By an estimated 3-to-1 margin, the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force report was adopted June 15 by messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.

Albert Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, made the motion at last year’s Convention that brought about the Task Force report that many predict will greatly change the DNA of the denomination for years to come. That motion was:

“That the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting June 23-24, 2009 in Louisville, Kentucky, authorize the President of the Southern Baptist Convention to appoint a Great Commission Task Force charged to bring a report and any recommendations to the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in Orlando, Florida June 15-16, 2010, concerning how Southern Baptists can work more faithfully and effectively together in serving Christ through the Great Commission.”

After the historic vote late Tuesday, task force chairman Ronnie Floyd recalled the statement issued by northern and southern Baptists after the 1845 founding of the Southern Baptist Convention and told the assembly: “Following the pattern of our leaders of old, we also would say to the watching world that the differences between those who support the Great Commission Resurgence report and recommendations and those who do not should not be exaggerated.

“We are still brothers and sisters in Christ. We differ on no article of faith. We are guided by our shared commitment to the Gospel itself and to the articles of faith identified in the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. The Southern Baptist Convention is a convention of churches that is committed to a missional vision of presenting the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every person in the world and to make disciples of all the nations. We are a Great Commission people.”

The seven recommendations (http://bit.ly/c7m89t) of the report were adopted on a show of ballots after about an hour and a half of debate, with one significant amendment.

Early in the debate, John Waters, pastor of First Baptist Church in Statesboro, Ga., offered an amendment to the third recommendation, which would institute a category of “Great Commission Giving” to recognize designated gifts to Southern Baptist mission causes outside the convention’s 85-year-old unified giving channel, the Cooperative Program. Waters’ amendment would have replaced the Great Commission Giving language with a statement affirming only the Cooperative Program.

Read (Much) More – including comments: http://townhall.com/news/religion/2010/06/15/sbc_messengers_adopt_gcr_report_by_wide_margin [Editor’s note: the original URL (link) referenced is no longer valid, so the link has been removed.]