The Cooperative Program may be Southern Baptists’ preferred way of supporting missions and ministries at home and around the world. But no one should forget that the Cooperative Program starts with individuals as they bring their tithes and offerings to God’s storehouse. In other words, the Cooperative Program begins with you.
Baptists understand the concept of tithes and offerings as a clear Bible teaching. The Old Testament commands tithes and offerings. In Leviticus 27:30 God said, “A tithe (one-tenth) of everything … belongs to the Lord.” Proverbs 3:9–10 teaches the tithe is the “firstfruits” of all one has. Malachi 3:8–10 instructs that tithes and offerings are to be brought to God’s “storehouse” — the church.
The New Testament commends tithing. Jesus scolded the Pharisees in Luke 11:42 for scrupulously tithing but neglecting justice and love. About tithing He said, “These you ought to have done.” There is no escaping that Jesus affirmed tithing as the beginning point of Christian stewardship.
But the New Testament goes beyond the requirements of Old Testament law. The apostle Paul told the Christians in Corinth, “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart” (2 Cor. 9:7). One does not give out of compulsion, he adds, but because “God loves a cheerful giver.”
To the Ephesian leaders, Paul quoted Jesus as saying, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). Offerings go beyond the tithe. Offerings please God. Offerings bring the blessings of helping others. Offerings help develop a cheerful heart in the giver.
Tithes and offerings also help undergird missions and ministries, proclamation and worship, education and benevolent work, and much, much more at home and around the world. It all begins with individual Christians who understand the biblical teaching of presenting their tithes and offerings to God through the church.
How the funds result in work around the world is part of the genius of the Cooperative Program. The Cooperative Program is a partnership that begins with individuals, includes the local church and reaches to the farthest corner of every state and to the ends of the earth itself.
After individuals have given their tithes and offerings, local churches decide what percentage of those monies will be sent beyond the congregation for missions and ministry. Those who originated the Cooperative Program envisioned local churches sharing 50 percent of undesignated receipts through the Cooperative Program, but that has never been the case. Generally speaking, churches have been urged to “tithe” their undesignated receipts to missions and ministries beyond themselves through the Cooperative Program. That would mean a minimum of 10 percent, and even that has been a reach for many congregations. The average percentage of local church undesignated receipts given to missions and ministries through the Cooperative Program stood at 5.62 percent for 2009–2010 (the last year of SBC records).
Churches, however, do not make decisions. Individual members make decisions. Church decisions are the composite of decisions made by members. That means individuals reflect their priorities not only as they give their tithes and offerings but also as they decide the percentage of those tithes and offerings to be invested in the kingdom of God locally and the percentage to be invested in their state and world through the Cooperative Program-supported missions and ministries.
Once that decision is made, funds from cooperating churches are forwarded to the state Baptist convention office. Once again a decision has to be made about how to divide the receipts between the kingdom of God as expressed in the state and missions and ministries supported by the Cooperative Program nationally and worldwide.
Again, state conventions do not make decisions. Individuals make decisions. Decisions reached by state conventions reflect the priorities of the majority of the individuals who participate in the annual business meeting. State convention business meetings are not composed of churches; they are composed of individuals. A church cannot even instruct participants from that church how to vote on issues. That is why decisions by state or national conventions are not binding on local churches. All decisions reflect only the composite positions of those individuals who helped make them.
It is the individuals who give their tithes and offerings — who help local churches decide what percentage to contribute to missions and ministries through the Cooperative Program — who decide how to divide funds between state needs and those beyond the state. Just as these people understand the needs of their local churches best, they also understand the needs of their state best.
As Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions Executive Director Rick Lance often says, “Only Alabama Baptists are responsible for reaching Alabama.” Forty-one other state and regional conventions voice similar commitments concerning their state or region.
Once state convention decisions are made, Cooperative Program funds from the 42 cooperating conventions are forwarded to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) for SBC missions and ministries. Again individuals make the decisions about how to use the funds. In annual business sessions individuals consider proposals and adopt budgets that send certain percentages to the International Mission Board, the North American Mission Board, the six cooperating seminaries and other entities.
Once again individuals make up the annual business meeting of the SBC. Neither local churches nor state conventions can instruct individuals how to vote on any issue. Decisions reflect only the composite will of the individuals participating in the annual business session.
As in a local church, there are committees who study issues in greater detail than ever presented on the floor of a state or national convention business meeting. As in a local church, committees offer recommendations for the body to consider. And, as in a local church, it is the majority will of the individuals who make up that voting body who finally decide how Cooperative Program dollars will be divided among SBC causes.
From the moment tithes and offerings are placed in the offering plates of local churches until the moment those funds are translated into missions and ministries, it is individual Baptists who make the decisions and guide the process related to the Cooperative Program. That is why the Cooperative Program is a partnership of individual Baptists expressing their priorities by their personal giving through local churches, state conventions and the SBC.
The Cooperative Program begins with you as an individual giving tithes and offerings to God and it ends with you building up the kingdom of God through your local church, your state convention and the SBC.
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