Frequently churches act like a decision to cooperate with other Baptists on behalf of the kingdom of God through a local association, a state convention or a national body is a once-and-for-all decision. In fact, the decision whether or not to prioritize participation in a worldwide strategy of missions and ministry is a decision made over and over again in every local Baptist church.
The result of this once-and-for-all mindset about cooperation decisions has resulted in hundreds of churches which claim to be part of a worldwide strategy of missions and ministry but give little or no evidence of being a viable part of a fellowship of churches.
For example, the Birmingham Baptist Association (BBA) reports 139 member churches. These are churches that asked for BBA membership, agreed to cooperate and support the association and were accepted into membership based on that commitment.
For the last year of record, however, 42 of those churches (about 30 percent) provided no financial support to associational ministries. Many of these churches did not participate in any of the association’s ministry projects. Nor did they have representatives at the association’s executive board meetings.
That reality caused the association’s executive board to recently affirm a proposal presented by Mike McLemore, executive director of BBA, that cooperating churches are expected to support the ministries of the association financially, participate in associational missions and ministry projects and have representation at the executive board meetings.
Otherwise the churches could be considered uncooperative and removed from the association.
No designated offerings
It is interesting that practically all the churches that did not contribute to the association gave nothing to missions through the Cooperative Program (CP) and 35 of the 42 gave no designated offerings for international missions, North American missions, world hunger or work in Alabama according to information provided by the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
BBA is not alone in this situation. Many associations have churches that once had the best intentions of participating with sister churches in missions and ministries to their area. But over time, local church needs became the priority. That change of emphasis finds expression in every aspect of local church life from what it promotes to what it expects from members to how undesignated receipts are used.
The result is that such churches drift away from their initial commitment to work with sister churches for Kingdom causes and begin to choose congregational needs over being a part of missions and ministry with other churches.
What is true for associations also is true for state conventions and the national Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). The only difference is that neither the state nor national conventions vote to accept churches as members. Churches choose to cooperate in the worldwide strategy of missions and ministry done by Southern Baptists.
In 2014, Alabama Baptists reported 3,286 cooperating churches. However, 790 (almost 1 out of 4) contributed nothing to Baptist worldwide missions and ministries through CP. Additionally, 662 churches (1 in 5) gave nothing through designated state or national missions offerings. Almost 1 out of 7 churches (481) reported giving no contributions to missions through CP or through designated offerings.
Once these churches chose to work with sister churches for missions and ministry at home and around the world. Evidence now indicates that committee has waned.
This pattern reaches beyond Alabama. Speaking to the annual meeting of the Association of State Baptist Publications, SBC Executive Committee President Frank S. Page reported that 17,000 of the 46,210 cooperating SBC churches gave nothing to Southern Baptists’ worldwide program of missions and ministries through CP for the last year of record. That means almost 4 out of 10 churches (36.8 percent) claiming to cooperate with Southern Baptists gave no financial support through CP, the preferred method of supporting state and national missions and ministries.
Most of these churches would endorse the theology of Southern Baptists as expressed in the Baptist Faith & Message. They believe in the lordship of Jesus Christ, the authority of Scripture, personal salvation, primacy of the local church and more. Some would argue that believing those cardinal doctrines makes them a Southern Baptist church.
Certainly Southern Baptists share a common faith. We also share a common motivation — missions and evangelism. Historically we have shared a common methodology as well — a commitment to cooperation. Agreement on all three — message, motivation and methodology — has been a hallmark of Southern Baptists.
Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Jason K. Allen recently observed the major issues before Southern Baptists today are about methodology. As we did a century ago, Southern Baptists are again discussing how they will work together to share the gospel message.
‘Losing the lifeblood’
In other words, will churches choose to work with other Baptists on behalf of the kingdom of God or will churches prioritize local programs and local needs? Allen went so far as to say Southern Baptists are “losing the lifeblood that has driven them for almost a century” — the CP.
On that point there is good news. Page reported that about 2,000 churches contribute 50 percent of all CP receipts. And 80 percent of CP receipts come from 8,200 churches. Like in most churches, about 20 percent of the members of SBC churches are doing 80 percent of the giving.
While the national percentage of undesignated receipts going to missions and ministries through CP climbed from 5.41 percent to 5.50 percent for the last year of record, the percentage of the 8,200 churches giving 80 percent of the CP total is 7.8 percent of undesignated receipts. One can only imagine what could be done in missions and ministries if the 17,000 nongiving churches were to contribute through CP at the national average.
Some churches indicate a strong commitment to working together on behalf of the kingdom of God. Others choose a different path. Like BBA, sometimes it could be necessary to acknowledge the decisions made by the various churches and go forward with those who choose to be a part of the Southern Baptist worldwide strategy of missions and ministry.
Share with others: