Having previously listed twenty reasons why I believed Southern Baptists would have been better off NOT giving our blessing to the use of an inwardly divisive and outwardly confusing descriptor, I must now concede the historical fact that, according to the will of 53% of voting messengers in New Orleans (or a total of 2,546 Southern Baptists) who decided to affirm this approach, whether we like it or not, churches and entities may now adopt, with the convention’s approval, the optional replacement name “Great Commission Baptists” when referring to the Southern Baptist Convention.
I realize it has only been a bit more than a week, but websites can be changed in a matter of minutes. Has anyone seen or heard of any entity, church, agency, seminary or other institution in Southern Baptist life that has already begun using the descriptor in any manner at all? I’m not sure who will be first or how they will go about it, but I would love to know which Southern Baptist church, agency or organization is the first to adopt the moniker’s use either through print or electronic media.
If you see or hear of any descriptor sightings, please list them in this comment stream as they come in. In light of the groundswell of support I kept hearing about concerning so many organizations clamoring for this change, I would have expected to see the descriptor’s usage almost immediately after its passage last week. Where are all these Great Commission Baptists?
I strongly doubt we will see anything significant this quickly.
The only thing probably out there is that a few SBC websites have simply changed a name on their website, which none of us would know about.
So far, no agencies or seminaries that I can tell. You may be right. Some church may have already done it, but how would we know?
I’m just curious to know who will be first. Maybe they could get a prize–like the Bright Green Sportcoat of Unity.
Where did he get that bright green sportcoat? We had a young pastor who wore a bright green sportcoat to church one Sunday morning. With remarks about St. Patrick’s Day, jolly green giant, and balloon races, he said simply that he would only wear it in future when preaching on tithing. Never saw that coat again. Maybe he gave it to Dave.
No agency or seminary is going to stop using Southern Baptist. I’m a little chocked you actually think that is a possibility.
Jason,
It is a possibility. More specifically, it is a possibility (in fact, I think it’s certain) that seminaries can use the alternate name instead of using SBC. This was clear before the convention when Bryant Wright said the agencies would lead the way with the new name, and was clarified at the convention when the person speaking for the recommendation said trustees would be free to adopt it or reject it as they see fit. I hope most reject it, since so many in the SBC do not support its use, but I imagine some will use it.
My guess is that 9 out of 10 of the messengers who approved the nickname have no intention of using it for their own churches. They wanted to give freedom to others to do so, when and where it can be helpful.
I think you may be right about that. Living in Birmingham, I don’t figure I’m going to see or hear much about it, particularly since my Pastor agrees with what I said from the floor during the “debate”, such as it was.
I don’t know of any Baptist churches in the South that have changed to Great Commission Baptist. However, I have witness where some churches, whose pastor has read some church growth guru’s book that demphasizes denominational titles, have removed the word “Baptist” from their name. I for one will be very disappointed if their is not a great revival in the west and north. After all we were informed that the probloem was our name and if we change out name then we will reach a mass of people who were presently more concern with our name then their eternal… Read more »
Joe,
Just stop. No one said the entire problem was our name. It was merely said that in some places it would be more helpful to be able to use the name Great Commission Baptist instead of Southern Baptist.
It’s been ONE WEEK since we approved the descriptor folks.
This just seems silly to me.
Pointless and silly.
We like pointless and silly.
We’re bloggers.
That reminds me of the old joke about sermon points:
Q. “How many points should a sermon have?”
A. “At least one.”
I’m not really making a point so much as asking a question: Does anybody know if anyone is using the new descriptor yet? Apparently, nothing so far. Maybe we could monitor it again after one month or one year. But if anybody hears of someone using it, I think it’s noteworthy to acknowledge who does so first.
I love that old joke. I’ve used it (way too) often.
“I’m not really making a point . . . . Maybe we could monitor it again after one month or one year. . . I think it’s noteworthy to acknowledge who does so first.” (Edited to keep it concise and salient to my questions.)
I’m just curious: 1) Why would/should anybody monitor it? 2) Why should we acknowledge and identify who uses it?
Zach, 1) I think we should monitor it in order to better evaluate the value of the descriptor and explore whether its usage is accomplishing the intended purpose. We can also explore whether its usage brings about any unintended consequences. Perhaps this was an irreversible decision, but I don’t think so. There was no pilot program to evaluate, so I guess my answer would be just the normal evaluation of the implementation of any decision. You know, we made Decision X, so after a period of time, how’s it working out? 2) Identifying those who use it helps us track… Read more »
If we didn’t do that with the “Great Commission Resurgence”, it ain’t gonna happen with “Great Commission Baptists” either.
🙂
In the Eastern Alabama and Western Georgia area I live we love the word Southern. I mean the South has a number of historicaly Black Universities and Organizations with Southern in the title. So I’m not sure the word Southern is a negative in terms of slavery among the masses though it may be among the more educated people of all colors. In fact I have been in a number of National Baptist Churches over the years and when I told people I came from a Southern Baptist background nobody brought up any issue with the SBC. That being said… Read more »
I would expect (from conversations I’ve had) to see several churches in my neck of the woods use the descriptor in our materials, and I think there are some African-American churches that may do the same. There may be some entities that move to it over the next couple of years.
