A Plea For Cooperative Program - Part 2

June 2008

Last month, I expressed some concern about what needs to happen to further the strengthening of the Cooperative Program (CP). I am frankly not encouraged by the election of Johnny Hunt to be the President of the Southern Baptist Convention.

I want to say at the outset that I have no problem with Hunt at the point of theology or ministry. Everything that I know about him and his church indicate that they are a great church with a heart for evangelism and missions.

My problem arises at the point of support for Southern Baptist Missions. Last month, I tried to argue as passionately as I know how that CP has been and continues to be the way that the Southern Baptist Convention has chosen to fund missions.

In the nominating speech for Hunt, Ted Traylor said that Hunt’s church had given 3.3 million dollars to Southern Baptist mission causes. Of this amount only $400,000 to $450,000 went to CP. That figure represents about 2.2% of the budget of Hunt’s church.

Now $450,000 is a lot of money. It is probably one of the larger totals coming from one of our churches. In KNCSB we have a number of churches that give 10% or better to CP. Their totals will nowhere approach the amount of money given by Hunt’s church. However, I believe that they have given the greater gift in the same way that the widow of Mark 12:41-42 was the greater giver by placing her two coins in the temple treasury.

The whole principle behind CP to begin with was to equally share the burden of mission support by the giving of a percentage of church funds. It is now being suggested in many quarters that larger churches can slide in CP percentages because of the size of their ministries and budgets. Where will that kind of thinking get us? How do you spell “DISASTER?”

We are already reeling from years of CP decline in terms of “real” value. In other words, CP has not kept up with inflation. We see reports on a regular basis of growth in giving to CP. Unfortunately, in “real” value we are declining. At the same time overall giving to SBC churches has not only kept up with but has exceeded inflation.

From 1984 to 2004 CP declined 26% against inflation (measured in the consumer price index). Revenue of SBC churches beat inflation by 14%. One study has shown that if CP giving had continued growing until today at the same pace of the 1970s, we would be receiving over three times more than we receive now annually.

In 2005, Morris Chapman, president and chief executive officer of the SBC Executive Committee, said that in 1985 the average percentage of CP giving was 10.6%. By 2005 that percentage had slipped to 6.99%. If the trends reported in 2005 continue, CP will decline 123% versus inflation in the period between 1984 and 2024.

Why is this the case? I have always believed that organizations rise and fall with leadership. Since the 1970s we have had a string of leaders in the presidency who, with a few exceptions, have had a weak commitment to CP. Pastors of smaller churches can read and are intelligent. Why should they give sacrificially to CP if our leaders don’t have the same sacrificial spirit? More importantly we have not had many leaders in that period who have championed CP by word and example.

It grieves me to think that the leaders with the greatest impact on the spending of CP dollars should have such a weak commitment to CP. If we are to succeed as Southern Baptists in the future with our mission programs, our seminaries, and our other endeavors, we need leaders who live and breathe Cooperative Program.

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