The GCRTF Report: Roll Call by Peter Lumpkins

Since the final Task Force report was made official only a few weeks ago, promotion has been in overdrive, assembling as many big name supporters as possible.  Checking the Pray4GCR.com website will offer the inquirer a who’s who listing of endorsements from Southern Baptists’ most familiar, household names. Bailey Smith...>

Jimmy Draper, Jim Henry, O.S. Hawkins, and James Merritt would appeal much to the Conservative Resurgence generation.  On the other hand, endorsements from David Platt and Thom Rainer appeals to the rising generation of Southern Baptists (//link).  

Even so, as the roll is called, conspicuously absent are some major influencers in the Southern Baptist Convention. For example, out of six seminary presidents, the only two endorsements are Al Mohler and Danny Akin who are, of course, the two main framers of the Task Force document.  Where are Chuck Kelly, Phil Roberts, and Jeff Iorg?

Now, unlike our esteemed Task Force Chair, Ronnie Floyd, make no mistake:  I am not implicating these men as possessing apathy toward the Great Commission just because we find their name absent from the TF list of endorsements. To the contrary, having followed these men's leadership in some significant ways through the years, I have no doubts they have rock solid reasons for not signing on the dotted line.

More painful is the absence of Paige Patterson.  Few have influenced the Southern Baptist Convention over the last three decades more than Dr. Patterson. Nor do I suspect the old warhorse ain’t what he used to be either.  I got a gut feeling Patterson was strategically avoided by, shall we say, the movers and shakers of the Task Force committee.  That’s only a hunch, not a fact.

And, who wouldn’t miss Jerry Vines who was a key player for Southern Baptists for two decades?  He too is absent from the roll call of high-profile endorsers at www.pray4gcr.com.  Given his life ministry to pastoral evangelism, and leading one of the largest churches in America, I think few, if any, would label Vines as being against the Great Commission because he failed to endorse the CGRTF report.

  So, just what does the absence of so many key leaders in the SBC endorsing the GCRTF report mean? Well, as we noted above, it’s surely not a lack of integrity, passion for evangelism, or other character deficiency. 

Perhaps, then, we should look for deficiencies in the report itself.  Perhaps the report is not the medium for church renewal and great commission vision its framers have made it out to be.

With that, I am…

Peter

Comments

[Joe Blackmon]

While I certainly don't think the GCR is a moderate/liberal plot or that they had any hand in developing it, I would bet you a Hardee's thickburger and a giant sized sweet tea that they see this as the best chance they've ever had to "take back the convention, by gawd". I think they see the conservatives of the SBC divided and they see an opportunity to shift the theological pendulum ever so slightly to the left. I don't even mean move it toward the middle, I mean just a half babystep to the left of where it is now. To them (folks in Enid, the people who identify themselves as SBC over at Baptistlife forums), that would be a start.

I just wonder if 20 years from now people will look back at this convention and see it as the start of the Mainstream Resurrgence [(c)2008 Joe Blackmon].

[Mark Turner]

I understand the force of your comments above but I, for one, am hoping to move the GCR discussion away from the "famous" (by SBC standards) personalities involved. Though I have great respect for many of the men on GCRTF, I hope that my respect of them is not the reason for support of the GCR.
In theological debates I often see persons line up scholars in defense of their position rather than discuss ideas. I hope we move beyond that in the SBC (on both sides of any argument).
As for the GCRTF, I think the report does not go far enough but is, rather, a step in the right direction.
As a pastor, I feel that the CP does not adequately fund international missions because the state conventions and the SBC have too many ancillary causes that are not central or essential for accomplishing the Great Commission (this is not to mention the many personal and local deficiencies in sacrificial giving).

[Jacob Hall]

Passed.