What was a report is now a document, which waters down and dilutes the very vehicle, which empowers us to reach the world with the gospel — the Cooperative Program (CP).
A reading of page 4 tells us there is a problem with the giving of our churches. The Great Commission Resurgence (GCR) Task Force wrote, “The average Southern Baptist gives only 2.5 percent of annual income to the local church and beyond. … Local Southern Baptist churches are now giving an average of 6 percent of annual receipts to the Cooperative Program.”
As part of the GCR report, the messengers affirmed and approved the “language and structure of Great Commission Giving.” But an amendment was made to this motion that reads, “Designated gifts to special cause are to be a supplement to … and not a substitute for Cooperative Program giving.”
To me, what this means is that the CP now becomes a part of the funding solution of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) instead of the funding solution. And it matters not what anyone says; when you allow designated funds plus mainline funding, you are taking away from one or the other, and in an economy which is teetering, this presents a problem of major implications.
Members of the GCR Task Force have issued a call to repentance and revival among Southern Baptists. While I agree we need to repent of our apathy regarding he lostness of the world, beginning in our Jerusalem (Acts 1:8) and extending to the end of the world (Matt. 28:18–20) — our indifference, which seems to throw up walls of barriers and division — there is another element of repentance which must come to the surface. I would call to repentance churches and pastors who have sought to take away and/or reduce their giving to the CP. It amazes me these are the very ones who are calling on repentance and allowing the amendment for “designated gifts.”
We as Southern Baptists need three things so we may impact the world and make a difference in the lives of 6 billion who are lost and need Jesus Christ.
First we need a true Holy Ghost revival, which will purge us of all impurities and pull us back to the centrality of the gospel of the cross and propel us into the world with the message of hope.
Secondly we need the CP to stand as it was received in 1925 with no additions and with every Southern Baptist church giving at least 10 percent so the SBC may do the work to which it has been called.
Third Southern Baptists at the grass-roots (level) need to rise up and put to rest the continual election of the popular and prominent to positions of leadership within the convention.
It is time to take a stand and serve cooperatively and humbly before the Lord and a lost world, which needs to see Jesus in everything we do.
Jeff Fuller
Rockford, Ala.
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