Posted on Jun 24, 2009 | by Staff

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt appointed 18 people to the "Great Commission Resurgence Task Force" June 24 during the morning session of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Louisville, Ky.

Messengers to the annual meeting voted the evening before to authorize Hunt's naming the task force to study how Southern Baptists can work "more faithfully and effectively together in serving Christ through the Great Commission."

"I trust you will be encouraged by the balance that will be representing Southern Baptists in their assignment," Hunt said before he read the list of names.

Appointed to the committee were:

-- Ronnie Floyd, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Springdale, Ark., chairman.

-- Jim Richards, executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

-- Frank Page, pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C.

-- David Dockery, president of Union University in Jackson, Tenn.

-- Simon Tsoi, trustee of the International Mission Board and retired pastor.

-- Donna Gaines, pastor's wife at Bellevue Baptist Church near Memphis, Tenn.

-- Al Gilbert, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, N.C.

-- J.D. Greear, lead pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, N.C.

-- Tom Biles, executive director of the Tampa Bay Baptist Association.

-- Daniel L. Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

-- R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

-- John Drummond, a layman at St. Andrew Baptist Church in Panama City, Fla.

-- Harry Lewis, senior strategist for partnership missions and mobilization at the North American Mission Board.

-- Michael Orr, pastor of First Baptist Church in Chipley, Fla.

-- Roger Spradlin, pastor of Valley Baptist Church in Bakersfield, Calif.

-- J. Robert White, executive director of the Georgia Baptist Convention.

-- Ken Whitten, pastor of the Tampa-area Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz, Fla.

-- Ted Traylor, pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla.

"We promise to represent you well,” Hunt said, “and you pray for us that God would use us to be an impetus that can help us to even do a better job of what we've been doing in the area of the Great Commission.”

Hunt told Baptist Press he would "lead the task force, giving them direction, as I promised the convention," but that Floyd would chair the group in its deliberations.
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Compiled by Baptist Press assistant editor Mark Kelly and staff writer Erin Roach.