Revival in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) will lead to a Great Commission Resurgence, SBC President Johnny Hunt asserted in his president’s address to the convention’s annual meeting.
Preaching from 2 Chronicles 7:12–16, Hunt noted revival is needed not only in the convention, but also in “the churches and in the hearts of our leaders, including your president.”
Hunt shared that he has been fasting and praying with friends for months. “I want to see the Great Commission rise,” he said, noting that it is imperative for the SBC’s future.
He cited results of a recent study by LifeWay Research that indicates the 16-million membership of the SBC could be cut in half by 2050.
Hunt referenced the Great Commission Resurgence document and motion that later was presented to SBC messengers during the annual meeting. He stressed he has no hidden agenda.
Hunt noted that he went to last year’s annual meeting in Indianapolis not needing “to win an election” but to be obedient to God’s will.
“When I came here this time, I didn’t come to win a vote. I just came to obey. That is victory,” he said.
Hunt referred to the promise found in 2 Chronicles that God would heal the land if His people would turn from their wicked ways and repent.
“If God’s children will come back to Him with their whole hearts for genuine repentance and faith, we will see our nation impacted for and by the glory of God,” he predicted.
That kind of revival would lead to a Great Commission Resurgence, he said. “A Great Commission Resurgence is not about structure. It’s not about trustees. The last thing I want to do is violate policy.”
Rather the Great Commission Resurgence “is about all of us, starting with the local church, taking a look to see if we’re doing the best we’ve ever done in our lifetime to fulfill the Great Commission,” Hunt explained.
The resurgence then would continue throughout the denomination, from the local association, through the state convention and on to the SBC and its entities, he said, noting that if such a resurgence happened, it would climax in the kingdom of God.
Hunt challenged SBC messengers to consider what could happen if “every individual took a close look to see if we are doing the best we can do with all (God) has given us” and if every pastor saw his church as a “missionary-sending unit and a church-planting church.”
Hunt observed that if people were more concerned about the spiritually lost condition of the world, money would not be a problem.
“It’s not about us. We ought to be concerned about reaching greater amounts of money for missions because of the lostness of the world,” not because of the payroll of the institutions, he emphasized. “God help us to get a vision of the lostness of the world and then make decisions.”
Hunt insisted Southern Baptists “do not have a money problem. We have a vision problem.”
He predicted that if Southern Baptists “commit greater amounts to reaching the nations, church planting in America and intentional evangelism in this nation in which we live, the Cooperative Program will rise in such a way that we will think it was a CP resurgence instead of a Great Commission resurgence.” (Editor’s Network)
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