That's it! We wanted something that could make it easier to explain why we love people and want to help them like Jesus said. We wanted something to explain why we'd be willing to go out in freezing, rainy weather to visit them and pray with them about their needs. We wanted something to explain why we give up the comfort of our recliners and feed them countless meals when their homes are destroyed by hurricanes, tornadoes and floods. We wanted something that makes it easier to explain why we care? why we go to the uttermost parts of the earth to dig wells, teach English, fix their teeth, care for their broken-hearts when abused and abandoned by parents, set up Pregnancy Resource Centers, and support seminaries to train pastors to shepherd flocks.
We needed something that more readily explains our mission to "go", to "tell", to "teach", to "baptize", to "make disciples" in the name of Jesus.
We wanted something to make it easier to explain why a bunch of "southern" Baptists who believed in the great commission took it to heart and obeyed their Savior's voice to go beyond their geographical areas and plant a church in Iowa, Nebraska, Montana, Alaska, New York City, or China, for that matter. Will a name-change make it easier to explain why a bunch of "southern" folks wanted to send missionaries around the world.
Will a name change make it easier to explain why the media camps out at our conventions in order to find something to stir the proverbial pot of controversy in the world, as collectively we try to make decisions that affect our communities and churches and missions in a positive way?
I wonder.
Will the controversies that embody the Southern Baptist Convention be no more? Will the "northern" Great Commission Baptist churches grow faster now? Will they have less to explain? Or will they have more apologies to make before they can effectively reach a lost world for Christ? Does a name change make it easier to "obey" the Great Commission? I don't know. I'm just asking.
Then again, perhaps it's just time to "Well, Shut My Mouth"/link. selahV
