SBC: Other Matters

by   T. C. Pinckney                                                                                                                                  Vol. XXI, No. 6, June/July 2008

Separate articles in this Banner cover elections and resolutions, but of course there are many other matters of interest and importance. This article summarizes several of those.

At each annual meeting messengers hear reports from each of the SBC entities: the International Missions Board, North American Missions Board, our six seminaries, Guidestone, LifeWay Christian Resources, the Executive Committee, and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. You can find detailed accounts of these presentations by going online to www.SBC.net, click “Directory of SBC Services”, and then seek the report given in Indianapolis.

IMB: Board president Jerry Rankin brought a very encouraging and challenging report. He reflected on the rapid growth of the Gospel in the decade following the IMB's "New Directions" campaign. Launched in 1997, New Directions was a paradigm shift that reorganized the board's structure and strategy in order to intensify its focus on the world's unreached people groups.

Since that time, Southern Baptist churches have sent more than 7,300 missionaries to the field. Working closely with national partners, Rankin said those missionaries have seen baptisms double from 308,000 in 1997 to more than 609,900 in 2007. Numbers of new church starts also jumped dramatically, from 3,352 in 1997 to more than 25,000 last year.

Rankin added that 2007 also saw more people groups engaged with the Gospel than ever before. In 1997, missionaries were only working among 584 people groups. Today, they are engaging nearly 1,200, many of whom are hearing the Gospel for the first time.

"Multitudes continue to enter eternity never knowing that a Savior died for them," Rankin said. "Do we not hear those in other countries and cultures crying out in despair and hopelessness like the disciples in the storm-tossed boat on the Sea of Galilee pleading, 'Carest not that we perish?'

"Do we, as God's people, not realize that one day we will stand accountable before our heavenly Father for fulfilling the mission He has committed to us?"

NAMB: Challenging Southern Baptists to “Just imagine if every believer in North America started sharing the Gospel and every person heard that Gospel by the year 2020,” Geoff Hammond, president of the North American Mission Board, unveiled the National Evangelism Initiative (NEI) to messengers of the Southern Baptist Convention Tuesday evening.

As part of the North American Mission Board’s report and presentation, Hammond outlined the broad focus of the initiative that has been developed by NAMB working in conjunction with state and local Southern Baptist leaders with the encouragement of SBC president Frank Page.

Hammond said the initiative will be “multi-faceted and flexible. It can be contextualized for your particular mission field, whether that is rural or urban.” The initiative – called God’s Plan for Sharing (GPS) consists of four areas of focus – praying, engaging, sowing, and harvesting.

The prayer component of the initiative calls upon Southern Baptists to commit to praying for people who don’t have a personal relationship with Christ and includes strategies such as community prayer-walking, discovering new lost people for whom to pray, and lifting up the work of missionaries in North America.

Next, the initiative will lead Christians to engage in witness training and to begin new efforts to reach out to those who do not know Christ. These include starting evangelistic small group Bible studies, starting new churches and intentionally engaging in evangelistic efforts in their neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and homes.

Third, the initiative will emphasize “sowing,” encouraging Southern Baptists to intentionally share the plan of salvation with the people around them.

Lastly, harvesting will encourage Christians and churches to celebrate God’s activity in the lives of those around them when as He brings them to salvation.

Hammond shared a 30-second television advertisement designed to re-introduce Southern Baptists to a wide audience. The ad emphasizes how Southern Baptists minister to those in need and serve in crisis situations. The ad will be made available to state Southern Baptist conventions and other Baptist partners who want to make it part of their local outreach campaigns. Radio, print, and Internet ads will also be available. The video can be viewed and downloaded at www.wearesouthernbaptist.com

The initiative will be available initially in four languages – English, Spanish, Korean, and Chinese.

Hammond acknowledged the initiative's bold goals but said Southern Baptists should settle for nothing less. “God positions us every day with opportunities for sharing our faith,” Hammond said. “If you think of a GPS device, it helps get us to our destination. And our destination is every believer sharing, every person hearing by 2020.”

For more information about the National Evangelism Strategy, visit www.nei2020.org

Executive Committee: Executive Committee President Morris H. Chapman delivered a report to messengers on child sexual abuse prevention to coincide with a four-page EC report in the SBC Bulletin on the subject. Chapman told messengers that "sexual abuse is a growing crisis in this nation" and that "one sexual predator in our midst is one too many." Sexual predators, he said, "must be on notice that Southern Baptist churches are not a harvest field for their devious deeds."

"We must determine that when we know someone is a sexual predator, we will expose him and bring charges against him for his crimes, whether he is a pastor, a member of the staff, or a member of the church," Chapman said. "We cannot stand by and refuse to stand up against these vile criminals and allow them to practice their evil deeds."

The report from the Executive Committee – submitted after two years of study – said the "potential threat of sex abuse" at the local church level "is tragically underappreciated." The report urges churches to screen prospective volunteers and employees through the Department of Justice's national database, found at http://www.nsopr.gov. (A link also is available from www.sbc.net.) The committee rejected suggestions that it recommend creating a Southern Baptist database of sexual offenders. Such a database, the report said, would have its shortcomings.

"[U]se of the most comprehensive database available was opted for over creating a database that would be limited in scope," the report said. "Any convicted sex offender, regardless of religious affiliation, is already listed in the Department of Justice's national database of convicted sex offenders."

Trustees Elected: More than 90 percent of the newly elected trustees of Southern Baptist Convention entities have not served on an SBC board before. Messengers to the convention's annual meeting approved 145 nominees June 10 from the Committee on Nominations, 71 of whom were eligible for second terms and agreed to serve.

Of the remaining 74, committee chairman David G. Hill said the overwhelming majority have not served on a denominational board previously. Of the nominees, 59 were laypeople and their churches gave an average of 9.2% through Southern Baptists' Cooperative Program missions and ministry support channel.

Hill, senior pastor of Northside Baptist Church in Springfield, Ohio, said the nominees come from a diverse array of churches, ranging in attendance from several dozen to several thousand. "The diversity was really exciting because we had people from very large churches, thousands of members, all the way down to people who were in very small churches. We had denominational workers [and individuals from] every ethnic group that you can imagine. It was a great diversity in those nominees."

Ethnic diversity was of particular concern in the selection process for boards and committees, Hill said. "We actually had people from various state conventions on the committee that voluntarily gave up their nominations for at-large positions so that minorities from other states could actually serve in those positions," he said.

Other: Of course, there was a report from each seminary, Guidestone Financial Resources, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and LifeWay Christian Resources each of which would hold your interest, but space does not allow full coverage in The Banner. Let me repeat that I strongly recommend you visit www.sbc.net and review all their reports.

[Above summary derived from Baptist Press reports.]