The news about missions giving through the Cooperative Program is good. Offering totals for both the Alabama Baptist State Convention (ABSC) and the Southern Baptist
Convention (SBC) are up.
The SBC reported a 5.27 percent increase in 1998-99 receipts when compared to 1997-98 giving. The total amount for the most recent year was $167,996,385. Five months into the 1999-2000 budget year, Cooperative Program giving has remained strong. At the end of February, SBC Cooperative Program giving was running 4.24 percent ahead of the previous year according to a report from the SBC Executive Committee.
For six consecutive years, the SBC Cooperative Program giving has set a new record. Indications are that the 1999-2000 year, which ends Sept. 30, will become the seventh straight record year.
Alabama Cooperative Program receipts also continue increasing. This issue of the state Baptist paper details the missions giving and the baptismal records for calendar year 1999 as released by the ABSC State Board of Missions last week. They show Cooperative Program receipts of $36,383,888.38. This is an increase of 4.89 percent over total Cooperative Program receipts reported for 1998.
And, like the SBC, receipts early in the current budget year are up. But, with only two months’ receipts in the 2000 budget, it is too early to make any predictions about the level of receipts for the year.
Because the Cooperative Program is a partnership of local church, state convention and national body, it is not surprising the receipts of the ABSC and the SBC reflect a similar pattern. Giving starts with the churches. Offerings are forwarded to the state convention from which a percentage is forwarded again for national causes.
This pattern is called unworkable by many. It requires three autonomous bodies — the church, the state convention and the national body — to cooperate. It is easier for some national organization to treat the other parts of the organization as wholly owned corporations or local franchised outlets. That is the business model, not the New Testament model. For Baptists, the local church is the center and every other organization exists to enable local churches.
Another part of cooperation is recognizing the validity of each partner’s work. Local churches support the ministries done cooperatively with sister churches through the state and national conventions. The state and national convention, in turn, support local churches and each other. No partner can question the validity or integrity of ministries deemed important by another partner and expect cooperation to continue in an unhindered fashion.
In Alabama recognition of the validity of national programs is reflected in the 42.3 percent of all Cooperative Program receipts forwarded to the SBC. This percentage is one of the highest among all state conventions.
A third aspect of cooperation is communication. A common base of information is a necessity for any voluntary group to work together. Partners must communicate with one another, listen to one another, learn from one another and adjust to one another in order to stay united about general directions.
Not all communication is verbal. Sometimes communication occurs by what a partner does or does not do. That being true, it is important to ask what is being communicated in the decisions of churches to give less and less of their undesignated receipts to work beyond their community through the Cooperative Program.
In 1987, Alabama Baptist churches shared an average of 10.2 percent of their undesignated offerings through the Cooperative Program. For 1999, that percentage was 8.90 percent. A year earlier, the percentage was 8.5 percent. It is not known if the jump in this year’s figure means the trend has bottomed out or if it is a blip on a continuing downward trend line. In 1995, the Cooperative Program percentage jumped from 9.0 percent to 9.3 percent. The next year it fell to 9.1 percent and has slipped each year since.
What is unmistakable is that churches are using more and more of their undesignated receipts for local causes. The impact is significant. According to annual church profiles, Alabama Baptist churches received more than $400 million undesignated receipts in 1999. Had churches supported state and national Cooperative Program causes at the same level they did in 1987, another $4.1 million would have been available for cooperative ministries in Alabama and around the world.
Some explain the downward trend by pointing to new giving options for churches. Some churches support Alabama Baptist causes through the Alabama Baptist Cooperative Program causes. Funds received through this channel are used exclusively within the state.
At the same time, a few churches in the state bypass Alabama Baptists and send money directly to the Southern Baptist Convention. The giving of neither group is counted as Cooperative Program giving because one of the partners of CP support is omitted.
But the downward trend started before either option was available to churches. And, the total number of dollars involved in both options combined would make an impact of about one-tenth of one percent of undesignated giving.
Continuing to celebrate the record totals of Cooperative Program giving is important. It is also important to ask what the churches are saying by the decade-long slide in percentage of undesignated receipts shared through the Cooperative Program. Learning what the churches are saying is not an effort to second-guess their decisions. It is an attempt to make sure communication is clear so cooperation in the Lord’s work can be strengthened.
Share with others: