What Capital Baptist Church’s pastor saw firsthand made him a believer.
“It was my privilege to serve on the executive board of the Northwest Baptist Convention for a term on the finance committee,” John Lipton said. “In so doing I observed our convention’s absolute commitment to sound principles of stewardship, accountability and integrity.
A vote for missions – The heart of Capital Baptist Church is reflected not just by initiatives such as evangelistic block parties, but its recent vote to devote 10 percent of its offerings to Cooperative Program missions.“An increase in Cooperative Program giving is a good step in the direction of kingdom-building,” the pastor said. “God’s kingdom is the most worthwhile investment that any church can make.”
In January, the Salem, Ore., congregation voted to increase their Cooperative Program giving to 10 percent – this despite the fact that the church, where about 180 people attend Sunday morning worship, anticipates hiring a second staff member this year, is deeply involved in a major evangelistic outreach locally, and didn’t make its $263,389 budget last year.
Virginia Barker, a Sunday school teacher and stewardship committee member, said, “If we are encouraging our people to give no less than a tithe, it’s my belief the church should give no less than a tithe to the Cooperative Program.”
“At the budget discussion, eight or 10 people couldn’t say enough good about the Cooperative Program,” Bob Warberg, chairman of Capital’s finance committee, recounted. “The gist of their comments was that with the Cooperative Program, we’re able to be a part of so much more than we could do on our own, and we’re able to be so much more effective in global evangelism when we partner with all the other Southern Baptist churches than we could be on our own.”
The Cooperative Program, birthed in 1925, is the Southern Baptist Convention’s acclaimed method of pooling mission dollars for global evangelization, kingdom growth and theological education.