In case you have not heard …

The long-awaited initial progress report from the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force has been posted. You can find it at www.pray4gcr.com. Here, you will have an opportunity to review the report as delivered by GCR Task Force Chairman Ronnie Floyd to the SBC Executive Committee.

To say the least, this report has generated many more questions than answers. I want to take a few more lines and defend my last statement. The reason the statement is true is that the GCR Task Force cannot possibly give complete answers to everything they recommended. It’s not their fault … it just happens whenever a major report is given in summary form.

And Ronnie Floyd was not asked to give a detailed report, only to share a progress report in preparation for a final report. And so we do need to give the Task Force some time to further communicate about their more detailed understanding of the report.

With that said, it does appear that if the report is adopted, it will definitely impact the work of the new-work states like Arizona. At this point, we do not fully know what the implications will be for all of us, but it does seem to suggest that things will be different.

If the progress report stays intact, it will recommend the current Cooperative Agreements will go away after four years. And it appears that the North American Mission Baord will move to a regional approach that will be their attempt to get closer to the field.

What the report does not specify is how NAMB will relate to the work in Arizona, the rest of the West, and the remainder of the nation that is under-reached. We hear from certain persons that it means that NAMB will do their own direct missions. Others counter and say NAMB will enter new agreements with the new-work areas that will enhance their work and bring greater support. The million dollar question is which do you believe? I guess it depends on which blog you read on a given day.

One thing is certain at this time: the answer to the above questions will not be finalized during one vote in June. Rather, it is my belief that we are on a journey that will unfold, step by step, over a multi-year period.

Here are some crucial markers for you to watch:

1. The final May report of the GCR due May 3rd. This will have the final recommendations for the annual SBC in June.
2. Whatever is passed in June, who NAMB elects as president will be critical to this process of “putting meat on the bones” of the recommendations of the GCR.
3. It will be the responsibility of the NAMB Board of Trustees and their new president to implement the implications of the report as adopted. From this journey, NAMB will begin the process of rolling out how they will relate to state conventions in the future.

And so … here is my commitment to God, His Kingdom and our work in Arizona. We are going to remain focused on our vision to evangelize and “church” our state. We are also going to remain committed to the development and training of God-called leaders and to the disciple- making process of fulfilling the Great Commission. And we are going to enter a time of prayer and planning in order to respond (notice, I did not say “react”) to potential scenarios concerning what these changes may mean to us in Arizona.

In the meantime, I am going to communicate with the leaders of our SBC and the GCR and share with them our field-driven strategy of hearing from our churches on a yearly basis concerning evangelism, church planting, disciple-making and leadership development. And I pray that when it comes time for our Southern Baptist family to think and pray about the best way to reach Arizona, that they will join us as partners. Don’t expect the answer to come overnight, for it will take several years for it to come to light.

Meanwhile, share the Gospel with your next-door neighbor.

I am continuing to learn …

This past week I attended the annual meeting of the Baptist State Convention Executive Directors’ Association. I will not bore you with the business details of our meeting, but I do want to share with you one great lesson I picked up on.

We had the opportunity to hear a pastor from a church in Idaho who is having remarkable results. The pastor’s name is Jim Putman, and he leads a congregation of thousands in Post Falls.

Here is what I learned from him: it is never enough for a leader to cast a single vision for the church he leads. While the vision is great, especially when it is clear, concise and compelling, it is never enough.

Jim teaches that each church needs not only a single, compelling vision, but it also needs a single “engine” that drives the vision. God’s church that is a part of Jim’s influence is not only focused in its vision, but it is also focused on the engine.

And what is the engine? It is a small group disciplemaking strategy that takes a person from conversion to full-blown mission.

This church family honestly believes that every believer is to be a witness and every convert begins a journey toward the end of mission/ministry. No exceptions! This church has an incredible disciplemaking ministry of one-on-one discipleship and small group strategies. You can read about this church in Jim Putman’s book entitled Church Is a Team Sport.

As I heard his story, I walked away confessing that many of our Southern Baptist churches left Sunday School years ago as the single-driving engine of our churches. But now the question comes back around anew: When you dropped Sunday School as your engine, what did you replace it with? Anything?

Please remember, you will not help your church family if you drop one engine and do not replace it. Or worse yet, if you drop one engine and replace it with five engines.

I thank God that even though I am getting older in my walk with the Lord, I can still stop long enough to learn from a younger generation of leaders. And the lesson I learned last week is: Single Vision/ Single Engine.

It is not a new lesson really. It is simply a new pastor teaching an older student that not all we learned years ago is bad.

What an incredible way to end the year! As almost all of you are aware, 2009 has been a rather tough year financially. It has been tough for our people. It has been tough for our churches, and as a result, it has been tough for those of us who depend on giving from our churches. It was a year of sacrifice all the way around.

But are you ready for some good news? As a result of the slow giving for the first quarter in 2009, we were forced to slash some $600,000 for our annual budget. We went from 3.5 million to 2.9 million in almost one day. We then settled in for a tough year like so many of our people and churches. But here is the end. …We just closed the books and our annual receipts came in at 3.1 million! While this did not hit our original number of 3.5 million, it did surpass our adjusted budget of 2.9 million by $264,014.24.

And do you want to hear some more great news? Since our International Mission Board has been experiencing some difficult financial realities as well, we made a strong plea with our people about sacrificial giving to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions. And in Arizona, our people have responded. I am pleased to report that Arizona Southern Baptists gave a total of $794,708.52. And the even greater news is some churches have yet to report their offering numbers. This amount exceeds last year’s offering by $52,788.72.

The bottom line is simple: Was it a tough year? … of course. But did our people rise to the challenge? … Absolutely!