A delaying tactic for GCR

A state Baptist convention executive is proposing that action on the Southern Baptist Convention's Great Commission Resurgence be delayed for a year.

David Tolliver, executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention, plans to ask messengers at the SBC annual meeting in June to receive the GCR Task Force report, but put off action until until 2011 so all SBC entities can do a "spiritual/financial impact study," Baptist Press reported. The Missouri convention's executive board unanimously passed a resolution favoring the delay.

Tolliver had earlier said the proposals in the task force's preliminary report would devastate the Missiouri convention. That report has also been debated by others (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10).

The task force is scheduled to release its final report May 3.

It remains to be seen how GCR supporters will respond to the suggestion that action be put off for a year. They will fear another year of scrutiny could kill the effort, but must also realize that a nasty fight on the convention floor will make a GCR practically impossible, even if the proposals pass.