"I think a lot of Southern Baptist churches have lost their focus on evangelism," said England. "They've turned inward, rather than outward to other people."
Last night, England and most of the 8,700 Southern Baptists gathered at the Kentucky Expo Center in Louisville for their annual meeting approved a plan they hope will turn the Southern Baptist Convention around.
The first step is a task force, to be appointed by convention President Johnny Hunt, to study how Southern Baptists can focus their program, and budgets, on making new converts.
Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said the task force will push Southern Baptists to do a better job of reaching out to nonbelievers.
"Is there more that we can do?" he asked. "There is no need for Southern Baptists to fear that question?"
The proposal was backed by Mohler, former Southern Baptist President Frank Page, Hunt and other high-profile leaders.
Morris Chapman, president of the convention's Executive Committee, was a leading skeptic.
He had criticized the plan, known as the "Great Commission Resurgence," in the weeks leading up to the convention. Most of his criticism was about changes to the Cooperative Program, which funds seminaries and missions.
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With Hunt sitting a few feet away, Chapman continued his criticism Tuesday morning.
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"Does the Great Commission Resurgence seek personal transformation of our hearts or institutional transformation of our structure?" he asked.
Chapman also criticized the Rev. Mark Driscoll, a Seattle minister popular with young Southern Baptists. Driscoll, who is not a Baptist, is known for using risqué language in the pulpit.
"To hide the light of the gospel under the bushel of cultural compromise is a grievous sin against the Holy Spirit," he said. "... The sacred desk is no place for the carnal, the sexual and the sensational."
Source: The Tennessean
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