Presidential Reflections

J. D. Greear addresses the SBC Executive Committee during a 2019 meeting in Nashville, Tennessee. Image by Eric Brown

BY J. D. GREEAR

Nobody saw 2020 coming, right? Just about every pastor in the SBC had just finished their “Vision 2020” series, feeling creative and unique with our play on terms, when COVID-19 locked our country down. I know I speak for many when I say it has been the hardest year of ministry I’ve ever experienced.

The lockdown revealed a lot of things about our churches, and us, that were challenging. Many of us had to stop gathering altogether, at least in the ways we were used to. Many of us grieved over the deaths of church members, and we felt the strain on church unity. We understood the dangers of gathering, but we also understood the devastating effects of living in isolation.

Then we had to cancel the SBC annual meeting, and I became the answer to a Baptist trivia question—what SBC president served three years but was only elected to two terms? Worst of all, we missed meeting together. Absent the fellowship we experience at the annual meeting, some of our disagreements got exaggerated. Southern Baptists—Great Commission Baptists—unify best when our focus is on our shared mission, united around our precious Gospel. As my predecessor, Steve Gaines, loves to say, “Baptists are like hunting dogs. When dogs are hunting, they work in harmony. But when they stop hunting, eat supper, and stare at each other, they start growling and fighting. When Baptists evangelize the lost, we work together. When we stop, we fight.”

We also saw the Lord work in tremendous ways. We saw Great Commission work continuing and even thriving in our entities, and true revival

breaking out in many of our churches. Coming together in Nashville will be a celebration—in large part because we’ve missed being together. We’re family. We love the Gospel, the Scriptures, and each other. And we want to push the accelerator on the Great Commission.

As I approach the end of my term, my hope is that we will remember these values going forward.

WE ARE GREAT COMMISSION BAPTISTS. It has been incredible to watch the Lord work through “Who’s Your One?” and Go2. I pray we will continue to champion individual soul-winning, one person at a time. I pray that Go2 will become the default of every one of our college graduates and young professionals—to give their first two years after graduation to the mission of God: either overseas or on a church plant in the US. And I pray that we will continue to champion the gifts of both men and women as we seek to reach all peoples with the Good News of Christ. Our sons in the church will thrive only as our daughters thrive along with them.

WE PRIORITIZE THE GOSPEL ABOVE ALL. The Gospel for us is not one doctrine among many, but is, as the Apostle Paul said, of first importance. Alignment on second-order political questions, shared cultural heritages, and preferences in worship are not what brings us together. A love of the Gospel and our trust in the infallible, inerrant Scriptures is. As far as I can tell, Jesus only made two overtly political statements: “Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s,” and “If my kingdom were of this world, my followers would fight.” There were problems in the Roman Empire, but the church as an institution didn’t get entangled in them. This doesn’t mean we ignore societal struggles—as Paul taught, vertical reconciliation with God leads to horizontal transformation with others. That informs how we engage and how we vote. But Christians can be united in the main things even when they disagree on the secondary ones. By God’s grace, Southern Baptists have been a people committed to truth, and by his continued grace, we will never falter in speaking clearly where the Bible speaks clearly. But we have a Gospel too precious and a mission too urgent to let anything secondary stand in our way.

WE COMMIT TO BEING PEOPLE OF TRUTH AND INTEGRITY. James, Jesus’ half-brother, recognized that a culture of suspicion grows naturally out of a fallen heart—he calls it “the wisdom from below” and considers it demonic. What separates the “wisdom from above” from the “wisdom from below” is not just its content, but the spirit in which it is held. The wisdom from above is “peaceable . . . full of mercy and good fruits.” That means we assume the best about one another’s intentions. And when in doubt, we give each other the benefit of the doubt. God doesn’t make us righteous by demanding righteousness, but by extending grace. In the same way, we don’t cultivate trust by demanding it, but by extending it.

Every second of this experience has been an honor and a privilege. What a joy it has been serving Great Commission Baptist people in forty-one state conventions across this nation, and the missionaries they have sent out to nations all around the world. I am encouraged and energized by our future. I pray God will bless our efforts as we continue cooperating for His Kingdom. The future, as Wiliam Carey loved to say, remains as bright as the promises of God. Through many dangers, toils, and snares, we have already come—’tis grace that brought us safe thus far and grace ‘twill lead us home!

J. D. GREEAR is president of the Southern Baptist Convention and is pastor of The Summit Church in Durham, North Carolina.

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