB which will result in the death of a lot of ministry outside the Bible belt.

If we focus more on the IMB, then there are a couple things that can be cut in order to funnel more funds to IMB: the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission-get rid of it! I mean they proved their idiocy by endorsing Mitt Romney, a Mormon who has a track record of being pro-abortion and pro-gay marriage while there was a viable Baptist candidate with conservative values. Bottom line- the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission is incompetent and a waste of money. Another thing we could cut is the support of the SBC Seminaries. Do we really need six Seminaries? Maybe they should sink or swim...just some thoughts.

2 comments:

Pastor Paul said...

Bob,
I agree the SBC needs to always ask the question; why do we exist? Like the federal and state governments, are we spending money to preach the gospel and grow the church, or are there other agendas?

Pastor Bob Farmer said...

Unfortunately the "other agendas" are often about politics and who will make the decisions. This can lead to good things like the conservative resurgence or negative things like the forcing out of good leaders as in Jerry Rankin or Geoff Hammond. It can lead to good changes in how we best accomplish the mission or it can lead to negative changes in consolidating power and limiting new ideas. It will be interesting to see which way things proceed.