2 PhD semesters behind me, the Summer before me...

The past month has been incredible. I thought a post was in order to get some things off my chest and maybe for you to research for yourself.

First, I have written before and I will write again -- I am a struggling PhD student. This school year has taught me yet again how much I write like I talk. Yes, Fuge that means "preachy". If anyone knows a good writing coach in the Wick (aka Brunswick) I need their contact info.

Second, I have read much about the Great Commission Resurgence (GCR) over the past months that Southern Baptist messengers will vote on at this years SBC annual summer meeting in Orlando, Florida. I have read a myriad of viewpoints across the spectrum and I have come to my own conclusions:

*** I can not vote for the full seven report recommendations of the task force***

Why not?

1. Recommendation One - Since when did the SBC need a mission statement, and when did this committee find it their responsibility to give the SBC this statement? However, I like this missional vision statement.
2. Recommendation Two - Since when did the SBC need core values, and when did this committee find it their responsibility to give the SBC this statement? Furthermore, I like how these values add to that which we as Southern Baptists adhere to in the Baptist Faith & Message 2000.
3. Recommendation Three - We have forgotten the magnitude of the work of the Cooperative Program (CP) and this Great Commission giving only gives definition to what many are already doing. The CP is the CP - don't touch it!
4. Recommendation Four - Southern Baptists have forgotten North America, and it's not the North America Mission Board's (NAMB) fault. We don't need to decentralize, nor do we need to break off cooperative agreements. The 5300 missionaries serving with NAMB, funded - jointly funded - or volunteer must partner with state conventions and local associations to get the most Kingdom effort and work done. I speak from this missionary perspective with great concern for the NAMB and SBC missions education for North America.
5. Recommendation Five - Subsidizing NAMB ministry efforts and work does not reach more. NAMB should work closely with the IMB to minister to these unreached and underserved people groups. Good in theory, wrong in practice.
6. Recommendation Six - the CP works best with the Executive Committee (EC) as its head. SBC made this change years ago, and later reversed it back to its present position because it worked better that way it is. Don't try it again. Instead, let us embrace the work, giving, and education of the CP from the local church, to the association, and the state convention, and the SBC as a whole.
7. Recommendation Seven - The increase is great in practice, but I think the theory is wrong. What we do not know in this report is where this decrease in EC comes from so we can give the one percent increase to the International Mission Board (IMB). What this report should have done was to encourage healthy giving instead of reallocating funds.

I realize that many have worked long and hard over the past year in proposing this GCR report. I do not hate nor do I judge any person on this committee concerning their details of this very urgent matter--to take the Gospel to every Person in the World.

I will not leave the convention if this GCR is adopted by the messengers of the SBC convention in Orlando next month. I will continue in my life and work as a MSC missionary of NAMB to continue reaching the resort and community ministries in Southeast Coastal Georgia through the Golden Isles Ministries of the Southeast Baptist Association.