If the Cooperative Program (CP) is to grow and thrive in the future, then leaders elected to national positions within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) must come from churches committed to the CP and must be CP “advocates” themselves, according to a report put together by a task force of SBC entity heads and state executives.
The report was released Sept. 17 in Nashville, where more than 30 entity heads and state executives gathered to discuss its content.
It has 13 recommendations and is the fruit of more than five years of work by The Task Force on Cooperation, an eight-member group composed of four entity heads and four state executives. The task force was set up in 2000 by the Great Commission Council and state executives to study ways to improve stagnant CP growth as well as ways to improve relations between the national body and state conventions.
“Too many top Southern Baptist Convention leaders and officials for too many years gave scant attention or support to the Cooperative Program as they discharged their responsibilities,” the report says.
“It is well known that a number of our leaders in the past generation hardly ever spoke about the Cooperative Program or promoted it in one way or another. For the most part, their churches were poor models of Cooperative Program support. As a result, it has been projected that thousands of pastors and churches reduced their Cooperative Program percentage of undesignated monies as they followed the example of those who led them.”
Fighting discouragement
“For sure, this reality has hurt the Cooperative Program as much as anything and has been discouraging and regrettable,” the report says. “About that point, there yet remains a huge amount of disappointment, mistrust and even raw emotions which need to be recognized, addressed, and reconciled all across the Southern Baptist Convention.”
Among other task force recommendations were:
- People “elected to Southern Baptist Convention positions of leadership” should come from “strong Cooperative Program churches” and be “well-known advocates themselves of Cooperative Program commitment.”
- Every elected SBC and state convention leader “should promote the Cooperative Program” with “vigor and intentionality on a consistent basis.”
- The International Mission Board and North American Mission Board should promote the CP “as vigorously” as they promote the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering, respectively.
- “Every effort” must be made to “incorporate a renewed call to biblical stewardship and the Cooperative Program” as a “vital link in support of the invitation of Jesus to live out His Kingdom principles.”
- The state conventions and the SBC Executive Committee must join together to provide leadership for “Cooperative Program promotions and expansion.”
- Southern Baptists should be taught “to practice the biblical standard” of tithing.
- Southern Baptist churches should send “at least a tithe of undesignated receipts” to missions causes through the CP.
- SBC entities must not pursue “financial mission support in a societal approach” — that is, by seeking donations directly from churches outside of the CP framework. According to the report, “this practice is the polar opposite to the Cooperative Program and will mean the death of Southern Baptists as we have existed, especially since 1925.” (BP)
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