Debate over the proposed Great Commission Task Force and an Internet document dubbed the “Great Commission Resurgence Declaration” had dominated pre-convention talk, with some Southern Baptist leaders backing it and others expressing concern. In the end, though, the 8,700-plus messengers at the annual meeting overwhelmingly supported the task force via a motion that gave Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt authority to appoint the panel – something he did on the meeting's final day, naming 19 members. The actual GCR document that had sparked the discussion never was proposed, much less came to a vote.

The denomination was meeting in Louisville, Ky., to help commemorate the 150th anniversary of the founding of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

In other top annual meeting news, messengers:
 -- received an update about the GPS (God's Plan for Sharing) evangelism initiative, which aims to see every SBC church planting other churches by 2020.
 -- passed a resolution that calls the election of President Obama a step toward nationwide racial reconciliation but that heavily criticizes him for some of his policies.
 -- passed a resolution encouraging Southern Baptist families to prayerfully consider adopting or fostering children.
 -- approved an Executive Committee recommendation to cease the "cooperative relationship" with Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, over the issue of homosexuality.
 -- re-elected Johnny Hunt to a second one-year term as president.

RESOLUTIONS
The Obama resolution -- which passed nearly unanimously -- says messengers "share our nation's pride in our continuing progress toward racial reconciliation signaled" by the president's election. But the resolution says messengers "decry" Obama's assistance to "pro-abortion" groups. It also expresses "strong opposition" to Obama declaring June as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Month. The resolution also calls on Southern Baptists to pray for Obama –- something they did immediately after its passage, with Hunt leading the prayer.

The pro-adoption resolution notes that the world has upwards of 150 million orphans and it calls "on each Southern Baptist family to pray for guidance as to whether God is calling them to adopt or foster a child or children." It also encourages "pastors and church leaders to preach and teach on God's concern for orphans."

Southern Baptists ceased their relationship with Broadway Baptist Church following a year-long study by the Executive Committee that began with a motion from the floor at last year's meeting. The congregation has at least two same-sex couples in the church and was embroiled in a controversy in early 2008 as to whether the couples should be pictured in a church directory. Supporters of the Executive Committee recommendation said that while the convention fully supports ministering to the homosexual community, the church -- by its actions -- was in violation of Article III of the SBC Constitution, which states that churches "which act to affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavior" are not in friendly cooperation. Some of the church's openly homosexual members serve on church committees. Executive Committee members had suggested a statement from the church condemning homosexuality would have been beneficial; the church, though, decided not to go that route.

In other convention news:
 -- Executive Committee President Morris H. Chapman told messengers that a fervor for missions trumps doctrinal divides and that Southern Baptists will unite for the sake of lost souls.
 "The victories of faith in the life of the convention did not happen because men and women loved doctrine," Chapman, president of the Executive Committee, said during the morning report June 23. "They happened because they loved Jesus."
 -- John Mark Toby, pastor of Beacon Hill Baptist Church in Somerset, Ky., was elected first vice president, while Stephen Rummage, pastor of Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Fla., was elected second vice president. John Yeats, director of communications for the Louisiana Baptist Convention, was re-elected SBC recording secretary, and Jim Wells, director of missions for the Tri-County Baptist Association in Nixa, Mo., was re-elected registration secretary. Mac Brunson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla., was elected to preach the 2010 convention sermon in Orland, Fla.

Next year's annual meeting will take place June 15-16 in Orlando, Fla.

Ronnie W. Floyd, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Springdale, Ark., and The Church at Pinnacle Hills in Rogers, Ark., will chair the 19-member committee, which was appointed June 24 by Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt.

"The task before us is huge and without the Lord's leadership and power will be impossible," Floyd told Baptist Press in a written statement June 28.

"This is why my No. 1 concern and request right now is that God raises up at least 5,000 Southern Baptists who will pray daily for our task force members and the work before us," Floyd added. "Through prayer and due diligence, God will direct our path toward the future. Prayer is my No. 1 concern today; please pray for us."

The vote authorizing the task force charges them with studying how Southern Baptists can work "more faithfully and effectively together in serving Christ through the Great Commission."

Besides Floyd and Hunt, other committee members are: Jim Richards, executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention; Frank Page, pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C.; David Dockery, president of Union University in Jackson, Tenn.; Simon Tsoi, trustee of the International Mission Board and retired pastor; Donna Gaines, pastor's wife at Bellevue Baptist Church near Memphis, Tenn.; Al Gilbert, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, N.C.; J.D. Greear, lead pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Tom Biles, executive director of the Tampa Bay Baptist Association.; Daniel L. Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; John Drummond, a layman at St. Andrew Baptist Church in Panama City, Fla.; Harry Lewis, senior strategist for partnership missions and mobilization at the North American Mission Board; Michael Orr, pastor of First Baptist Church in Chipley, Fla.; Roger Spradlin, pastor of Valley Baptist Church in Bakersfield, Calif.; J. Robert White, executive director of the Georgia Baptist Convention.; Ken Whitten, pastor of the Tampa-area Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz, Fla.; Ted Traylor, pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla.

