Quantcast
Sponsors
Special Reports
Cross urges messengers to support GCR-type task force
Monday evening session abbreviated by TS Ida concerns
Nov 10, 2009
By JAMES A. SMITH SR.
Florida Baptist Witness

PENSACOLA (FBW) — Israel's Caleb who was ready — even at age 85 — to claim his land inheritance should be an example Florida Baptists emulate as they consider the challenge of reaching their state for Christ, John Cross told messengers to the Florida Baptist State Convention on Nov. 9.

John Sullivan (left) executive director-treasurer of the Florida Baptist Convention and his wife, Nancy, present Dawn, wife of John Cross, president of the Florida Baptist State Convention, a dozen red roses at the beginning of the 49th annual meeting Nov. 9 in Pensacola. Sullivan said it was a surprise this past year when Cross, a confirmed bachelor, married the former Dawn Pollock, whose five children also joined them on the platform, (l-r) Courtney, Brooke, Hope, Blake. and Kirk. Photo by Joni B. Hannigan
 

"Florida Baptists, whether we experience growing pains of being more missional than ever or dying pains is up to you," Cross said during a tropical storm-abbreviated first session of the 148th FBSC annual meeting at Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola.

Cross, pastor of South Biscayne Church in North Port, used his presidential address to make an appeal for support for a motion to be offered Tuesday by Orlando pastor David Uth to create a Great Commission Resurgence study committee similar to the one currently at work for the Southern Baptist Convention.

Cross first announced plans for the motion in an Oct. 21 interview with Florida Baptist Witness. Subsequently, Lake City pastor Rodney Baker told the Witness he is "prayerfully considering" offering an alternative GCR motion that would authorize the FBSC Committee on Nominations to name the membership of the task force rather than the president, as Uth will propose.

Reiterating earlier promises that he will appoint a representative, diverse task force, Cross told messengers he intends to name persons to the group who are "soul-winning, evangelistic Florida Baptist leaders from all kinds of churches, all ethnic backgrounds, all regions of our state, all sizes of our churches, all flavors of churches, laymen and pastors, business people, women, men from all over our state to imagine if we had a Great Commission resurgence."

Cross preached from Joshua 14:7-12, the account of Caleb's appeal to Joshua claiming the land promised to him by Moses because of his trust in God 40 years earlier after spying out the land. Only Caleb and Joshua supported taking the Promised Land, while the 10 others caused the children of Israel to not occupy the land because of their fear of the giants living there.

Cross likened the challenges of the children of Israel to Florida Baptists today who, although with "an amazing opportunity," also face challenges to the spread of the Gospel in a sometimes hostile culture.

"What many of us perhaps think as being obstacles to our goals are actually opportunities for our great God to show Himself strong," he said.

For Florida Baptists to be faithful like Caleb, they must truly trust the Word of God in practice as well as profession, Cross said.

Cross said "in Christian love," while Southern Baptists claim to be "people of the Book," they often allow their traditions and democratic majorities to prevail over the clear teaching of the Bible.

"The majority can be wrong. They voted down the will of God two million to two," Cross said, referring to all the children of Israel who rejected God's promise of the land in contrast to the faithful spies, Joshua and Caleb.

"I challenge you, every time they voted in the Bible, they voted out of the will of God," he said, noting that Robert's Rules of Order, parliamentary procedures, constitutions, bylaws and democratic rule "all have one thing in common — they're not in the Bible."

In order to be "people of the Book, we've got to get under the authority of the Word of God and believe in the sufficiency of the Word of God and get back to obedience to God's Word," he said.

Cross cited various statistics to demonstrate Florida Baptists are failing to reach the growing population of the Sunshine State.

Since 1960, according to Cross, 56 percent of additions to Florida Baptist churches has been "sheeple growth" — transfers from one church to another — rather than growth resulting from new Christians.

While Florida Baptists baptized .52 percent of the state's population in 1960, in 2008 they only baptized .18 percent of the state, he said.

Although Florida Baptists should remember the past, they must ask some "very important questions," Cross said, such as, "Are we impacting lostness in Florida? Are we affecting change in our culture? Is our ministry strategy working? Do we have the right goals? Do we have the right system?"

Cross cited historical examples from the 1910's, 1950's, 1990's and the SBC action this year in creating its Great Commission Resurgence Task Force as examples of times when Southern Baptists have been willing to ask hard questions about their effectiveness.

"You see, it's OK to ask questions," he said.

Cross said, also like Caleb, Florida Baptists should have a sense of urgency about their situation.

"Florida Baptists, now is the time for us to reflect in the present so that more than ever we can be effective and efficient in sharing the love of Jesus Christ with our state, country and world. This is our opportunity. Right now. Right now! This is it!" Cross declared.

Cross noted "well-meaning" people have told him since he was a 17-year-old preacher: "‘Now son, one day you'll cool off and you'll slow down.' Until Hell slows down, we can't slow down. And, by the grace of God, I'm not going to slow down."

Caleb's urgency was not impeded by his age — 85 — which may not be all that dissimilar to the relatively older audience assembled to hear his address, Cross noted.

Caleb "had the same passion at 85 that he did at 40 — and that's who I see out here tonight," he said.

Cross read an email from an 80-year-old Jacksonville pastor encouraging him in his efforts: "I know what year it is. It sure isn't the 50's, which it was when I started."

Cross quipped, "Of course, if the 1950's ever do come back most of our churches will be ready."

Because every three minutes five Floridians die — more than 170,000 per year — Florida Baptists must be willing to change, Cross said.

For those who are opposed to change, Cross responded, "Friend, you're not much for the Gospel because the very heart of the Gospel is change. … If you don't want change, you really don't want Jesus and you sure enough don't want to preach the Gospel. If we didn't have a message that changed lives, we shouldn't be in this business."

Cross also said Florida Baptists, like Caleb, must be willing to deal with giants — denial, defilement and deliberation.

Those who say "everything's fine," are in denial, he said.

"Are you satisfied with baptizing .18 percent of our state? Are you satisfied that there's nearly 3 billion people who've yet to hear the name of Jesus? Are you satisfied with the fact that we sometimes think we're making change but we're simply shuffling the chairs around on the ship?" he said.

Florida Baptists can be defiled by their pride, Cross said, warning that God will use other Christians if Florida Baptists "don't get busy doing what we're supposed to be doing."

In addressing the giant of deliberation, Cross urged messengers to approve the motion that will be offered by David Uth, pastor of First Baptist Church in Orlando, to create an "Imagine If …" — the theme of the annual meeting — task force.

Cross said he has discussed the task force and potential members of the body with John Sullivan, executive director-treasurer of the Florida Baptist Convention, who, according to Cross, has affirmed the idea of the study and the possible members.

The Monday evening session of the annual meeting was shortened by about an hour in order to allow local messengers and volunteers to return to their homes before certain bridges in the area were closed due to concerns about high winds from approaching Tropical Storm Ida.

Ida made landfall early Tuesday morning at 5:40 a.m. (CST) at Dauphin Island, Ala., about 55 miles west of Pensacola.

FBSC officers decided Monday morning the annual meeting would proceed as planned "full steam ahead" in spite of Ida since most messengers had already arrived in Pensacola.

Bookmark and Share

You must be login before you can leave a comment. Click here to Register if you are a new user.

Login ID:
Password: Forgot password?