Leo A. Endel
Executive director
Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention
• What is the most critical issue facing the SBC? What is your plan to address it?
We must renew our love for lost people; when we do, we’ll find passion for sharing the gospel. Southern Baptists need to unite as a family and actively engage our lost culture with compassion and love. I believe we need a leader who will unite us around missionally, strategically and lovingly sharing the gospel with North America.
• Do you support or oppose the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force (GCRTF) report? Why?
I have been a committed prayer partner for the task force from the beginning. I am grateful for the contribution these leaders have made to the work of Southern Baptists … [b]ut I have serious reservations about approving the task force report.
While the report does have a number of strengths, the weaknesses (I see are):
• The task force had precious few voices from new work areas, from our ethnic groups or from our small churches.
• Because of our polity, the GCRTF is short on details. We really do not yet know how these components will be implemented. The new president of the North American Mission Board (NAMB) and his trustees will make these critical and strategic decisions; I believe the actual content of the GCRTF report is not nearly as important as the selection of the new NAMB president.
• This uncertainty has sent shockwaves through the new work areas at a critical time of transition when most Southern Baptist work is finally making a critical shift toward becoming indigenous.
• The conversation has had the unintended consequence of undermining trust in the Southern Baptist family.
• One final concern regards the loss of Cooperative Program material development from the SBC Executive Committee (EC). The assistance of the EC has saved all Southern Baptists millions of dollars by helping us collectively develop materials. (BP)
Jimmy Jackson
Senior Pastor
Whitesburg Baptist Church, Huntsville
• What is the most critical issue facing the SBC?
Our greatest need is for spiritual revival in the lives of all of our people. True revival will not come from wrapping biblical language around a change initiative, no matter who crafts it. We need the convicting power of the Holy Spirit to cause each of us to deal with personal sin and to lead us to confession and brokenness before God. In such an environment, relationships will be restored, forgiveness will be sought and granted and a fresh love for Jesus, His church and His calling will move us to live and proclaim the good news of our Savior’s grace.
• What is your plan to address this?
Encourage our churches to have a season of prayer and fasting, Bible study and spiritual focus. Until we individually and corporately humble ourselves before God, we cannot expect Him to bless us with greater fruitfulness and effectiveness as a convention.
• Do you support or oppose the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force (GCRTF) report? Why?
Although I support heartily the need to come together for spiritual revival resulting in a major turnaround in reaching people with the [gospel], I do not support the recommendations of the GCRTF. I am in favor of change where it is needed, but change in the SBC should come up from our churches not down from a select few. A plan that has shown signs of recommendation born out of anger … should not be imposed upon the vast majority of churches and pastors — the bill payers.
The catalyst for change should arise from the churches that are doing the bulk of the work to support the whole of the work. It is their CP and they should have the majority say in what it should look like. They should not be brought in at the end and asked to give an up or down vote to someone else’s plan. (BP)
Ted Traylor
Pastor
Olive Baptist Church, Pensacola, Fla.
• What is the most critical issue facing the SBC? What is your plan to address it?
Without doubt, it is the need for spiritual awakening. We need revival and passion for what brought Southern Baptists together in 1845 — sending the gospel to every person in the world and making disciples of all the nations. The most glaring metric of the spiritual stagnation is the graph that indicates a 10-year downward trend line in baptisms. A longer look shows we baptized 25,000 fewer people in 2009 than we did in 1950, even though we have 17,000 more churches today. I am glad baptisms came up 7,539 in 2009, but the total number remains low, and we need that to change.
Southern Baptists must call out to God in repentance and seek heaven’s touch for Great Commission action. If elected, I will be asking pastors to call their churches to solemn assembly in January 2011 and I would explore the possibility of incorporating the solemn assembly model in our SBC annual meeting. In addition, I will be promoting the use of the NAMB initiative GPS (God’s Plan for Sharing). This effort has had a very good beginning and needs to find traction across our denomination.
• Do you support or oppose the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force (GCRTF) report? Why?
I support it because it has us talking about how to reach the nations and lifts up the CP.
I also support it because it is true to Baptist polity, it seeks to sharpen NAMB’s focus with priority on church planting and evangelism and it focuses on the centrality of the local church and the Great Commission. The commission of our Lord to make disciples of all the nations was given to the church. The SBC and her partners in the states and associations exist to serve the local church. (BP)
Bryant Wright
Senior Pastor
Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Marietta, Ga.
• What is the most critical issue facing the SBC? What is your plan to address it?
First of all, individuals within our churches returning to Christ as their first love. The idolatries of materialism and hedonism are such a part of the American church that they have made us more like the culture than being a transforming power within the culture.
The local church needs to reprioritize reaching its local missions field and get refocused globally through praying, giving, going and partnering in missions where the needs are greatest.
I’ve addressed the need for state conventions to keep less in the state and send more dollars to the International Mission Board (IMB) and to other areas of the country where lostness is so prevalent. There needs to be a radical reprioritization of Cooperative Program funds to where the majority of funds go to missions to the unreached in the uttermost parts and the largely unreached areas of North America.
Another area of importance is seeing every church participate in sending its pastor and members on a missions trip each year. Every church can [do this]. They may have to join with other churches but it can be done.
• Do you support or oppose the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force (GCRTF) report? Why?
I support the task force’s recommendations in that I firmly believe we’ve got to get more people out on the missions field in order to fulfill Jesus’ Great Commission. The recommendations of the task force are a hugely important first step, but it is only a beginning. The selection of the men to lead the IMB and NAMB are also hugely important.
As a former church planter, I am encouraged that the task force sees the importance of church planting in the areas of greatest need in the United States — particularly our pioneer states and our large cities. Also I agree with the task force that every church should be a “missional center.” (BP)
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