J. D. Greear to be SBC president nominee
I don’t think I have ever seen as much statistical information tossed out for an SBC presidential nominee.
- Church growth from 350 to 10,000
- 928 baptisms in 2014
- 149 SBC, IMB missionaries from his church currently on the field
- $390,000 budgeted in 2016 for the Cooperative Program (up from $150k the last reporting year; it’s confusing)
- 26 church plants the last five years in conjunction with NAMB
- Great Commission Giving “around 10%” although ACP data has it at 13-15%
- Over $1 million to IMB, over $500k to NAMB, $500k destined for an endowed chair at SEBTS
The 149 IMB missionaries from Summit would be about 4% of the whole mission force for IMB, I calculate, although the type of missionary service may make my calculations invalid. I doubt there has been a church comparable in this. That’s a huge number.
I’ve heard him a number of times and like him. A number of thirtysomething SBCers that I know think highly of him, stratospherically of him.
There are a number of things notable about his nomination. The first that comes to my mind is that he has a desire to serve as SBC president.
Those are pretty good stats. Wow on the missions efforts!
The 149 missionaries probably includes Journeymen and seminary students in the International Church Planting program (lots of college students and young adults at the church). It’s definitely at the core of the church’s mission.
Still really impressive.
Does anyone actually know who the genius is behind Fake J. D. Greear? Does J. D. Greear even know? hahaha.
Who knows, but he retweeted the “make potlucks great again” banner… 🙂
That is a great fake account. One that makes fun, but one that even the person who is being made fun of can enjoy.
Oh it’s great….is it YOU Mr. Miller? 😉
I wish.
Actually, the new Babylon Bee is the satire site I WISH I’d been able to create.
I always appreciated Villa Rica. He was one cool dude.
Villa Rica was one of my personal favorites. 🙂
yes
I think I heard J.D. say at last year’s convention (I think it was after the Gospel Project breakfast panel) that he didn’t know who ran the account.
JD spoke at several of our European annual meetings for the IMB. While he’s a fantastic preacher, I was always even more impressed with his humble and approachable manner when we had the chance to get to know him and his wife. My husband told me this news last night, and we were both excited. He’s the real deal.
Yes, there is no doubt that his churches have quite the missions emphasis.
I too appreciate the para church Christian counseling ministry they started and help support. Check this out y’all!
http://www.bridgehavencounseling.org
This could be a new model/framework to consider as an upgrade to the Cooperative Program. Seems like a lot of good methods are in place.
I would encourage all SBC churches to match his churches giving record when it comes to undesignated funds to the CP.
This is very exciting news and I’m so thankful to see JD’s words about encouraging the younger generation (which includes me) to own the SBC for themselves. The baton has got to get passed and this needs to include effort from both sides. So it’s very encouraging to see him garnering support from all different sides of the SBC.
That said, I did think it would be worth noting another reason for the kind of numbers JD’s church is running. Summit is a multi-site church and if I’m up to date I believe it has 9 campuses. So if you happen to be like me and don’t believe multi-site is the most biblical long-term model for the local church, then you might want to bear this in mind when looking at the numbers. But even then, that’s +16 missionaries on the field from each campus! Numbers like that make it pragmatically difficult to argue with what Summit is doing. 🙂
So regardless of our differences, I think we can all agree that it would be amazing if every church in our SBC could share the same zeal for the glory of God to the nations that our brothers in NC do. May God grant us grace to see that recovered in our SBC.
Bob Browning,
Could it be that when JD encourages younger guys to “own the SBC for themselves” his point is to get involved?
And as far as the “baton has got to be passed” — The baton has always been passed by a natural process. We are actually watching it pass now.
Therefore, I think younger guys do need to get involved now so they will know how to use the baton once they have it and so there will be one when the next generation stands ready to receive it.
From the OP:
“26 church plants the last five years in conjunction with NAMB”
Since Summit Church is an Acts 29 church, how many of those plants were in conjunction with Acts 29?
You could ask the church. NAMB doesn’t ask or keep records of all affiliations and funding sources although one SEND city coordinator said that he makes himself aware of what NAMB sponsored churches are doing in this regard. The narrative offered by NAMB critics is that any ACTS29 connection makes the church ipso facto unacceptable as an SBC sponsored church. I reject that reasoning.
Summit is indeed listed as an A29 church (on the A29 website). So what?
It hasn’t happened yet but look for certain SBCers to begin the slow, grinding process of criticism of Greear and Summit.
I may ask the church. I just thought you may have those stats handy.