Dickie Cullum, pastor of First Baptist Church, Dillon, registers some puzzlement about the downward trend of giving to the Cooperative Program.
“Our priority by far as a church is the work of the Southern Baptist Convention through the Cooperative Program,” he said, and as the church’s record of giving 10 percent of all undesignated receipts to the CP testifies. “It’s a matter of seeing the merit of the Cooperative Program, what it accomplishes for the dollar, the diverse ways it’s used. It operates well both near and far. Honestly, I think the Cooperative Program is one of the main positives we have as a denomination.”
First Baptist Church of Clover, too, has a long history of supporting the CP; the church currently gives 20 percent of undesignated receipts through the 86-year-old giving program.
Explains longtime pastor David Stanford, “It’s been the history of our church for quite a while. We just put a high priority on missions.”
Holly Springs Baptist Church in Inman also contributes 21 percent of its undesignated receipts through the Cooperative Program. The church’s CP giving, like many, does not include special missions giving such as the traditional missions offerings of Lottie Moon, Annie Armstrong, and Janie Chapman.
“We believe the International Mission Board is the greatest missionary force in the world; it is our motivation to be supportive of that,” said Stanford.
At the same time, like pastors of other churches in South Carolina that continue to give 10 percent or more through the CP, he recognizes the challenge of keeping the Cooperative Program personal, relevant, and a priority for many church members, especially the younger generations.
“It is a much greater challenge now for people to know what it means to be Baptist,” said Cullum. “That’s why we started a ‘Membership Matters’ class for new and prospective members, in which I cover who we are as Baptists historically and what it means to be in the association, state convention, national convention, and how the CP works to support all of that.”
He added, “One of the criticisms we get as Southern Baptists is we’re not in touch enough with our missionaries, but churches have to take responsibility for that. That’s one reason we have missionary speakers and why our church makes an effort to stay in touch with denominational life.”
Stanford agrees. “We need to do more explaining because a lot of our new folks don’t have the familiarity,” he said.
When it comes to giving through Cooperative Program, it isn’t just the recent economy that’s having a negative impact. Giving through the CP, which funds missions, ministries, and education throughout the Southern Baptist Convention, has been on the wane for decades. Between 1978 and 2008, Cooperative Program giving percentages declined by 45 percent; they are down by 25 percent in the last 10 years.
In 2010, Southern Baptist churches gave an average of 5.8 percent through the CP, totaling $500 million. South Carolina Baptist churches gave 6.9 percent, totaling $29,503,011.36.
This is not to say Southern Baptist churches are waning in their support of missions overall – though recent economic woes are certainly taking their toll – but that their support is less often funneled through the CP.
“Some of it’s just generational,” said Cullum. “I’ve been pastoring for 31 years, and there’s less and less involvement or denominational loyalty at every level. I do sense our state and national conventions trying to figure out how to bring a lot of our newer churches into the fold.” – SCBC