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GCR task force calls for input, prayer


ROGERS, Ark. (BP)–Interest is “huge” in the Southern Baptist Convention’s Great Commission Resurgence Task Force and the group wants grass-roots Southern Baptists to share their thoughts and mobilize their congregations to pray for the task force’s work, its chairman said Aug. 27.

In statements to reporters following the task force’s Aug. 26-27 meeting, Ronnie Floyd said he was very pleased with the Aug. 26 listening session that drew more than 400 pastors and lay leaders from the region around Rogers, Ark.

“That was a good, engaging discussion,” Floyd said as he stood outside the task force meeting room in the Embassy Suites Hotel in Rogers. “The interest level was huge, and we already know that, out of the 400-plus people who were there yesterday, that over 270 of them committed to pray for the Great Commission resurgence, which brings us great pleasure.

“We’re gathering information. We’re listening. And we are trying to know enough in order to make the decisions that need to be made,” Floyd added. “As of right now, we don’t know enough but we’re getting there.”

The most important things Southern Baptists can do for the task force are to communicate with them and pray for them, Floyd said.

“The No. 1 thing the Southern Baptist Convention people can do for us is to send any idea they want to send — share anything they want to share — and more than anything in the world, they need to pray for us,” Floyd said. “We plead with them for their prayers, [to] get their churches involved in prayer.

Floyd suggested churches use registration cards akin to those placed on tables at the luncheon as a way of getting members involved in the task force’s work.

“The model you saw yesterday of registering people with a card and then us taking that and registering that in the website, if churches duplicated that, it would be huge,” Floyd said. He pointed out that the card asked for specific commitments to pray for members of the task force, for him as chairman, for other Southern Baptist churches and for leaders of SBC entities.

“When was the last time 3,400 — almost 3,500 people now, as of this morning late — prayed every day for the leaders of our convention?” Floyd asked.

Floyd said he is encouraging task force members to hold their own listening sessions like the one held in Rogers as they travel. “The whole deal is, we’re going to listen more than we talk,” he said.

Three members of the task force – Daniel Akin, David Dockery and John Cope — were unable to attend this week’s session, Floyd said. The group’s next meeting will be Oct. 27 in Dallas, at a venue near an airport that has not yet been secured, Floyd said.
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Mark Kelly is an assistant editor with Baptist Press. Audio from the luncheon is available online at www.pray4gcr.com/2009/08/gcr-luncheon-audio/.

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  • Mark Kelly