Time will tell.
I believe the Great Commission Baptist had a committee appointed to study the issue, give a report/recommendation, followed by a resolution at an annual convention. It was a one year process. Local GCB churches, which are congregational, have had hardly a week since this passed. It is possible that many/most congregations will need time to follow a similar process, probably involving a resolution, possibly involving a constitutional amendment, which may require weeks, if not months to do in a fashion that our parliamentarians would approve (especially in these post-Trib days). Honestly, this post feels more like what Dave was warning… Read more »
Eric, I am more than willing to wait a year before evaluating the manner in which entities and churches utilize the new descriptor. I realize these things take time. I just thought someone, somewhere might have been prepared to make the switch immediately upon the convention’s adoption. Apparently not. If you are suggesting this post is somehow divisive and not contributing to the “unity” Dave discussed in his previous article — indeed nearly ALL of his articles — then I must respectfully disagree, completely aware of the irony that you will consider that very disagreement to be divisive. Listen, Eric.… Read more »
I, for one, am not calling on anyone to “stifle” their opinions. However, I think we need to do a much better job, as a whole, of allowing the Spirit of God to stifle our fleshly, ungodly attitudes as we deal with these issues.
It is the tone of the debate that I think should be a concern to all of us. It is not what we debate, but how we debate it.
Well, I certainly agree that the Spirit of God should stifle any fleshly and ungodly attitudes of those on both sides of all the issues as we freely and frankly discuss all of our disagreements.
That has been my consistent point.
Except about SEC fans. They should STIFLE.
Opinions are always good to be shared and should not be stifled.
When dealing with SEC Football, it’s not an opinion, though. It’s a fact. Enjoy your Junior League Football this fall, while we watch the big kids play.
Eric, you are speaking as though this was a “name change.” It was not. It is an approved nickname, an acceptable informal designation. I’m not sure where that would require a church to go through a parliamentary procedure of any sort. That was kind of the whole point of taking this approach to the matter.
So far, the only. GCB sighting I can report is on SBC Voices. Guy named Patrick is responsible. Presumably, GCBers appreciate his keeping this alive.
Hey, William, in fairness, we talked it about it for a year, formed a blue ribbon task force, held press conferences, spent twenty minutes on the floor of the convention debating it, spent an hour counting almost 5,000 ballots and then printed in the papers that we have a new descriptor.
I think it’s a fair question to ask is there anybody, as of yet, who is actually using the descriptor to describe us.
it is a little bit early . . . and people may not know how to implement it properly yet
I suppose if at least one prominent Church took action and it was considered well done of them, that would provide some leadership in the way of role-modeling to provide a pattern that might be used (?)
Just tweaking you, bro. It is emminently fair to ask. I stand by my prediction that it will die a quiet death…unless, of course, it is kept alive here.
Come over to GA sometime. I’d love to meet you and the Peach State air will do you good.
I confess. I am envious . . . that some of your greatest concerns are whether to give your church a nickname.
How I wish that were my church’s greatest issue: or even one of the many I face on a weekly basis.
Sometimes I read these discussions and I really don’t know whether to laugh or cry — so I do a little of both.
Okay, I’ll be the Pinnate. We changed our bulletin to say “The Living Well Church: A Great Commission Baptist Church” and when I have time I will be updating the web site to say the same thing. The reason is not that I think that flocks of people will come in to our church with the new descriptor. Rather it’s because in our community using the descriptor removes one barrier that keeps people away from of our church. Since I have been up here for the last year and a half I have been asked at least 150 times if… Read more »
We will likely do something of the sort in the not too distant future.
But in our church, few but the pastoral staff have SBC ties.
As nearly as anyone can tell, then, the Living Well Church in Columbia, Indiana, is the first Southern Baptist Church to utilize the phrase “Great Commission Baptist” publicly, and its use was not as a tagline following Southern Baptist Convention, but rather, as a replacement name in lieu of the Southern Baptist Convention.
We have our historical footnote. Perhaps there are others, but we just don’t know about them yet.
Good. Now we can win at Baptist Trivial Pursuit next year in Houston!
Because if there I’d one thing you can count on, it is this: at some point in the meeting we’ll pursue something trivial!
I’m thinking we should make that a part of the blogger get together over barbecue.
Maybe even call it a blogger barbecue. How much you want to bet some people would contribute funding if they thought that was what they were paying for?
@ Doug, you know, some people don’t like Barbecue. I purpose that you have a blogger barbecue, but also have a tag line “Author Get Together” can I get second anyone?
No, not a tagline. A descriptor statement……
We can just call it slow-cooked meat and hope that keeps it under wraps.
Not a church or entity, but one of our church members changed her religious affiliation on Facebook to Great Commission Baptist. Counts for something, right?
Really? All the manpower, meetings, research and press conferences involved in exploring our name change has resulted in an updated social network profile for one member of our denomination.
It has now been more than a month, and I still have not seen significant adoption of the new descriptor.