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Editor’s note: In celebration of the Cooperative Program’s 100th anniversary, each issue of the Texan this year will include a testimony from a pastor explaining why his church gives through and believes in CP.
I began attending Southern Baptist churches before I was even born—my earliest memories shaped by pews, hymnals, and the steady encouragement of my father, who was a Southern Baptist pastor.
As a preacher’s kid, I remember sitting in the sanctuary as missionaries on furlough visited from all over the globe, always expressing heartfelt thanks to our congregation for supporting something called the Cooperative Program.
The Cooperative Program is a unified funding system through which Southern Baptist churches pool resources to support missions, seminaries, and ministries around the world. At the time, I didn’t fully grasp what those missionaries were referring to. It wasn’t until I prepared to enter seminary myself that I began to understand the profound impact of the Cooperative Program—in my personal life and beyond.
Not only did the Cooperative Program shape my personal journey, but its reach extends far beyond individual stories. For example, when the time came for seminary, there was only one SBC seminary in Texas able to offset tuition costs: my beloved Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Thanks to Cooperative Program support, I was able to pursue two degrees—one from SWBTS and another from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary—without the overwhelming financial burden so many students face.
While attending seminary, I came to see how Southern Baptists, through the Cooperative Program, work together to reach the nations with the gospel. The program enables full-time missionaries to serve without having to pause their ministry for fundraising trips home. I’ll never forget hearing the stories of the missionaries who visited our church. I remember the couple sent out by First Baptist Church of George West through the International Mission Board to an East Asian nation and how they were able to go because you gave.
As we strive to reach the nations as Jesus commanded, I urge you to continue giving through the Cooperative Program so we may continue in “one voice to glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
As my horizons broadened, I also learned about the churches planted across North America because of ongoing Cooperative Program support. This initiative is only possible by the cooperative spirit among Southern Baptists, who choose daily to work together as one voice so the nations may hear the gospel.
In 2017, when Hurricane Harvey devastated the Rockport-Fulton community, Coastal Oaks Church benefited from Cooperative Program giving through disaster relief ministries from SBTC and the North American Mission Board. Their presence was a living testament to the power of partnership and generosity, answering the call to go and serve as one voice so the nations will hear the gospel.
Every church I have pastored over the last 25 years—from a rural community in Central Texas to the vibrant city of Honolulu and back to the Texas coast—has supported the Cooperative Program. In each context, I witnessed firsthand how those gifts made a global impact. Romans 15:5-6 says, “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
As we strive to reach the nations as Jesus commanded, I urge you to continue giving through the Cooperative Program so we may continue in “one voice to glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” When you give, you equip and mobilize young men and women—like I once was, growing up in the brush country of South Texas—to fulfill the Great Commission so that all may hear, and by hearing the Word of Christ, believe.
