100 Floridians endorse GCR, others concerned with wording

JACKSONVILLE (FBW)—As of May 4, 100 Floridians had signed “Toward a Great Commission Resurgence,” a declaration officially released April 28 by Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt. Nationally, more than 1500 Southern Baptists have endorsed the statement.

Among the Floridian endorsers are John Cross, president of the Florida Baptist State Convention and pastor of South Biscayne Church in North Port; and Jim Henry, former SBC president and pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church in Orlando.

Other Floridians supporting the declaration are Ted Traylor, pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola; Mac Brunson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Jacksonville; Richard Powell, pastor of McGregor Baptist Church in Fort Myers; Dwayne Mercer, pastor of First Baptist Church in Oviedo.

Tim Patterson, trustee chairman of the North American Mission Board who signed the declaration in that capacity, told Florida Baptist Witness Southern Baptists should have a “singular world mission agency,” stating publicly what many have talked about privately—a merger of the SBC’s two missions boards.

Patterson, pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church in Jacksonville, said he has been concerned about the “direction of our denomination for some time,” noting the SBC’s declining statistics.

While the society, culture and world has changed in the last five decades, the SBC structure has not, he said.

Patterson said the “greatest” change in the SBC has been the “shift back to a biblical center where we honor and believe in the inerrancy, infallibility and plenary inspiration of the Word of God,” but while the SBC’s “message is stronger” its “methods remain antiquated” with inefficient agencies.

“We duplicate properties, personnel and programs and thus are not good stewards,” he said.

Because “North America is now just as much a foreign mission field as any other country or continent” with diverse people groups and cultures, Patterson said, “We need a singular world mission agency that does not lessen its emphasis on missions in North America or any other part of the world, but enhances it.”

Patterson added, “The way we structure, fund and administer our work is overly bureaucratic and bloated. If we combine our efforts and funding, we could be much more effective and become better stewards of God’s resources.”

Patterson signed the GCR statement as NAMB trustee chairman because of his long history in denominational life, which has allowed him to have a “very good, first-hand understanding of how our systems work or don’t work,” he said.

Noting that he is the longest tenured current NAMB trustee, Patterson said he has seen the organization “at its best and worst.”

Signing the declaration as NAMB chairman is “to make a personal statement that from my personal perspective as the chairman, I see the need for a Great Commission Resurgence.”

Florida Baptist Convention executive director John Sullivan has not signed the statement, telling Florida Baptist Witness he received no direct request to do so, while expressing through spokeswoman Barbara Denman his agreement with much of the statement.

Desiring to make clear his appreciation to both Hunt and Danny Akin (the declaration’s principal author), Sullivan said he agreed with the revised language in the controversial Article IX concerning Convention structure, adding the Florida Baptist Convention regularly examines its structure.

“I am not going to become defensive on behalf of Florida Baptists,” he said. “We do our work in the sunshine. We constantly evaluate our organization. Our OGAP (Objectives, Goals, Action Plans) system allows us to inform every Florida Baptist to where every dime goes in our organization. We have no priority that has not been approved by the State Board of Missions.”

Although a great deal of attention has been given to the statement’s assertions about the state conventions, Sullivan said, “[N]o one sees the document as a negative statement towards the Florida Baptist Convention. It’s not a knock at the state convention.”

Sullivan said he is concerned the declaration’s assertions about theological education in Article IX may suggest that duty belongs first to the seminaries rather than local churches.

“Theological education begins in Sunday School literature, missions education, pastoral preaching and exegetical instruction. Every church should be a theological seminary,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan also expressed concern that Article IX does not specify evangelism as a priority, although it is addressed elsewhere in the document.

If the Southern Baptist Convention does create a task force to study the declaration, as Hunt’s spokesman suggested he would request at the Louisville annual meeting in June, Sullivan said he would like to see the involvement of “leadership at all levels of denominational life.”

John Cross, Florida Baptist State Convention president, told the Witness he viewed the declaration as a “historic moment in Southern Baptist life.”

He signed the declaration enthusiastically, believing it is a “movement calling our denomination back to the Great Commission.”

Cross said because God’s Word is authoritative, “we must not allow methods, men, denominational polity, tradition, by-laws, fear or any other man-made idea stop us from fulfilling Christ’s command to make disciples.

“Jesus died for the church and commissioned the local church to fulfill the Great Commission. May we as local churches return to the task of the Great Commission and may all those we enlist to cooperate with and support be about the same,” Cross continued. “Time, resources, and most of all souls are too precious for us to do anything else.”

Jim Henry, former SBC president and pastor emeritus of First Baptist Orlando, told the Witness Hunt has captured the “heartbeat of Southern Baptists” in the declaration.

Henry said he suggested some changes to the document after first learning about it in a meeting with Hunt the week before its release.

Concerning the controversial section about examining the structure of the Convention, Henry noted the frustration of many with what they perceive as duplication of activities between associations, state conventions and national entities.

“I’ve talked to a lot of pastors, younger guys especially, and this is the thing they have a great concern about. I think Johnny is echoing what he has heard from the grassroots and probably Johnny is as close to the biggest number of Southern Baptist pastors as anybody we have now,” he said.

Henry, currently interim pastor at First Baptist Church in Ocala, added, “If everyone will sit down and reason together, we should be stronger and better for what we’re looking at in the future.”

Ted Traylor, pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, told the Witness, “While no one can tell churches, associations, state conventions or conventions what to do, our president is endeavoring to lead.”

Noting recent SBC statistics suggest the need for a “fresh approach to touching the world with the Gospel,” Traylor said, “I am hopeful the GCR document will shake us and move us to a new beginning.”

One critic of the declaration is Bart Barber, a Texas pastor, who analyzed the statement in an April 27 blog post (www.PraiseGodBareBones.blogspot.com), “I would love to sign the Great Commission Resurgence, but…”.

“I am genuinely disappointed and saddened that I cannot add my name to those affirming this particular plan for a Great Commission Resurgence. I cannot do so because this particular plan for bringing about a Great Commission Resurgence is, in my opinion, a flawed plan that will not bring to the Southern Baptist Convention any substantial resurgence of the Great Commission,” Barber wrote.

While appreciative of much of the declaration, Barber especially expresses concern about Article IX concerning Convention structure, calling it “one of the primary reasons” he cannot sign the statement.

“First, … I think that some of the ideas being bandied about under this heading have the very real potential to be the most disastrous mistakes that the Southern Baptist Convention has ever made to eviscerate our efforts to fulfill the Great Commission.

“Second, and most to the point of this post, why would one require the affirmation of organizational reshuffling to determine who is or who is not in favor of the SBC growing in faithfulness to the Great Commission? I disagree entirely with axiom nine. Does that mean that I am anti-Great Commission? Will that be the branding and ostracism applied to any who do not toe the line on these axioms? Yes. Absolutely it will be. Perhaps not by Dr. Akin, but by some. Mark my words,” Barber wrote.

While agreeing in principal with Article V concerning the Baptist Faith and Message as a “sufficient guide” for Southern Baptists, Barber said some will interpret the article as an endorsement of the much-disputed “Garner Motion” at the 2007 SBC annual meeting.

Barber said the article is “nearly the precise wording” of the Garner Motion, which he said “amounted to little more than a Rorschach test” for the role of the BF&M in governing SBC entities.

If the axiom is the “minimal doctrinal floor” for SBC entities, Barber said he is in agreement.

“If [Akin] instead means what Rick Garner apparently meant to say—that our Southern Baptist entities should have no ‘narrowing’ of theological ‘parameters,’” Barber said he would disagree, and such would be a conflict for Akin, since Southeastern Seminary also subscribes to the Abstract of Principles confession of faith.

Although Barber conceded he and Akin are likely in agreement on the interpretation of the meaning of “sufficient guide,” he remains concerned about Article V.

“But especially since this particular wording has been so contentious among Southern Baptists in the immediate past, to think that the bald assertion of such a consensus-destroying phraseology would lead to the building of consensus among Southern Baptists is unwise,” Barber concluded.