Ways the Cooperative Program Helps Your Church

Ways the Cooperative Program Helps Your Church

Oftentimes people think of the Cooperative Program (CP) as the primary way Southern Baptists work together to fund missions efforts. It certainly is that, but one should never forget that the CP provides important helps to every Baptist church. Here are just a few. 

1. The CP helps a church fulfill the biblical command to share the gospel. After affirming that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, the apostle Paul wrote, “and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:19). Jesus Himself said in John 20:21, “As the Father has sent me, I also send you.” Each gospel writer recorded Jesus instructions for His followers to be witnesses “even unto the ends of the earth.” The CP helps churches fulfill God’s purpose of believers being “laborers together with God,” not out of coercion but out of gratitude and love for what God has done for us through faith in Jesus Christ. 

2. The CP helps a church share the gospel where the church cannot go. Whether one looks at the world geographically or demographically, the same conclusion is inevitable. No church can share the gospel in every place or with every people group. Yet as churches give through the CP they help share the gospel in most every country in the world. They do this among an ever-
increasing number of people groups through more than 5,000 international missionaries and cooperating bodies of national Christians with whom these Baptist representatives work. 

3. The CP helps a church share the gospel in all areas of Baptist life. The CP is a partnership between a church, its state convention and the national body. When a church does local missions that is part of the CP. Christ-honoring missions and ministries in the state are part of the same effort. So is all that Baptists do together through the national body — seminary education, church planting efforts in the underserved areas of the United States and evangelistic efforts in distant lands.  

4. The CP demonstrates the value of partnership with other churches. Together churches can do more than any church can do alone. More than 5,000 international missionaries, church planting efforts in major cities in North America, an extensive network of Baptist colleges, universities and seminaries, a nationally recognized disaster relief program, extensive ministry efforts through state conventions and local associations, hundreds of thousands of new believers around the world each year — all attest to the benefits of Baptists working together. And because the churches collectively decide how CP contributions are spent, only what the churches decide to do is underwritten financially. 

5. The CP models how local church members can work together. The genius of the CP is all the churches working together. That principle carries over to the local church. Even if there were not financial needs to undergird ministries at home and around the world, every member would still need to give as an act of worship of what he or she has accumulated. Giving is not just for the financially well-to-do or from the surplus of one’s gain. Just as giving through the CP involves every church regardless of size, giving through the local church involves every member. 

6. The CP emphasizes the value of a broad and balanced program. Evangelizing, disciplining, equipping, ministering — every facet of the Christian faith is important. Each requires ongoing efforts. Light bills have to be paid as well as salaries for ministers. Whether it is the local church budget or the budget of a state or national convention, the concern is undergirding the entire work, not just the pet concerns of a few powerful influencers.

7. The CP emphasizes efficiency in handling the Lord’s money. Every penny given by Baptists is the Lord’s money and must be handled carefully and efficiently. Consider just the postage costs if churches attempted to support missionaries independently. To mail a check to each of the 5,000 missionaries (using the cost of a First Class U.S. stamp) would cost $2,250. To send monthly check for one year would cost $27,000. Multiply that number by the 3,200 cooperating Alabama Baptist churches and it would cost $86,400,000 annually in postage. That is more than twice the amount Alabama Baptists gave last year through the CP. And still, there would be nothing for work in the state or the nation. No way of fulfilling the biblical command of sharing the gospel is more efficient that the CP. 

8. The CP helps develop a missions consciousness in the church. People may make a one-time gift because they are told it is going to a good cause. But no one long supports a cause in which they are not interested. Either they will learn about the cause or they will cease giving. Because information comes before interest, CP giving can stimulate the opportunity for members to learn about missions. It can become almost cyclical: members give to missions causes through the CP; they learn more about missions at home and abroad, which results in more giving and praying and personal involvement in missions. 

9. The CP helps churches teach the importance of proportionate giving. Most churches use the biblical concept of tithing (10 percent) as the standard for Christian stewardship. For those unable to start at this level, churches encourage starting at a set percentage and moving toward the 10 percent goal. For those already tithing, churches frequently promote additional offerings by increasing one’s contribution by a set percentage. Likewise the CP promotes a church channeling a set percentage of its income to missions causes. The church decides on the percentage. It is a percentage deemed fair to all and it can be adjusted annually until the church reaches its goal for missions giving. 

10. The CP puts all churches on equal footing. Whether a church’s budget is $1,000 or $1 million, each church makes a percentage commitment to the partnership efforts of local and global missions. Every church’s commitment is important just as every member’s tithes and offerings are important. Numerical size and financial resources take a back seat to spiritual commitment to work together with other Baptist churches in fulfilling the biblical command to share the gospel. 

Because of these and other contributions, all of us would do well to remember that the Cooperative Program is important to every cooperating Baptist church.