Were They Missed?

I am currently teaching through the final chapters of Mark's Gospel, and this week we find ourselves Mark 14 in the upper room with Jesus and the disciples.

Whenever I come to this passage (in preaching or at The Table) I feel a sense of inadequacy. I have yet to feel that I have ever carried my people to this text or the text to my people very well. It is too large. It is an unmistakable reality that what was unfolding around that table was in large measure the very hinge of history. The passions in the room (of both disciple and master) would be impossible to measure. Looking back and looking ahead the greatest movements in history were in view.

Yet I feel I do no better than awkwardly point and stumble without beginning to reveal all that is there. Sunday morning I will try again.

One thing that has caught me in this week of study was the disciples gathering in the Passover season with each other in the upper room. On this most family-centered of celebrations I wonder if their families missed them. Like that first Thanksgiving the kids don't come home from college, how strange did those tables feel without those disciples?

Sure the disciples, with their heads spinning and knees quaking, were hours away from faithless panic. But they had left father and mother to follow Christ. Imperfect as they were, they had put themselves in position to find redemption at their weakest hour.

I pray our service this Sunday will offer that same redemption to those who gather.

The Return of the GCR

If I recall my last blog posts were about the GCR. (It has been that long that I do have to strain a bit to remember.)

As a Southern Baptist pastor I am interested in the ongoing conversation about the structure of our convention. As a believer in Christ I am interested in the most effective means to obey the Great Commission.

So I have been following the #gcr twitter feeds.....

To be honest I am confused by what I read. Dr. Floyd refers to the GCR as a grassroots movement of Southern Baptists but I would not call seminary presidents and agencies heads exactly grassroots. But more confusing to me is the giddy enthusiasm and support for the Progress Report. But when I read the report I just can't find any cause for these ecstatic utterances (even of the Baptist variety).

The talk is that everything is on the table. We will do anything to accomplish this task so great. It is time we repent and refocus everything on the evangelism side of the Great Commission. Yet the Progress Report offers a revamped missions statement, new accounting practices and....a redistribution of 1% of receipts to the IMB.

Not exactly storming hell with a water pistol! Or maybe it is storming hell with a water pistol....a very inexpensive water pistol.

I think my biggest concern is that we are asking the Task Force to provide things it cannot provide. If there are bottlenecks and blindspots in the system let's address them. But let us not think we can Task Force ourselves to the next Great Awakening!

I would also add, that while our resources often reveal where our heart is, money is not the missing ingredient to global Spiritual Climate Change. The shifting of dollars will be a result of Great Commission Resurgence not the cause.

With the risk of being considered an anti-Great Commission blogger, I do want to add a warning to my brothers and sisters that we not make the tragic error of counting on denominational restructuring for Great Commission Resurgence.

So may the GCRTF study and recommend. May we carefully consider. But let's also know a water pistol when we see one.