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IRVING—In 3 John 5, John commends Gaius for his generosity to brothers and sisters in the faith.
Some 2,000 years later, standing behind a podium at the Irving Convention Center, West Conroe Baptist Church Senior Pastor Jesse Payne referenced that passage of Scripture and echoed John’s words before a ballroom filled with hundreds of believers representing Southern Baptists of Texas Convention churches from across the state.
Payne, the keynote speaker at this year’s Cooperative Program luncheon held Feb. 24 during the annual Empower Conference, thanked SBTC churches for their generous giving while issuing a stirring challenge.
“Kingdom cooperation is in our DNA as Southern Baptists and more so as New Testament Christians,” Payne said. “It is worth your church’s continual investment. It is one of the greatest tools to see the kingdom advance. … This goal, this vision, [should not be] the last item that is budgeted if there are a few dollars left over at the end of the month,” but instead “an item of high priority.”
Earlier, SBTC Associate Executive Director Joe Lightner explained the Cooperative Program is Southern Baptists’ united giving model for fulfilling the Great Commission. The SBTC forwards 55% of undesignated receipts to the Southern Baptist Convention for national and international ministry while retaining 45% to mobilize Texas churches. Those churches are mobilized on three pathways: resourcing churches, networking leaders, and advancing mission.
“CP maximizes a church’s return on kingdom investment,” Lightner said. Later, SBTC Executive Director Nathan Lorick added that the Cooperative Program “is still the most effective financial means for churches to cooperate to see the world won for Christ.”
In addressing the luncheon, Payne said his aim was not so much to preach a sermon, but to offer an encouraging reminder “about your church’s place in the story God is writing around the world through the Cooperative Program.”
He then shared how CP giving had shaped his own story.
‘Let’s stay faithful’
As a 21-year-old college baseball player, Payne’s sights were set on a professional career as a player, scout, coach, or front office executive. He had opportunities, but developed a deep burden that the Lord wanted him to serve in a local church.
“I love people, the Scriptures … I wanted to serve,” Payne said. “I had no clue what a call to ministry meant. I could turn a double play, but I could barely turn to the book of Haggai.”
Payne started attending a Southern Baptist church where he met his future wife, met fellow believers, and learned that his seminary education could be partially subsidized through the Cooperative Program.
“Just like I have never gotten over the gospel of Jesus Christ, I have never gotten over the generosity of Southern Baptists throughout the country who helped me,” Payne said.
That generous spirit, he argued, must be maintained.
“In a world increasingly marked by individualism, suspicion of authority, economic uncertainty, and tribalism … the risk is that people and even churches will pull back and begin to do their thing rather than our thing,” he said. “Our thing as Southern Baptists has always been coming together to advance the gospel to the ends of the earth.”
Confusion reigns in our culture, Payne said, but God has called Christians not to be confused about what is of first importance: Christ’s death and resurrection—the news of which they have been commissioned to carry throughout the nations.
“In this broken world, let’s not be confused. Let’s stay faithful. Let’s stay generous,” Payne urged. “I can’t wait to see the stories God will write through the churches represented in this room.”
