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GCR Task Force Report – changing structure does not equal spiritual renewal
By Mark Edlund

I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars. You also possess endurance and have tolerated [many things] because of My name, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you: you have abandoned the love [you had] at first. Rev. 2:2 – 4

Dear Churches and Leaders:

As officers of our Colorado Baptists’ Convention, we want to communicate some very important issues that will affect Colorado Baptists. At last year’s annual Southern Baptist Convention, the messengers approved the appointment of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force made up of pastors and leaders around our nation. In February, the Task Force gave its first progress report. This can either be viewed or read here: http://www.pray4gcr.com.

What unites us as Colorado Baptists? What common bond do we share that will help us truly impact this state by penetrating lostness?  Is it the Cooperative Program? Is it the Baptist Faith and Message? Is it sharing particular affinities such as being a product of a “mountain/western” culture? Is it geographical proximity? Is it style of worship? Is it our methodology and ecclesiology? What truly unites us as Colorado Baptists?

While I am a strong proponent of the Cooperative Program and believe it to be the most effective means of fulfilling the Great Commission through shared resources, and I subscribe wholeheartedly to the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, and appreciate the diversity of our many worship styles, methodological and ecclesiological expressions of church, I believe there is something more deeply fundamental that unites us. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I am afraid that we are living in an evangelical culture where the gospel is being assumed and whenever this happens, the next generation almost always suffers a drift into liberalism, pragmatism, and a down-grade on the most important message we are called to share. In 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, Paul reminds us that the gospel is of first importance. He writes, “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you- unless you believed in vain.  For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,  that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”

Be Still and know that I am God. Psalms 46:10

In the last edition of the Rocky Mountain Baptist I wrote about the insidious threat of internet pornography that is trapping some of our believers. I urged our men to flee evil. With this edition I’d like to suggest that there is another ministry killer out there that is more subtle than the computer. This “killer” doesn’t just threaten our ministers but it threatens all believers; both men and women. It’s called burnout or perhaps spiritual fatigue.