The GCR: Clarifying Terms

The Southern Baptist Convention is one of the largest denominational bodies in the United States of America. It is populated by over 42,000 churches and reports over 16 million members in the United States. It has two mission boards, which each report equipping, supporting, and sending 5,000 full-time missionaries. Through the work of the International Mission Board there were over 200,000 churches started overseas last year with over 500,000  new confessions of faith! If that does not excite you then you may need to refer back to the What is the Gospel tab under the Topic section.

Now, if that does excite you, then I would like to introduce you to the Great Commission Resurgence. The GCR is difficult to define by its references from Southern Baptists, for they could mean a few different things when they say the phrase ”Great Commission Resurgence”. They may be referring to their hope that churches will begin a general movement towards a mission minded, outwardly focused, gospel centered message. GCR could also refer to a document formulated by the President of Southeastern Seminary, Danny Akin. This document is based on a sermon he delivered about plotting a new course for Southern Baptists to climb back out of the slump into which we have been sliding in recent years; the document became a petition in which Dr. Akin and the thousands who signed the petition cited ten issues which needed to be addressed within the convention to bring proper focus back to the Great Commission. Lastly, someone who is really involved in the inner workings of our denominational politics could mean the special committee formed at the SBC meeting in Louisville, Ky. This committee was formed to do some research and report back to the Executive Committee in order to propose possible changes needed in the convention.

It is important to clarify what we mean in order to avoid unnecessary conflict resulting from different usages of the same phrase. We don’t have to agree on everything, but we should also avoid dividing over nothing.

Every Christian should be excited by the overwhelming support for the establishment of the GCR Taskforce at the 2009 SBC meeting. This is a group of over 40,000 churches who are standing together to say that the Great Commission is a missional mandate for every church, and it is important enough to risk overturning a few apple carts in order to fulfill the task which Christ left for his people.

Any group of people who look at 500,000 conversions overseas last year and still feels the subtle unease of discontent is a group of people to be admired.