His congregation knew of his qualities, and on June 23 messengers to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention met posthumously the man recognized as the first recipient of the HCSB Award.

The award, presented to Winters' wife Cindy by LifeWay Christian Resources President Thom S. Rainer, will periodically recognize a man or woman who has demonstrated the highest level of commitment to the preaching or teaching of the Word of God. Winters was shot and killed March 8 while preaching to his congregation at First Baptist Church in Maryville, Ill.

"The first HCSB Award goes to a former student of mine, a friend who led First Baptist to unprecedented growth and biblical faithfulness," Rainer told messengers during LifeWay's report. "On March 8, 2009, a gunman entered the worship center of the church and shot and killed this pastor while he was preaching the Word as he had done faithfully at First Baptist Church of Maryville for nearly 22 years."

Rainer said the award is born from LifeWay's first core value: "We believe the Bible is the eternal, infallible, inerrant Word of God and is the plumb line for everything we say and do."

“A few years ago, LifeWay began a major Bible translation that resulted in one of the most accurate English translations ever: The Holman Christian Standard Bible, which is usually called the HCSB," he said. "This translation has received accolades around the globe for its accuracy and readability, and quickly became one of the top translations in the world.

“The award reflects the first and foremost core value of LifeWay. Second, it celebrates the HCSB as one of the great English translations of our era.”

Rainer presented Cindy Winters with a plaque and an HCSB Bible recognizing her husband's contribution to ministry.

"This is a huge blessing for me, Alysia, Cassidy and for our church family," Cindy Winters said. "This award is a fitting recognition of Fred. It encapsulates his life and the legacy he left behind.

"Fred lived his life with passion. His death was orchestrated by evil and an attempt to stop the work God is doing,” she said. “I am ready to unite across this land and fight the good fight because we have a mighty God who has a message we want to share. This award is a beautiful reminder of what God has called each of us to do.”

As Rainer transitioned to LifeWay’s presentation to the convention, he stated how instrumental Scripture was in his coming to Christ. His high school football coach, Joe Hendrickson, called him into his office one day and challenged Rainer with the Gospel.

“What stuck in my mind or, even more, in my heart, was the Scripture he quoted,” Rainer said. “The Word of God is powerful, and its words spoke to me as truly the Word of God.”

Rainer communicated the importance of maintaining biblical fidelity and said that in translating the HCSB, scholars took great caution to stay faithful to the accuracy of original manuscripts while producing a readable translation.

“I became a Southern Baptist at age 23 because we are people of the Word,” Rainer said. “I was a foot soldier in the Conservative Resurgence as a seminary student because I believed in the inerrant Word. By God’s grace, I lead LifeWay Christian Resources with our first core value of the inerrancy of the Word of God. J.M. Frost, the first president of LifeWay, held that value and we do so with the same commitment today.”

Rainer concluded by saying that there is a great deal of responsibility involved in translating the Bible, that LifeWay employees recognize the trust placed in them and that LifeWay Christian Resources takes its “stewardship of the Word of God with utmost seriousness.”

The Nominating Committee, chaired by John Mattingly, Sinnissippi Association director of missions and a member of Emmanuel Baptist Church, Sterling, nominates pastors and laypersons from IBSA member churches to serve as members of the association’s three governing boards. The IBSA board of directors has 33 members, while the Baptist Foundation of Illinois (BFI) and Baptist Children’s Home and Family Services (BCHFS) boards of trustees have 21 members each.  Members of all boards serve three-year terms.  In 2010, IBSA’s board of directors will need 11 new members, BFI will need nine new trustees and the BCHFS will need eight new trustees.

The IBSA Board of Directors meets twice a year in Springfield with committees meeting another two times a year.  Nominees need to come from various regions of the state as specified in the IBSA Constitution.

The BFI board meets twice a year in Springfield and BCHFS trustees meet four times a year in either Mt. Vernon or Carmi.

The Committee on Committees, chaired by Ron Rhodus, a member of Carlinville Southern Baptist Church, nominates persons for membership on the state association’s six standing committee. This year, the Committee on Committees will need 26 new members to serve on next year’s Order of Business (4), Nominating (4), Credentials (5), Constitution (4), Resolutions (4) and Historical Committees (5).

Each of the association’s committees consists of 12 members, serving a three-year term. The Credentials, Order of Business and Resolutions Committees meet at least twice during the year in Springfield. The Constitution, Historical, and Nominating Committees normally meet once a year in Springfield.

