Find It Here and The Great Commission Resurgence

The life of a Baptist church is both independent and interdependent. It is independent in the sense that final authority rests in the congregation (which should be submitted to the Word), because as Baptists we recognize no institution as having ecclesiastical authority over us. That is to say, the denomination (if we want to call it that) cannot tell us what to preach, what to sing, what to teach, who to hire, etc. But we are also interdependent, because we acknowledge the benefits of cooperation with like-minded churches. Cooperation allows us to pool our resources with the resources of others and accomplish more together, than we could apart.

Monticello Baptist Church was founded in 1805, under the name Midway Baptist Church. Since that time she has been self-governing and cooperative. She joined the Gasper River Association of Baptist's in 1812. She has, most likely, given, when she could, to the Cooperative Program since its inception in 1925. Throughout her years of service the Lord has given her ample opportunity to bless and to be blessed. Now in 2009 and in the coming years, the same opportunities abound. I would like to point out two, and ask you to be praying about participating both. Monticello has agreed to participate in the first one, "Find It Here," and we need to be prayerfully thinking through the second, "The Great Commission Resurgence." Here is a little information about these opportunities:

Find It Here campaign

Concerning the "Find It Here" campaign, the Kentucky Baptist Convention Website states:

“Find it Here” is a campaign to deliver the Gospel to 1.5 million households across Kentucky in the weeks leading up to Easter Sunday 2010.

It is part of the GPS initiative of the North American Mission Board aimed at fulfilling the Great Commission in North America by 2020.

Here is a link to the "Find It Here" Q & A. You can also check out the site findithere.com.

The Great Commission Resurgence

The Great Commission Resurgence (GCR) is an attempt to unify the churches in our convention around our biblical calling the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 1:8). In April 2009, Dr. Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, preached a message entitled "Axioms of a Great Commission Resurgence." The message captured the hearts of many and was drafted into a document called "The GCR Declaration." Messengers at the 2009 annual meeting of the SBC called for the appointment of a task force to "bring a report and any recommendations to the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in Orlando, Florida, June 15-16, 2010, concerning how Southern Baptists can work more faithfully and effectively together in serving Christ through the Great Commission." For more information concerning the GCR go to: www.pray4gcr.com.

I urge you to check out the links given above and read through the materials. I plan on posting more information about both of these opportunities in the days to come.