MONROE, Mich. (ABP) — The head of a task force appointed last summer to recommend ways to make the Southern Baptist Convention more effective in reaching the lost said March 16 he was surprised by negative reaction to parts of the group's preliminary report.
Speaking with pastors, as well as state and regional leaders, in a teleconference convened by the Network of Baptist Associations, Ronnie Floyd, pastor of First Baptist Church in Springdale, Ark., said the Great Commission Task Force he chairs has gotten a lot of feedback since unveiling an interim report Feb. 22.
Ronnie Floyd
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"A lot of people would love for us to do all kinds of things in this denomination right now," Floyd said. "And I'm sure there are many of you who were very disappointed that we did do this or we didn't do that, but the bottom line is we've been commissioned to do one thing, and that is take a look at how we can more faithfully and effectively accomplish the Great Commission."
Floyd noted that much had been said and written about the impact the report could have on various convention entities. For the committee members, he said, "it's really about penetrating lostness." That, he said, means putting more dollars, personnel and strategy in places "where the gospel has never gone before."
The most-discussed recommendation calls for phasing out cooperative agreements that govern work done jointly by state conventions and the SBC North American Mission Board and move to a comprehensive church-planting process that is more strategy-driven. That has caused anxiety about the future of state convention and associational employees whose jobs are jointly funded through those cooperative agreements.
"We want to do what's right," Floyd said. "No one wants to hurt anybody. We did not get in a room and say, 'OK, how are we going to disturb everyone in the SBC?'"
"What we're learning is that we are all committed to the Great Commission," he said. "We're just having a hard time about how to get there together."
At the same time, Floyd added: "There's going to have to be sacrifice. There's going to have to be change."
David Dockery, one of several members of the Great Commission Task Force in on the call, elaborated.
"We've realized that some things that worked very well for us 50 years ago may not be the most effective ways of addressing the new issues of the 21st century," said Dockery, president of Union University in Jackson, Tenn. "That's what we are trying to figure out, the best way to address those matters."
Floyd said it was never the intent of the task force that NAMB should be turned loose to work independently of local associations and state conventions.
"Our heart is that partnership continues," he said. "The issue is that that partnership may not look like it looked before. The strategies that may be used may be different than they were before."
Floyd said he anticipated that the basic concept of covenant agreements between local, state, and national entities would continue, and even expand since another recommendation calls for authorizing the International Mission Board to work directly with unreached people groups living in the United States.
"Whether they are called cooperative agreements or not, who knows what they will be called?" Floyd said. "But obviously there will be some kind of commitment towards partnership."
Floyd said the intent of the task force is not to throw out everything that Southern Baptists have done in the past but rather to "see things taken to a different level."
"If I want a different product, I've got to change the process," he said. "Some of the processes in Southern Baptist life need to be addressed.
"These are not good and evil choices," he said. "Those would be easy. These are good versus what's best. That's why the struggle is out there. That's why the tension is out there."
Floyd said members of the task force were listening to feedback to the preliminary report and that some of the recommendations could change by release of the final report May 3. After that the report is to be presented to messengers at the SBC annual meeting June 15-16 in Orlando, Fla.
"We would never want to recommend something that is not going to be more effective ultimately," Floyd said. "We might debate for a while about which is going to be the most effective, but the bottom line is that our hearts are broken — and I know your hearts are broken — when you've got 70, 80 percent of our churches that are plateaued or declining, and we have all of the people in our country that are lost without Christ."
The Network of Baptist Associations, a membership group of 370 associations representing 45 percent of churches in the SBC, sponsored the national teleconference. Bobby Gilstrap, director of missions for Huron and Southeastern Baptist Associations in Michigan who convened the call, said the idea grew from regular audio conferences the group has been using for training pastors since 2006.
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.