A complete list of vacancies needing to be filled by the both the Nominating and Committee on Committees is available at IBSA.org. If you would like to nominate an individual for any of the boards or an Association committee, complete the appropriate recommendation form available online at IBSA.org or call (217) 391-3107. Completed forms should be returned to IBSA by Aug 7.

Two festivals and 28 block parties topped a list of 95 events, including door-to-door community visits by 1,800 volunteers from 109 local SBC churches along with 1,200 volunteers from out of town.

Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt and North American Mission Board President Geoff Hammond joined Feed The Children’s president and founder, Larry Jones, to kick off the first of three “food drops” in the greater Louisville area.

Cars lined up outside distribution sites at Bethlehem Baptist Church, Shively Baptist Church and the Baptist Fellowship Center where volunteers loaded food and personal items into vehicles for 1,200 pre-qualified needy families – and shared the Gospel with those who wanted to hear.

As the food drops were getting under way, volunteers at 28 other Baptist churches throughout Louisville were preparing for block parties on their campuses or in nearby parks. Thousands of hamburgers and hotdogs were thrown on charcoal grills, inflatable bouncing attractions set up, snow cone and popcorn machines revved up and soft drinks and bottled water iced down.

St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church near downtown Louisville drew a multicultural crowd of some 1,000 thanks to the presence of a City of Louisville fire truck, a helicopter simulator, clowns, face-painters, balloon artists, a clothes closet, puppet show – and a tent full of barbecue, baked beans and potato salad.

A six-church event was held in Jeffersontown’s Veteran’s Park – a largely middle-class suburb of 30,000 east of Louisville.

“This is a tough community to penetrate with the Gospel,” said Jeff Pennington, pastor at Highland Park, one of the six. "With a middle-class [that is] heavily Catholic, there are thousands of unchurched in Jeffersontown. It’s hard to reach them. We hope we can break through with this event and start some relationships.”

To coincide with the block parties around Louisville, an international fair and a Hispanic festival took place in the Iroquois area of south Louisville.

The international fair provided about 1,500 Koreans, Chinese, Burundi, Nigerians, Haitians, Somalis, Bosnians, Vietnamese and Ethiopians a diverse display of food, music and dance, a Chinese string chamber music group and a team of 20 taekwando experts.

A mile away, Hispanic pastor Yurian Cabrera directed Crossover's Hispanic festival at Iroquois Amphitheatre and Park.

On Sunday, June 14, volunteers with the Intentional Community Evangelism – ICE – team gathered for a worship and prayer service at Walnut Street Baptist Church in Louisville. The group then hit Louisville streets beginning Monday morning, sharing Christ in parks, neighborhoods and throughout downtown streets. More than 100 volunteers participated in the effort, including 60 students from an organization named “Error! Contact not defined.” located in Louisville.

At Louisville's Jackson Woods Apartments, a naked concrete slab welcomed 42 volunteers with the Kentucky Builders on Monday, June 15. By Friday, team leader Sanford Hill and his team from Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia and Florida had built the first phase of a learning center for school children who live at Jackson Woods.

Constructed during a heat wave in Louisville that suddenly shot temperatures toward 100 degrees, the Kentucky Builders' initial, though unfinished, phase includes walls, the roof, wiring and plumbing.

I admit that I’m not usually that thoughtful about flies.  But in that particular moment my memory flashed back to a news clip I had seen repeatedly the week before.  President Obama, while conducting a TV interview, was pestered by his own annoying fly.  As the cameras looked on, the President intently followed the insect’s flight with his eyes, then pounced with a loud slap of his hand.  We’ve all come away from efforts like that empty-handed before, but this time our Commander-in-Chief was successful.  The next camera shot was of a flattened fly lying on the floor.

The President’s recent success heartened me in my own fly situation. I’m naturally more of a shooer than a swatter.  Partly from a poor personal track record in fly swatting by hand, I usually choose to wave a fly out of my way rather than attempting to end its life.  But with the empowering image of the presidentially swatted fly fresh in my mind, I decided to go for it. “If he can do it, why can’t I?” I thought to myself.  After a quick slap and a cautious removal of my hand, I watched the limp form of my attacker fall to the ground.

“Success!” I thought, and then was surprised by my next, more troubling, thought.  “Why did I do that? Why did I choose to swat rather than shoo?”

Now I’m not going to blame President Obama for the death of my fly.  In fact, I’m not even going to make the case that shooing is better than swatting when it comes to insects.  But as we celebrate Independence Day this year, I am going to observe with a degree of concern that my choice to swat rather than shoo was subtly influenced by the recent success, and example, of our President.

