Cole Cunningham

I care deeply about missions. But we won’t be able to do missions well if we lose ourselves. The Great Commission is not optional. Christ has all authority in heaven and on earth, and the church must make disciples of all nations. Some must go, others must send, and all of us must care. Yet if American Christians neglect our homes, churches, communities, and nation in the name of caring for the nations, we weaken the conditions that make missionary sending possible. Missionaries need churches to train and support them, strong families and communities to sustain them, and a stable nation from which to serve. When a country is consumed by disorder, poverty, conflict, or war, its people turn inward and its resources are redirected toward survival. This is not an argument against missions, but for the strength and peace that help make missions possible. Healthy families, faithful churches, fruitful vocations, ordered households, and a stable nation provide an earthly foundation for obedience to the Great Commission. Andrew Fuller, William Carey, and the early Baptist missionary movement understood that love of one’s own land and people need not conflict with universal benevolence. Properly ordered, it can strengthen it. So yes, I want missionaries sent to the ends of the earth. I want Christ proclaimed where He is not known and churches planted among every tribe and tongue. Precisely because I want that, I want America recovered—not as an idol, an ultimate hope, or a substitute for Christ’s kingdom, but as a people, place, and inheritance we are responsible to steward before God for the sake of our children, churches, neighbors, and the nations to whom we owe the gospel.

President Willy Rice delivered a powerful message to the SBC's Executive Committee last night. An important part of it were his remarks about the "Truth and Unity Amendment" concerning the pastoral office. I encourage you to listen to all of his remarks about the amendment in the video below. Here's a highlight: "The lesson of our evangelical and Reformation history is clear. The threat of doctrinal drift is real, and you never drift anywhere worth going. I know there is a ditch on both sides of the road, but the ditch on one side is a chasm. And at the bottom of that chasm are the bones of a thousand gospel movements and institutions that were once vibrant and strong, but they are now empty institutional shells, tragic monuments to a once-great past. Which is why I believe the Truth and Unity Amendment is so important, and why I believe it is critical for Southern Baptists to pass this amendment next year in Indianapolis." @WillyRice @SBCExecComm