DOES THE COOPERATIVE PROGRAM have the necessary staying power as the primary tool for funding the wide-ranging ministries of the Southern Baptist and the South Carolina Baptist conventions?
If that seems like a ridiculous question about a proven method for raising money that has been around since 1925, and is often referred to as the “genius of Southern Baptists,” then consider this: Since 1984, contributions to pay for a wide range of ministries through the CP have dropped from 10.6 percent to 6.6 percent, and concerned and alarmed convention officials fear it could go even lower unless the trend is reversed.
Reversing that trend was top priority for a special task force of SBC entity leaders and state executives, including Carlisle Driggers, executive director-treasurer of our state Baptist convention.
Page three contains the Baptist Press account of the task force’s report, and it is an eye-opener in what it says and recommends.
The report does not mince words in declaring that during the past 40 years the Cooperative Program has, to quote the task force, “begun to vaporize as a high priority” among pastors, church members and even denominational leaders.
“Too many top Southern Baptist Convention leaders and officials for too many years gave scant attention or support to the Cooperative Program as they discharged their responsibilities,” the report continues.
According to the report, some past SBC leaders gave little more than lip service, if that, to the Cooperative Program, and so they and their churches became “poor models of Cooperative Program support.”
And their poor examples led to a predictable result: Thousands of churches followed their example, the report noted.
As the report points out, the fervor of Southern Baptists for their Cooperative Program did not cool overnight to a level low enough to generate the concern currently expressed by our leadership. This discouraging picture of declining Cooperative Support has been developing for years. A thoughtful reading of the recommendations posed by the task force suggest reasons for the drop in percentage giving to the CP – from lukewarm support from people in leadership positions to the failure of church members to tithe.
The election of Southern Baptist and South Carolina Baptist leaders who are known by their words and deeds as strong backers of the CP would be a major step forward in making it clear that the Cooperative Program – for all of the beating it now is taking – remains the best way for Southern Baptists to pay for our missions programs and that elected leaders are expected to demonstrate loyalty to it.
Speaking to the need for all Southern Baptists to rally behind the Cooperative Program and work together in building the kingdom of God on earth, the task force concluded its report on a sobering, but challenging, chord: “We are in a situation that only promises to get worse unless we improve our relationships with each other in the spirit of Christ.”