Jerry Rankin on our priorities

Jerry Rankin, retiring president of the International Missions Board, shares some very candid thoughts on the convoluted priorities and cooperation of Southern Baptists.

Many denominational events and programs have grown aimless and ineffective. Cooperation has become an end in itself, rather than a means to some greater, transcendent end. Rankin writes...

Cooperation is about us; it is self-centered, self-promoting and maintaining everything every entity is doing without any concern for priorities or results. The Great Commission is not about us, our programs and sustaining what we have always done; it is about others. It is about a lost world. It is about consolidating our resources and focusing our energies to proclaim the gospel to those who have never heard, to win the lost and see the kingdoms of the world become the kingdom of our Lord.

As I listen to Rankin's heart, I honestly don't think he is ranting. I think he is grappling with the reality that we live in a lost world, where three people are dying every second, and most are going straight to hell without Christ. Rankin is genuinely heartbroken over the lost, and putting our petty denominational bickering into perspective.

I wholeheartedly agree that cooperation is not an end in itself. It is a means to promote something of value. Something exhilarating. Something transcendent. Something Christ Himself commanded us to do while on this earth: to fulfill the Great Commission.