EDITOR’S NOTE: J.D. Greear is pastor of The Summit Church in the Raleigh-Durham, N.C., area and president of the Southern Baptist Convention. This article was adapted from an address Greear gave to the SBC Executive Committee during a video conference Sept. 22, in which he explained his choice of “We are Great Commission Baptists” as the theme for the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting.
DURHAM, N.C. (BP) — In these uncertain, divisive and fearful times, I want to remind us of a sustaining vision we find in God’s inerrant, all-sufficient Word – a vision recorded by the apostle John in the midst of their own fearful and uncertain times. The church of the John’s generation had been scattered, hunted down, imprisoned, and tortured. The apostle John himself was boiled in oil and socially distanced, by himself, on the island of Patmos.
In that moment of fear, God gave him this sustaining vision, a hope for things to come:
Then I (John) saw one like a slaughtered lamb standing in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent into all the earth. He went and took the scroll out of the right hand of the one seated on the throne.
When he took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and golden bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song:
“You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slaughtered, and you purchased people for God by your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation. You made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign on the earth.”
Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels around the throne, and also of the living creatures and of the elders. Their number was countless thousands, plus thousands of thousands. They said with a loud voice,
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!”
I heard every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them say,
“Blessing and honor and glory and power be to the one seated on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!”
The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.
Revelation 5:6-14
With this Scripture in mind, I announce to you the theme for the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting: “We are Great Commission Baptists.”
I want to share three primary reasons why I believe God is calling us to this for our annual meeting. I want to be crystal clear with you, the Executive Committee, on why we’re doing this, so when liberal media, discernment bloggers, or concerned groups try to be divisive and dishonest about motives and agendas, we can all be on the same page.
Brothers and sisters, we want our focus in Nashville and beyond to be the Great Commission, because like our IMB President Paul Chitwood often says: “When the Great Commission isn’t the primary topic of conversation, all other topics start to divide us.”
Let me be clear: In saying “We are Great Commission Baptists,” we do not in any way want to minimize the significance of our heritage and our past, either its accomplishments or its failures.
Our past sins as well as God’s forgiveness and restoration are an important part of our history. We not only preach the grace of God; we are ourselves a story of it. And we owe it to those groups whom we sinned against not to minimize or whitewash our injustice against them.
At the same time, we are also grateful for many of the great achievements of God’s grace in our past. For 175 years we have gathered for one purpose – the Great Commission. The landscape of our nation and the world is different because of the Southern Baptist Convention’s commitment to make the Gospel known in word and deed. Untold numbers of Baptists have, through great sacrifice, ministered body and soul to their friends, neighbors, and strangers across the globe.
Utilizing “Great Commission Baptists” is simply one more step to make clear we serve a risen Savior who died for all peoples, whose mission is not limited to one people living in one time at one place. Our Lord Jesus, as you know, was not a white southerner. If you want to be technical about it, He was a brown-skinned Middle Eastern refugee. Every week we gather to worship a Savior who died for the whole world, not one part of it, and what we call ourselves should make that clear.
I recognize there will be those who still want to identify with the name SBC but, by our own declaration, we are also Great Commission Baptists. If you or your church wants to call yourself SBC, that’s fine.
We are Great Commission Baptists. We get to join in that vision that God gave the apostle John – people from every tribe and language and people and nation saying, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.”
So, let’s come to Nashville not just saying, “We are Great Commission Baptists.” Let’s be Great Commission Baptists every day until then and every day thereafter.