A church with 103 members and an average 30-year Cooperative Program giving rate of 32.78 percent received the M.E. Dodd Award during the Southern Baptist Executive Committee’s morning report June 15 at the SBC annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.
Morris Chapman, retiring president of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, awards Eric Moffett, right, pastor of First Baptist Church of Sparkman, Ark., and his wife, Sherrill, the M.E. Dodd Cooperative Program Award. The award is given annually for sustained cooperative giving by a church. Don White and his wife, Martha, middle, have been members of the church since 1946. The award was given during the first day of the two-day annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.First Baptist Church in Sparkman, Ark., which averages 60 to 75 people for worship on Sundays, was recognized for “continuous, long-term excellence in supporting the principles, practice and spirit of the Cooperative Program.”
The award, named after the longtime pastor of First Baptist Church in Shreveport, La., who helped establish the Cooperative Program, is presented annually to a person, congregation or organization for sustained achievement in CP missions support.
“Since the start of the Cooperative Program, the church has given sacrificially because of a deep desire to tell the Good News of Jesus Christ all over the world,” Morris H. Chapman, president of the Executive Committee, said as he presented the award.
The average CP giving by the church over the past 30 years is 32.78 percent with a high of 43.49 percent and a low of 24.27 percent.
Eric Moffett, pastor of First Baptist Sparkman, and his wife, along with longtime members Don and Martha White, accepted the award on behalf of the church.
White, who has been a member of First Baptist Sparkman since 1946, recalled a group of deacons from years ago who were adamant that the church’s giving through the Cooperative Program would not be cut, no matter how dire the church’s finances.
“In fact, usually they would increase what we gave rather than decrease it. And that attitude of our church body prevails today,” White said. – BP