The New SBC ?

This past week, the Southern Baptist Convention held their annual meeting in Louisville, KY. There has been a lot of buzz over their meeting, significantly over two developments: One, a renewed commitment to the Great Commission. This commitment was expressed in terms of being above many other internal political and/or even theological differences that have often divided and conquered (or stifled) the work of SBC churches and its leaders--they are not unique to this problem. Second, and related to the first, this push for an essential priority of the Great Commission, was spurred by younger, new leaders, of the Convention.

Ahhh! Only confirming a hard, but all-to-true reality, real change comes from new leadership, and most likely, that new leadership will be young in age. Institutions and organizations that truly want to survive and be relevant, need to seriously work to give change agents positions and permission to do their thing: working hard to preserve the past normally only produces a slow, painful walk towards irrelevance at best, death at worst (or in many cases, the worst thing is its survival).

At any rate, you can read some of the details and interpretation by SBC insiders here:

From Denny Burk: Why there’s a buzz about the SBC Annual Meeting
SBC Great Commission website: GC Resurgence
The Internet Monk: Thoughts on the SBC Convention & A List of Factor Affecting the SBC
Owen Strachan: Rumbling in the SBC: 2009 Convention Dispatches

I'm sure there are many more, but for those interested, these will get you started.

Blessings
3 John 8
Bill H.

*** "For the Summer, for the summer" (A break, sort of ...): For the rest of the summer, I will be taking it easy, offering little original thinking, most of my posts will be hijacked from other blogs (and I'm sure will be far more interesting than my own thoughts). I'll get back at it as school reloads in August. In the meantime, enjoy!