Great Commission Task Force Report Adopted

Great Commission Task Force Report Adopted

Messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Orlando, Florida June 15-16, 2010 adopted the report of the Great Commission Task Force.  Messengers amended the report to strengthen the commitment of Southern Baptists to its historical and effective Cooperative Mission Program.

          Southern Baptists support missions in each state of the union and Canada, missions domestically, and missions internationally through the Cooperative Mission Program.  Since its inception in 1925, the Southern Baptist mission endeavor has become a premier mission organization.  Its effectiveness has overwhelming surpassed societal mission approaches.  Every Southern Baptist Church can obey the Acts 1:8 challenge: take the gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the world.

          It remains to be seen how the Great Commission Task Force recommendations will affect our world here in Ohio.  We won’t know until the North American Mission Board selects a new president and the trustees act on the recommendations.  It has already slowed our mission work.  We can’t fill jointly-funded missionary positions.  Hopefully, the North American Mission Board will help us do more in evangelism and church planting.  That remains to be seen.

          Whatever the outcome, the fact remains that millions of lost people live in Ohio.  The State Convention of Baptists in Ohio is the mission agency tasked with assisting churches and associations to obey the Great Commission in Ohio.  We who live in the Buckeye state must cooperate more closely to reach our state for Christ.  Let us press toward that mark.