600-plus SBTC churches increase giving to CP missions in 2005

EULESS?This past year, more than 600 SBTC churches increased their giving to missions through the Southern Baptist Convention’s Cooperative Program?the collective missions-funding mechanism begun in 1925.

Among those churches was First Baptist Church of Euless, which increased its giving 145.86 percent?a bump of $177,456.

Bill Anderson, interim pastor of FBC Euless, said, “My experience has been that a church is always spiritually energized by increased mission giving?. Of course, one of the benefits of increased CP giving is the fact that reports of CP successes energize the congregation in a way it wouldn’t if we didn’t give to it.”

Southern Baptists voted to establish the Cooperative Program in 1925 after years of societal missions fund-raising, which entailed direct and often competitive solicitation of churches by missions groups.

The Cooperative Program has gotten attention of late, mostly out of concern that a new generation of Southern Baptists know little about it.

A committee charged with studying a range of financial solutions within the Southern Baptist Convention is recommending that entities promote the Cooperative Program by continually referencing and promoting it in publications and printed materials, Baptist Press reported.

The SBC Funding Study Committee issued its fourth interim report to the Southern Baptist Executive Committee Feb. 20, saying that more needs to be done to educate younger generations about the benefits of the Cooperative Program.

Through the CP, more than 5,000 international missionaries and another nearly 2,500 North American missionaries are funded. Beyond that, the tuition of thousands of seminarians is essentially half of what it would be at similar independent institutions because of CP missions.

Anderson said of the Cooperative Program, “Southern Baptists are known for devising a highly functioning plan by which every Southern Baptist can participate in a grand strategy to witness to the entire population of the earth?. We do not claim to be perfect, but we do claim that God has blessed our approach and Southern Baptists are committed heartily to our process.”

First Baptist Church in Fort Worth increased its CP giving by 6 percent this past year. Pastor Don Wills told the TEXAN, “Our church has always been involved in missions efforts, but we felt like we needed to do more for kingdom work.”

Of his church members, Wills said that many of them had been faithful to give throughout the years and had been blessed as a result.

“We value the (Cooperative Program) because of the church-planting efforts made possible through the SBTC ? and its heart for missions as a state convention.”

Houston Northwest Baptist Church increased its giving through CP by 82 percent from 2004 to 2005. Mark Howell, teaching and discipleship pastor, said the church has “a heart for missions, and our people value the work of the Cooperative Program as it relates to helping our church fulfill the Great Commission.”

“This past year, we hosted a missions conference and have had numerous missions emphases,” he said. “As a result, we have witnessed a renewed interest in giving, particularly as our giving relates to world missions.”

“I have benefited from the Cooperative Program by receiving a seminary education that is second to none,” Howell said. “(And) our church has benefited from the Cooperative Program by the number of people who have answered the call to full-time mission work.”

Howell added, “It is one of the main features that sets Southern Baptists apart from other denominations. It is a joy to partner with thousands of other Southern Baptist churches to accomplish together what we could never do alone.”