Louisville—In its organizational meeting Jan. 5 at the Baptist Building in Louisville, the Kentucky Baptist Great Commission Task Force elected Charles Barnes of Louisville as its vice chairman, set dates for monthly meetings and “rolled up our sleeves to get to work looking at everything” related to the state convention’s work, according to its chairman, Hershael York.

Appointed by the immediate past president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, John Mark Toby of Somerset, during the November annual meeting in Elizabethtown, the task force is charged with studying how the convention serves its churches and reaches out to the lost in an effort to determine the most effective ways to obey Jesus’ command in Matthew 28:19-20.

Barnes, a member of Hurstbourne Baptist Church, most recently served as the coordinator for Crossover Louisville, the area-wide evangelism emphasis that preceded the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention last June. A past KBC president and member of the state Mission Board, Barnes has served on several key directional committees, such as the mission study and advisory groups for Kentucky Baptists Connect.

During its upcoming meetings, the task force will be talking with leaders of the state convention staff and the heads of its agencies and institutions, analyzing the giving trends and responses of Kentucky Baptist churches, and examining the work of the state convention to determine how it can more faithfully and effectively fulfill the Great Commission, York explained.

“At our first meeting, it was incredibly encouraging to see how our committee coalesced,” York told the Western Recorder. “We have different perspectives, burdens and backgrounds, but we all want the same thing: to find the best way to fulfill our mandate to go unto all the world preaching the gospel.

“As we shared our hearts, it became very evident that God already had knit us together,” the pastor of Frankfort’s Buck Run Baptist Church remarked.

In a prepared statement released after their first meeting, York affirmed, “We are convinced that Kentucky Baptists already are doing a lot of things well and that our desire to honor the Lord and reach the lost is evident.

“The challenge for us as a task force is to recommend ways that we can improve our strategy, structure and funding base in order to reach the next generation and the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Desiring for the task force’s study process to be an encouragement and not a distraction for KBC staff and the ministries of its agencies and institutions, York emphasized, “We are excited about the Find It Here emphasis and all of the good things that are happening in the Kentucky Baptist Convention. We hope our process will only strengthen, broaden and deepen that work.”