Great Commmission Resurgence

I have been getting a lot of email about the new Great Commission Resurgence that has been proposed by Dr. Danny Aiken and signed by most every major leader in the SBC. I have read it a couple of times but did not really see it as that big of a deal. Today I got an email from a friend who asked me directly "what do you think?"
I decided that I would share my thoughts for her here so that maybe more people will read the Declaration or possibly the entire manuscript by following the link below or going to http://www.greatcommissionresurgence.com/media.
Here are my thoughts and an outline of the Declaration:
I like that this is basically a call back to the gospel. There is nothing in the statement that I have trouble with and I really trust the guys who are behind this. You can read online who has signed the document and I signed it today. It is really nothing new for me because I have been around these guys for 15 years or so. This is really the worldview and philosophy of ministry that I have always been taught from. It is a statement to extreme groups on both ends of the scale who would try to divide over secondary issues. I believe we are approaching time of persecution and oppression. These are times for unity in our diversity around the absolute truths of the word of God. The next generation will see a separation of the wheat and tares. It is time for true believers of all preference and personality to labor for the bond of unity that is the love of the Spirit of Truth.
Over 10 years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Judge Paul Pressler, one of the key leaders of the Conservative Resurgence. When we met him and had him sign his book for us, my friend Jeff Jordan respectfully thanked Judge Pressler for fighting for us so that we did not have to. Pressler pulled Jeff very close and said something like this, "I did not fight so that you would not have to. I fought so that you might be able to. If you rest on what has been accomplished, it will be lost. You must fight and continue to fight for the word of God." I believe that is what this is, that continued fight.
What are your thoughts? I encourage everyone to read the statement and decide for yourself.

Toward a Great Commission Resurgence in the
Southern Baptist Convention
A Declaration
Then Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on
earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have
commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew
28:18-20, HCSB).
Preamble
Southern Baptists have always been a Great Commission people. Christ’s command to go, disciple, baptize, and teach is woven into the very DNA of our churches. By God’s grace, over the last thirty years the SBC has undergone a Conservative Resurgence that has brought substantive changes to many of our churches and all of our Convention’s seminaries and boards. We, the undersigned, are thankful for the Conservative Resurgence and believe that God has called Southern Baptists to a Great Commission Resurgence as the next step in the renewal of our denomination. It is our conviction that a Great Commission Resurgence must embrace the following ten commitments:
I. A Commitment to Christ’s Lordship.
We call upon all Southern Baptists to submit to the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ in all things at the personal, local church, and denominational levels. (Col. 1:18; 3:16-17, 23-24)
II. A Commitment to Gospel-Centeredness.
We call upon all Southern Baptists to make the gospel of Jesus Christ central in our lives, our churches, and our denominational ministries. (Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 15:1-4; 2 Cor. 5:17-21)
III. A Commitment to the Great Commandments.
We call upon all Southern Baptists to recommit to the priority of the Great Commandments in every aspect of our lives and every priority we embrace as a network of local Baptist churches. (Matt. 22:37-40)
IV. A Commitment to Biblical Inerrancy and Sufficiency.
We call upon all Southern Baptists to unite around a firm conviction in the full truthfulness and complete sufficiency of Christian Scripture in all matters of faith and practice. (Matt 5:17-18; John 10:35; 17:17; 2 Tim 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21)
V. A Commitment to a Healthy Confessional Center.
We call upon all Southern Baptists to look to the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 as a sufficient guide for building a theological consensus for partnership in the gospel, refusing to be sidetracked by theological agendas that distract us from our Lord’s Commission. (1 Tim. 6:3-4)
VI. A Commitment to Biblically Healthy Churches.
We call upon all Southern Baptists to focus on building local churches that are thoroughly orthodox, distinctively Baptist, and passionately committed to the Great Commission. (Matt. 16:13-20, 18:15-20; Acts 2:41-47; Rom. 6:3-5; 1 Cor. 5)
VII. A Commitment to Sound Biblical Preaching.
We call upon all Southern Baptists to affirm and expect a pastoral ministry that is characterized by faithful biblical preaching that teaches both the content of the Scriptures and the theology embedded in the Scriptures. (2 Tim. 4:1-5)
VIII. A Commitment to a Methodological Diversity that is Biblically Informed.
We call upon all Southern Baptists to consider themselves and their churches to be missionaries in non-Christian cultures, each of which requires unique strategies and emphases if the gospel is
to penetrate and saturate every community in North America. (Phil. 2:1-5; 4:2-9)
IX. A Commitment to a More Effective Convention Structure.
We call upon all Southern Baptists to rethink our Convention structure and priorities so that we can maximize our energy and resources for the health of our local churches and the fulfilling of the Great Commission. (1 Cor. 10:31)
X. A Commitment to Distinctively Christian Families.
We call upon all Southern Baptists to build gospel-saturated homes that see children as a gift from God and as our first and primary mission field. (Deut. 6:1-9; Psalm 127, 128; Eph. 6:4)

Connecting Church and Home

It has taken me a few days to post after returning from the Connecting Church and Home Conference because being away for a couple of days typically means everything is crazy when you return. This time has been no different. I think we are getting back ahead now and I wanted to reflect (publicly) on the event.
I found among the people involved in this event the heart of real ministry. Among all of the streams of thought, even within the family ministry movement, I am convinced that these are the most sincere, passionate, evangelistic people I have ever had the blessing of being around. Some of them are regular suspects and old friends, but being around them again only confirmed what God is doing. On top of that, I met a lot of new people who have a similar heart for families, discipleship, and the gospel. Though I thought the best session of the weekend was presented by my good friend Dr. Randy Stinson, one guy I was most impressed with was Dr. Brain Haynes from Kingsland Baptist Church in Katy, TX. His humble heart and passionate conviction for the faithful ministry of the church was overwhelming. Brain spoke in a very pastoral manner about what we are getting ourselves into when we commit ourselves to transition to a family equipping ministry model. I got 5 main things that we are getting ourselves into from what he said:
1. Getting into God's story
2. Getting into picking fruit from the vine of His planting
3. Getting into the possibility of an extremely biblical church
4. Getting into partnership as the biblical church community
5. Getting into generational impact - this one was great! He talked about producing a generation in the church that is thinking through the Bible (biblical worldview) and about cultural redesign in terms of the church leading our culture back from the brink by running back to God as Israel did. The main idea is that generational faithfulness is a precious gift that we both give and receive.
Brain's ministry model is built on the idea of a path of Legacy Milestones. These are 7 milestones in the life of young believers that parents and the church can use to mark and promote their spiritual journey toward maturity. He sees this as the church building a bridge from the Shema in Deuteronomy 6 to the Great Commandment in Matthew 22 to the Great Commission in Matthew 28. You can find out more by going to www.legacymilestones.com.
Another great aspect of the weekend was that I was able to have a young guy travel with me who is studying to be a youth minister. He has served in an interim capacity in a couple of churches, but had never really been exposed to anything like this before. It was good for me because he helped me see everything with fresh eyes. A lot of it was review for me, but I knew that God was working in people to help them see His heart for the family and the church when my friend's response to the first day of the conference was, "this is life changing!"
He was blown away by the biblical insight, by the humble ministry, and by the passionate conviction of the people he met and the presentations that were made. We were able to have dozens of extended conversations with conference participants as they stopped by the Legacy table to talk about transitioning to a family ministry model and I was encouraged by what God is doing in the lives of so many leaders, families and churches. We can only hope that God would use this movement to bring about that cultural redesign.