President Obama enjoys more celebrity and media exposure than any President in recent memory.  We see and hear from him all the time, it seems. The cameras are rolling throughout his life, even when he’s tracking and swatting flies.  And because he is so likeable, so intelligent, so articulate, the majority of people in America seem to believe in him and follow him, and want him to succeed – even though sometimes he’s wrong.

I can’t remember ever writing a public political opinion before, and I don’t intend to lapse into that now.  It’s too potentially divisive and too risky a distraction from the Gospel and from ministry priorities that are far more important.

But in that brief experience with the fly, and that brief moment when I reflexively turned to our popular President’s example to make my decision, I realized how winsome and influential he is, and therefore how susceptible I might be to accepting positions this leader holds that I know to be Biblically or morally wrong.  There is at least one monumental issue – abortion – on which he sides with choice and death instead of mercy and life.

We each walk a fine line when following any leader, especially our national leaders, or when trying to lead ourselves.  On one hand Scripture exhorts us to respect, obey and pray for our leaders.  Yet it also commands us to place righteousness over any earthly ruler, and to obey God rather than human authorities when we are forced to make that choice.

In many issues of politics and public policy, I hope I can learn to follow any responsible approach, whether or not it is my preference.  I can swat instead of shoo, or shoo instead of swat.  It’s when wrong is called right, or the truth of God’s Word is rationalized away or His moral law compromised, that I must learn not to just swat because the President swats, or to shoo because some other leader shoos.  We must all humbly, diligently seek God’s leadership through His Word, sincere prayer and Godly counsel.  That which is at stake is not so harmless as a fly.

Reports from the mission boards, the seminaries and other SBC agencies were informational and inspirational.  It’s reassuring to know that at least once a year, the entities we support with our prayers, Cooperative Program gifts, and special offerings report what they have been doing and what they plan to do to help Southern Baptist churches reach our nation and world for Christ. They’re even required to answer questions from the floor, although few messengers ask questions.

The biggest surprise of the meeting for me was the fact that messengers were never given an opportunity to address the Great Commission Resurgence (GCR) document which had been promoted by President Johnny Hunt for several weeks prior to the meeting. The only motion to pass the convention grew out of one commitment of the GCR, but we never discussed the other nine.

The GCR document challenged Southern Baptists to embrace ten commitments including the Lordship of Christ, Gospel-centeredness, the Great Commandments, Biblical inerrancy and preaching, and “a more effective Convention structure.”  Prior to the SBC, more than 4,000 people apparently accepted the challenge by ‘signing’ the online version of the document.  The need for a great commission resurgence was touted numerous times in the SBC Pastors’ Conference and at other ancillary meetings.  So, many observers expected some version of the document to be presented to the SBC annual meeting, but that didn’t happen.

Instead, a simple motion to create a task force to study the structure of the SBC was presented and passed overwhelmingly.  But there was no mention of the other nine commitments.  There was no explanation how restructuring might lead to a resurgence of Southern Baptists’ commitment to the great commission – the other nine.  The following day Hunt appointed himself and 18 others to the new task force which will report to the SBC next year.

I know Hunt, most of our agency heads and many on the task force personally, and know them to be sincere, spiritually mature brothers who are well-intentioned.  But I’m concerned about the possible unintended consequences of the recommendations that could come from the task force, which is not very representative of the SBC.  The task force has one woman, one ethnic (no African-American), and only one member from a state outside the south.  And, the chairman pastors a church that gives very little to the Cooperative Program, and who was defeated for the SBC presidency two years ago, presumably for that very reason.  Now, he is chairing a committee that will study and make recommendations about how Cooperative Program-supported ministries are best accomplished.

I asked Hunt in a telephone interview prior to the convention if he would commit to making the task force’s work as transparent as possible, and he said yes.  In fact, he volunteered that he would like to have a state Baptist paper editor in every meeting.  However, at a news conference after his re-election, I asked again, and he said the task force meetings would be closed, although reporters would be allowed to be at the meeting site.  You can come, but you can’t come in.

At least we’ll know when and where the meetings will be held, and assume a news conference will be held following each meeting so that we won’t have to wait until next year’s SBC to discover what is to be proposed.

Of course, no one knows what the task force will recommend.  Some have said the two mission boards need to be merged.  Others have suggested the six seminaries need to be governed by one board of trustees.  And, one member of the task force and an SBC agency president have already speculated that the task force may recommend a radical change in the way the North American Mission Board works with and through state Baptist conventions.

Whatever they recommend will be presented to next year’s convention in Orlando for consideration by messengers, but the task force could recommend almost anything.  They need our prayer support and a story on the front page of this issue details the task force chairman’s call for prayer. My prayer is that Illinois Baptists will join in that effort as we continue to pray for a resurgence of commitment to the great commission in Illinois and across the SBC.