Task force completes study of SBC name change

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) – A task force appointed to study a possible
name change for the Southern Baptist Convention has completed its work
and will bring recommendations to the SBC Executive Committee Feb. 20.

“We are excited to make these recommendations believing that we have
come to decisions that will please the Father and greatly strengthen our
ability to reach more people with the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,”
task force chair Jimmy Draper, former head of LifeWay Christian
Resources, said in a statement released through Baptist Press. “From the
beginning we have desired only to discern God's will in this matter.”

SBC President Bryant Wright appointed the advisory group without
Executive Committee action last fall. Wright, pastor of Johnson Ferry
Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga., said he believed the current name is
too regional and that a new identity might make the convention more
effective in church planting.