By Bob Terry
Southern Baptists have given more than $6.2 billion to Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) missions and ministries through the Cooperative Program (CP). That is right — billions — with a “b.”
That information was recently shared by Frank S. Page, president and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee.
The International Mission Board (previously Foreign Mission Board) received more than half the total amount — $3.2 billion.
The North American Mission Board (previously Home Mission Board) received $1.39 billion.
Together these missions agencies have received about 77.5 percent of every CP dollar given in the 90-plus-year history of the CP, the primary missions-giving channel for Southern Baptists.
The SBC’s six seminaries and other educational initiatives received most of the other CP funds — nearly $1.46 billion.
Alabama Baptists have been at the forefront of supporting SBC missions and ministries. Across the years Alabama Baptists have provided $512,291,763 for Southern Baptist causes through CP, according to state Baptist officials. That is almost 8.3 percent of every CP dollar received by the SBC and far beyond the national per capita average.
Obviously through CP, Southern Baptists have done more together than any church could do by itself. Together we have shared the gospel around the globe. Together we have undergirded national Christian bodies. Together we have founded Bible schools, colleges and Baptist seminaries. Together we have undergirded healing ministries that fed the hungry, cared for the poor, ministered to the sick, equipped people to earn their own way and demonstrated God’s love for all humanity.
Widespread missions
It is practically impossible to go anywhere in the world without encountering marks of Southern Baptist witness and ministry.
And those efforts continue today with more than 3,500 international missionaries under appointment by IMB. Many of these men and women serve in some of the most difficult places on earth where to be identified as a Christian can result in death.
In North America, Southern Baptists missions and ministries have been equally as widespread. SBC missions and ministries touched the isolated points of the Appalachian Mountains as well as the forgotten streets of the nation’s inner cities.
As Southern Baptists changed from a regional body of believers to a national Christian denomination our witness spread to every corner of the United States and Canada. To the surprise of many, a denomination that had a tainted history of race relations became the most ethnically diverse Protestant denomination in America.
Ministry goals
Today as the North American Mission Board leads the effort to replant Baptist churches in the major cities of the nation many of those new churches focus on reaching diverse language and ethnic groups.
Again, Southern Baptist witness has been strong and remains strong because we work together. We cooperate. Cooperation is not our goal. Goals relate to the missions and ministries of the convention.
Cooperation is the primary method Southern Baptists choose to accomplish their ministry goals. Southern Baptists cooperate in giving, missions, ministry, education and all the other things Baptists do together.
Cooperation is our greatest strength, humanly speaking.
But sometimes cooperation also is a weakness. That weakness was evidenced recently when a nationally known SBC-affiliated church announced it was escrowing its CP gifts because it disagreed with the public statements of an SBC entity leader.
According to reports, that church was not alone. Others evidently threatened to take similar actions. These churches did not like their missions and ministry gifts supporting something with which they disagreed.
Interestingly these churches took this dramatic action that threatened the entire SBC-funding principle of cooperation even though the entity in question received only 1.65 percent of CP gifts.
This is not a new problem. In the 1950s and 1960s some churches boycotted CP giving because the Christian Life Commission (now Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission) opposed segregation or because Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, invited Martin Luther King Jr. to preach in chapel or some other such reason.
There always have been those who opposed CP giving because they disagreed with a ministry or did not like a program leader or differed with someone’s theological position on a particular issue.
Some outside the convention have long enjoyed attacking Southern Baptist cooperation by pointing to something or someone receiving CP support with which they differed and then asking, “How can you support that?”
Because Southern Baptists are so deeply committed to cooperation, it is not unheard of for an entity leader to nix innovative and creative ideas for fear someone will find the new ministries wanting and criticize the whole SBC support system. No one wants to be the cause for questioning SBC’s primary system of missions giving.
Occasionally churches decide convention budgets (state or national) do not reflect the church’s priorities and reduce CP giving. Churches have every right to make such decisions. What is unfortunate is when those churches did not participate in decision-making processes that resulted in the budget recommendations.
Cooperation is about more than supporting final decisions. Cooperation includes participation in the process by which decisions are made. Working through established channels to express opinions and convictions often can solve problems, further understanding and reinforce cooperation without creating denominational shockwaves that rock the financial foundation of all Southern Baptists do together.
From weakness to strength
Even in governance and decision-making, Southern Baptists cooperate.
When final decisions become the focus and participation in the process ceases to be a priority then cooperation has disappeared. Control seems a more appropriate descriptive.
Because the SBC is made up of human beings there will always be problems. Mistakes will be made.
Corrections will be needed. History clearly illustrates that reality. But the way to make those changes is not to automatically cease CP missions support.
Cooperating with one another, even in times of disagreement, could be one way of turning a potential weakness into a strength.
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Cooperative Program Sunday is April 9.
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