In recent days, you have covered the issues surrounding the Great Commission Resurgence (GCR) Task Force with clarity and complete transparency. As always, I applaud you and your staff for the research, time and talent you put into these types of articles, as well as all the others.
Yet I wish to say to Alabama Baptists, actually to all Southern Baptists, “beware, lest we water down the very avenue we have used in order to take the gospel to the world.” The Cooperative Program (CP) was established in 1925 for the purpose of funding state and national convention ministries. We have been able, through the unselfish giving of our churches, to date, to support approximately 4,000 career missionaries on foreign soil and approximately 5,000 stateside missionaries scattered around the United States, support our seminaries and colleges, assist in providing for those who have endured disasters and much more.
At the state convention level, we have about 100 individuals who serve us through the State Board of Missions. Approximately half are missionaries, most of whom travel across the state aiding and encouraging the work of reaching our state and the world with the message of hope. Locally, each association has the privilege of employing a missionary who gives hands-on help within the county.
Within the GCR document is an article titled A Commitment to a More Effective Convention Structure; initially those who propose to make changes stated, “Denominational structures have become bloated and bureaucratic at every level … and a disproportionate amount of Cooperative Program dollars (are) being kept by the state conventions.” Some conventions may need to be reminded of these things, but Alabama Baptists have continued to re-examine the structure, make changes as necessary and serve the people with a humble heart. As for CP funds kept back, what the GCR Task Force may need to examine is the disproportionate amount of monies some of the larger churches within the national convention give to support the CP. When I see a church recording budget receipts in the millions and less than a token offering to CP enterprises, I see the true meaning of disproportionate.
Each church giving to state convention causes and denominational work through the CP allows us to do so much more than we could alone. Some of the larger churches may be able to send missionaries and plant churches on their own. But a church the size of Rockford Baptist and others in rural Alabama must work together, sharing the burden of the project, holding hands and hearts so we might change the world.
I call on Alabama Baptists to rise up and stay informed. Let us not lose what we have spent years to establish. The CP really works and it is the avenue that seems to be under attack within the GCR.
Jeff Fuller
Rockford, Ala.
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