Floyd: GCR is 'missional impact movement'

Mar 4, 2010
By JAMES A. SMITH SR.
Florida Baptist Witness

Related Coverage:

NASHVILLE (FBW) - The Great Commission Resurgence Task Force hopes to spark a “missional impact movement,” not a denominational reorganization, Ronnie Floyd said in a wide-ranging interview with state Baptist newspaper editors Feb. 23.

Floyd sat down for the hour-long interview the morning after presenting a “progress report” on the work of the GCRTF to the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee on Feb. 22. The interview was with the editors of Illinois Baptist, Southern Baptist TEXAN, Baptist Messenger in Oklahoma, and Florida Baptist Witness.

‘Re-invention’ of NAMB

Concerning the task force’s “re-invention” of the North American Mission Board, Floyd repeatedly stressed the priority of church planting envisioned for the entity – at least 50 percent of its funding – and its need to directly appoint and hold accountable its own missionaries.

GCRTF-produced graphic depicting its recommended re-invented North American Mission Board. To see the full PDF file, click here. GCRTF Graphic

The GCRTF’s “heart,” he said, is that a church planting “culture” will be “cool” in the SBC.

“It’s biblical, so it ought to be cool,” Floyd said.

Floyd said NAMB has been criticized in the past for being ineffective, some of which may have been merited criticism.

Nevertheless, “We have a system that did not let them be successful and the system basically was depending on so many parties for success and then they don’t even have control over their own success,” Floyd said of NAMB.

Floyd, who came from a meeting with NAMB trustee and administration leadership before the interview with the editors, said NAMB leadership enthusiastically supports the GCRTF recommendations.

He showed the editors a graphic depicting the reorganized NAMB and its ministry assignments as drafted by the GCRTF.

State conventions and Cooperative Agreements

Under the prospective re-organized NAMB, Floyd was asked about the task force’s recommendation that current Cooperative Agreements with state Baptist conventions will be phased out over a four-year period, along with the $50 million in state annual funding currently tied to the agreements.

Although NAMB may continue to work with state conventions on projects, including church planting, Floyd said the GCRTF believes those projects must fit into NAMB’s national strategy and be accountable to NAMB.

Floyd declined to specifically address the role state conventions would play in church planting, assuming adoption of the GCR report.

“I think that will have to be worked out ultimately with the North American Mission Board and their future vision of what that needs to be as they try to move 50 percent of their money and time and resources to church planting,” he said.

“There was a day and time when all that was fine because it was fresh and new,” Floyd said of the Cooperative Agreements.

“I think now it’s time to pull them back in, to redefine them,” he said.

NAMB may fund state convention projects “but it’s going to be in there in a different way” based on new agreements.

Floyd said state conventions in “underserved” regions of North America need to be given greater priority because Southern Baptists are “not taking care of them. There are not enough churches there. They’re not evangelized.”

State conventions and associations, he said, need to “evaluate what they are doing. … Every organization does that. We have to re-make ourselves. We have to re-engineer who we are, re-invent who we are.”

CP promotion assignment

As for the shift in assignment for Cooperative Program and stewardship promotion from the Executive Committee to the state conventions, Floyd said he hoped each state would absorb that work within its current funding.

The GCRTF progress report recommends the funding currently tied to CP and stewardship promotion within the Executive Committee’s budget be transferred to the International Mission Board, raising its share of total CP to 51 percent.

Although he did not know what items states should be permitted to count as part of Cooperative Program promotion, Floyd said he hoped state convention executive directors, as well as the next president of the SBC EC, would take personal responsibility to promote CP.

“We hear about [CP] all the time. If that’s what we’re about, the funding … then it should gain the very intention, focused leadership of the leaders,” Floyd said.

IMB funding increase

Floyd said the recommended one percent increase in CP -- $2 million – for the IMB is “substantial” because it means more missionaries.

“Two million dollars in today’s economy is a lot of money,” he said, and reflects Southern Baptists’ desire to “move more money and dollars to the nations.”

IMB-NAMB merger?

Floyd said the task force “never considered merging” IMB and NAMB, but the group very seriously considered creating an entirely new global missions board to replace the two organizations.

Conceding the changes the task force is recommending will make NAMB much more like IMB and may make possible a future new missions entity like the one the task force considered, Floyd said such is not the intention of the group.

“The goal is to do what’s effective and to try to create an effective missional organization,” he said.

Report implementation

Concerning how the report would be implemented if messengers in Orlando approved the recommendations, Floyd said the task force is “obeying the procedure,” recognizing the Executive Committee and other entities will have to act in response.

Floyd stressed nothing the task force will recommend will require SBC bylaw changes, which must be approved by two successive annual meetings.

The GCRTF has begun drafting a series of motions that will be presented as part of its final report to the SBC in Orlando, Floyd said, although the group was still studying how many motions will be necessary.

Entities should ‘fall in line’

Floyd rejected the idea that the Executive Committee could come back to the SBC in 2011 with a recommendation to not implement recommendations adopted by the SBC this year.

“I believe that the Executive Committee, like any Southern Baptist entity, should be responsive to the SBC. If the SBC votes in favor of this report, then all the parties should fall in line. If that’s not the final voice, where’s the final voice?” Floyd asked.

Report ‘substantial’

At several points in the interview, Floyd stressed the GCRTF will continue its work until the final report is released, currently scheduled on May 3, noting the progress report is a “substantial” portion of the final report.

The final report may have something to say about the six SBC seminaries, which are unaddressed in the progress report, and may say more about the International Mission Board, Floyd said.

SBC president from GCRTF?

Floyd declined to answer whether he thought the next SBC president should come from among the membership of the GCRTF in order to help advance the movement after its report is considered in Orlando this year.

SBC President Johnny Hunt will complete his term of office at the Orlando annual meeting. No candidates have yet been announced for the forthcoming vacancy.

Floyd, pastor of First Baptist Church in Springdale, Ark., ran unsuccessfully for SBC president in 2006.

Noting the “unique moment” in SBC life in which a new SBC president and new presidents for the IMB, NAMB, and Executive Committee will soon be chosen, Floyd said if “five-star leaders” are chosen, along with the adoption of the GCRTF report in Orlando, there is “real opportunity” for change in the denomination.

Related Coverage:

Great Commission Resurgence Task Force

Email this Article Print this page

Login ID:
Password:	Forgot password?