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Can’t stop, won’t stop
If there were a better way to invest in the global mission work of the gospel, Beaux Hinote, pastor of First Baptist Church in Justin, said he would urge his church to send its money there.
“But right now, I believe that is the Cooperative Program, and I cannot imagine a world without the Cooperative Program’s impact—from disaster relief to international mission work to church planting here in the states,” Hinote said.
“There is no greater missions organization in Christendom than the Cooperative Program in my eyes, by my metrics.”
A lot of great organizations exist, and FBC Justin partners with some of them, but “our commitment to the Cooperative Program is permanent,” Hinote said. “At this point, I don’t see us ever not contributing to the Cooperative Program in a real way.”
Hinote remembers a few years ago during a FBC Justin business meeting when someone noted the church gives 10% through CP and wondered if missions money could be allocated elsewhere.
“I cannot imagine a world without the Cooperative Program’s impact—from disaster relief to international mission work to church planting ...”
“I remember standing in front of the church during that meeting, and I said, ‘Listen, God has called us to give generously to the Cooperative Program, because here’s what it supports.’” He told a couple of stories of how missionaries influenced his life and how CP has enriched the congregations he has served.
“Resoundingly, the church said, ‘Yes, we need to keep giving to that.’”
Hinote, 45, grew up amid Royal Ambassadors, Girls in Action, and Mission Friends, he said, “where the Cooperative Program was on display weekly in my life through stories of missionaries and through writing to missionaries or doing a craft based on a missionary’s life.”
“The Cooperative Program, to me as a pastor, became real through the Royal Ambassadors program,” Hinote said.
But at First Baptist Justin, with about 400 attending on Sundays in a rural area-turned-thriving-suburban-community, as much as 70% of the congregation consists of new believers or people who have previously been nominally associated with the church.
“They have no idea what the Cooperative Program is,” Hinote said of many churchgoers. Sharing his heart about CP at that business meeting became necessary, and once people understood what it does, they were on board.
Hinote told of FBC Justin’s support of a couple of church plants in Texas supported by the North American Mission Board.
“God has used the Cooperative Program to help us raise up a generation of leadership in the church [that is] continuing to go forth and make disciples.”
“When you start telling those stories to the congregation and help them see these are people with real faces and real stories that are doing real gospel ministry, they’re like, ‘Oh, how can we do more?’” Hinote said.
FBC Justin has a legacy of ministering to the community well, the pastor said, and the financial stability of the congregation stems from the “thoughtfulness and the wisdom of generations of people who have been faithful to what God has called them to here in this community.”
A couple of years ago, the church realized a need for $80,000 to renovate the worship center. Hinote, with a goal of leading the congregation to do for others what they were preparing to do for themselves, challenged them to match that amount for community missions work.
Obviously, some church members were hesitant to raise $160,000 when the renovation cost was only $80,000, but they did it, and along the way learned “you don’t have to cut anywhere. You just have to trust that if God is leading you to do something, He’s going to supply for it,” Hinote said.
The worship pastor at FBC Justin has mentored a few young men, including one who had gone to Bible college but couldn’t afford seminary at Southwestern until “he was supplied grants and matching donations through the Cooperative Program to help him go to school.”
“God has used the Cooperative Program to help us raise up a generation of leadership in the church [that is] continuing to go forth and make disciples,” Hinote said.
If a church is struggling with whether to start or continue Cooperative Program support, Hinote suggests searching the Word of God.
“When we’re dependent upon God for life and we’re trusting Him to meet our needs, then the resources we have aren’t ours to dictate where they go,” Hinote said. “It is to see where God would have us invest them.”
