GCR Report Impressions, Part 5

This is the fifth part of my continuing effort to weigh in on the Great Commission Resurgence interim report that was given in Nashville on Monday, February 22nd. My assessment will consist of several more parts over the next few days.

While the second component dealt exclusively with the North American Mission Board, the third component concerns the International Mission Board. By the tone and tenor of the report, NAMB is broken, but the IMB only needs tweaked. In fact, the task force is recommending an expansion of the IMB into NAMB territory. Their proposal is to, “Unleash the International Mission Board upon American soil to reach the unreached and under-served people groups without regard to any geographical limitation.”

If one has ever interacted with immigrant groups within our borders, this move only makes sense. Many times they retain their culture, language and customs while living in America. They also retain significant ties to their homelands. This seems to be a sound strategy to reach those people groups effectively and efficiently, however it will be interesting to see how immigrant church plants will be handled. The next post will consider the fourth component.