Pastor may make alternative GCR motion

Sullivan issues statement on former presidents’ meeting

Nov 2, 2009
By JAMES A. SMITH SR.
Florida Baptist Witness

PENSACOLA (FBW)—Florida Baptists may have at least two different motions to consider to create a GCR-type task force to study how the state convention can be more effective in fulfilling the Great Commission when they meet Nov. 9-10 in annual meeting in Pensacola.

Rodney Baker, pastor of Hopeful Baptist Church in Lake City, contacted Florida Baptist Witness Oct. 30 to announce he is “prayerfully considering” offering a motion similar to the one Florida Baptist State Convention president John Cross said on Oct. 21 David Uth of First Baptist Church in Orlando would offer.

The Witness reported on the Cross/ Uth prospective motion Oct. 29.

Both motions would seek to create a body to study how Florida Baptists can be more effective in fulfilling the Great Commission, tracking with efforts of the Southern Baptist Convention Great Commission Resurgence Task Force (GCRTF).

Baker, should he go forward with the motion, would seek to empower the Florida Baptist State Convention Committee on Nominations to appoint the group, while the Cross/Uth motion will give the appointment authority to the FBSC president, as the SBC did to President Johnny Hunt, who subsequently appointed 23 persons to serve on the GCRTF.

The possibly competing Florida GCR motions come in the wake of a meeting of Cross and former FBSC presidents with Florida Baptist Convention staff and FBSC agency executives held in Tampa Oct. 29-30 to study the Florida Baptist Convention.

The former presidents’ group was authorized by the State Board of Missions in May at the recommendation of John Sullivan, FBC executive director-treasurer, in response to the April release of the Great Commission Resurgence Declaration, which later resulted in the SBC GCRTF creation.

Although attended by the Witness, the meeting was off-the-record.

Summarizing the meeting in a Nov. 2 statement issued to the Witness, Sullivan expressed gratitude to the six former FBSC presidents and Cross for giving 12 hours over two days “to provide some assessment of the Great Commission efforts in Florida.”

Although the former presidents are familiar with the Florida Baptist Convention and FBSC agencies and the leaders received an overview of strategic planning process of the FBC, “the group really did not have adequate time to do an in-depth assessment of the plan,” Sullivan said.

“The presidents offered wide ranging suggestions with no clear-cut consensus on any one issue,” he continued. “However, some specific suggestions were offered by some former presidents which will serve as the basis for proposed study by the State Board of Missions. Their suggestions ranged from undertaking a re-assessment of the distribution of Cooperative Program mission dollars to a re-assessment of the utilization of convention properties. The group agreed that some renewed effort needs to be made to adapting mission strategies that address the changing demographics of Florida.

“A recurring theme of their discussions sought to identify ways and means for inspiring the Florida Baptist in the pew to become more committed to missions as evidenced by their financial commitment through the Cooperative Program,” Sullivan concluded.

Concerning the possible alternative Florida GCRTF motion, Baker told the Witness on Oct. 31 “after much prayer” he is considering making a motion—or may seek to amend Uth’s motion—to create the GCR-type study committee “with the members of this task force to be appointed by the current Florida Baptist (State) Convention Committee on Nominations. I agree with President Cross that there is a growing urgency at the grassroots level to reach the lost of the world and a GCR task force could discover Great Commission efforts that we need to sustain, stop and start.”

Empowering the Committee on Nominations to appoint the task force, Baker said, may be better because of its “grassroots representation from every association across the state, along with President Cross and the other state officers who serve on the committee.”

Baker, who commended Florida Baptists for leading the SBC with the most baptisms in 2008 showing an “ever growing Spirit-led obsession to reach more for Jesus,” also said the Committee on Nominations is a “broad representation of Florida Baptists in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, church style, evangelistic effectiveness, cooperative giving.”

Baker told the Witness he had several conversations with John Cross about his prospective motion, noting that he was still praying about whether or not to offer the motion.

Asked for a response to the idea of allowing the Committee on Nominations to appointed the task force, John Cross, pastor of South Biscayne Church in North Port, told the Witness he has been committed “all along” to appointing a group with “broad representation.”

Cross, who will seek a second term as FBSC president, explained if he gets the opportunity to appoint a task force, “We need a task force composed of individuals who are multi-generational, multi-ethnic, from churches both rural and urban, churches of various styles of worship, both men and women, pastors and laity whose churches have been effective and efficient in being missional.”

Persons on the task force should be from “churches that are growing through conversion growth and not transfer growth,” Cross said, as well as “churches that are committed to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission locally, regionally, nationally, and globally.”

He added that Sullivan suggested during the FBSC presidents’ meeting in Tampa that he consider including several former FBSC presidents in a prospective task force, which Cross agreed would be “wise.”

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