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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (IB)—The Southern Baptist Convention’s newly minted Great Commission Task Force will meet twice next month, once in Atlanta, Ga. and once in Rogers, Ark.

SBC president Johnny Hunt confirmed for The Illinois Baptist July 15 that the task force will meet Aug. 11-12 at the Renaissance Hotel near the Atlanta Airport, and again Aug. 26-27 at the Embassy Suites Northwest Arkansas in Rogers.

Earlier in July, Hunt also announced he appointed four more individuals to the GCR task force, after receiving feedback about a need for “greater representation.”

Hunt is senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Woodstock, GA., north of the metro Atlanta area, and task force chairman Ronnie Floyd is senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Springdale, Ark., and the Church at Pinnacle Hills in Rogers.

The Arkansas meeting will be preceded, according to Floyd, by a luncheon for area pastors and staff, laypersons serving on SBC entities and “anyone who wants to come.”

“I have asked Dr. Hunt to come in early (for the meeting), and he and I will address these leaders about the GCR and the future of the SBC,” Floyd wrote in an email to the Illinois Baptist. “We will open it up for questions and try to provide an entrée for them to interact with us … I want this to be one of our listening sessions and an opportunity to speak to the people about the SBC.”

Floyd said invitations to the luncheon which will be held at The Church At Pinnacle Hills’ campus will be mailed in early August to SBC leaders within a two hour driving radius of Rogers including eastern Oklahoma and Southern Missouri, but offered, “If anyone wants to come, just call our office at 479-751-4523 and RSVP to Debby Swart.”

Floyd reminded Southern Baptists in early August a prayer website is going to be launched to enlist people to pray for GCR and all involved .

Hunt appointed the 19-member task force during the SBC annual meeting in Louisville, Ky., in June and then added four members July 8 to broaden its representation. The vote authorizing the task force charges it with studying how Southern Baptists can work “more faithfully and effectively together in serving Christ through the Great Commission.”

“After announcing the names of the GCR task force, I received feedback about the need for greater representation,” Hunt said July 8 in a statement to Baptist Press. “I have added an African American who is a church planter, a Hispanic, an additional woman who also is familiar with the western region of the U.S. and a representative of the Northeast region.

“I want Southern Baptists to know I heard their concerns and have responded,” Hunt said.

Added to the task force were:

•Larry Grays, senior pastor of Midtown Bridge Church in Atlanta. “This young, inner-city, African American church planter is being used by the Lord greatly,” Hunt said. “I know him really well and have heard wonderful things about his life and leadership from other people as well.”

•Ruben Hernandez, associate Spanish pastor at the Dallas-area Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano. “This Hispanic evangelical leader served in full-time evangelism until he joined the staff of Prestonwood and is now preaching their Spanish service, serving the people of Prestonwood,” Hunt said.

•Kathy Ferguson, a women’s ministry speaker whose late husband Rick was a pastor in Denver before his accidental death seven years ago. In August, she will marry Ed Litton, pastor of First Baptist in North Mobile, Ala., who lost his wife in an accident two years ago.

•John Cope, senior pastor of Keystone Community Fellowship in North Wales, Pa., near Philadelphia. “Pastor Cope planted his church eight years ago this fall, is now touching 1,100 people weekly and also has started five additional churches in these almost eight years,” Hunt said. “With 25 percent of the American population living in the Northeast, we wanted a pastor-leader from that region.”

The task force will be chaired by Ronnie W. Floyd, se­nior pastor of First Baptist Church in Springdale, Ark., and The Church at Pinnacle Hills in Rogers, Ark. The vote authorizing the task force charges them with studying how Southern Baptists can work “more faithfully and effectively together in serving Christ through the Great Commission.”

Besides Floyd and Hunt, the committee members appointed in Louisville were Jim Richards, executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention; Frank Page, pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C.; David Dockery, president of Union University in Jackson, Tenn.; Simon Tsoi, trustee of the International Mission Board and retired pastor; Donna Gaines, pastor’s wife at Bellevue Baptist Church near Memphis, Tenn.; Al Gilbert, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, N.C.; J.D. Greear, lead pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Tom Biles, executive director of the Tampa Bay Baptist Association; Daniel L. Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; John Drummond, a layman at St. Andrew Baptist Church in Panama City; Harry Lewis, senior strategist for partnership missions and mobilization at the North American Mission Board; Michael Orr, pastor of First Baptist Church in Chipley; Roger Spradlin, pastor of Valley Baptist Church in Bakersfield, Calif.; J. Robert White, executive director of the Georgia Baptist Convention; Ken Whitten, pastor of the Tampa-area Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz; and Ted Traylor, pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola.