By Rick Blythe
Correspondent
Editor’s Note: April 25 is Cooperative Program Sunday across the Southern Baptist Convention.
JESUS CHRIST said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15 NASB). The Lord Jesus charged His followers with the task of sharing the Good News about Christ with the communities, cities, countries, and continents of the world.
It is CRITICAL for every believer and every church to do their part in obedience to Christ and accept the responsibility to reach this generation with the Gospel. This includes giving to missions.
Every year, pastors along with church budget and finance teams have to make hard decisions when formulating the church budget for the upcoming church year. What is a church to do when money is tight? Where can they cut back and bring the budget in line with anticipated revenue? Sometimes the first place they consider reducing is the percentage given through the COOPERATIVE PROGRAM. This should be the last option and not the first option, because the COOPERATIVE PROGRAM is the unified plan through which cooperating churches give a percentage of undesignated receipts in support of their respective state convention and Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) missions and ministries.
When considering reducing missions giving, think about the 3,619 missionaries the COOPERATIVE PROGRAM supports across the globe. Consider the 3,056 unengaged, unreached people groups in the world and the need to take the Gospel to them so they can hear the Good News of Jesus.
I hope you agree that we should be doing more and giving more in order to reach more.
Many mission enterprises are worthy of support but none are as COMPREHENSIVE as the COOPERATIVE PROGRAM. The worldwide impact of the COOPERATIVE PROGRAM is nothing short of astounding. Every day bad news floods television and radio, but imagine how bad things would be if there had been no COOPERATIVE PROGRAM.
On both the international and national scene, people are coming to faith in Christ, children who find themselves without a home are housed and fed, families are restored, and the sick are being cared for.
Ministry opportunities abound for students on Mississippi Baptist colleges and university campuses, as well as Southern Baptist seminaries across the country. Inmates in our own state are able to hear a Gospel witness and many are coming to faith in Christ.
Future pastors, missionaries, and church leaders are receiving Biblical and theological education and training at those colleges, universities, and seminaries. New churches have risen across the landscape. Revitalization of churches is occurring, and the excitement of realizing they can reach their community fills believers with hope for the future.
Dying churches have risen like the phoenix from the ashes to emerge stronger than before, and once again they can feel the breath of the Spirit of God in their midst. The COOPERATIVE PROGRAM makes all these good things possible.
The simple fact that the sun never sets on the COOPERATIVE PROGRAM should cause every Southern Baptist to praise the LORD for revealing to our Baptist ancestors this strategy of fulfilling the Great Commission found in Matt. 28:18-20.
When U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt died in office in 1945, Vice-President Harry Truman became our nation’s 33rd president. Truman kept a sign on his desk in the Oval Office that said, “The buck stops here.” He understood the President of the United States has to make hard decisions and must accept ultimate responsibility for those decisions.
The COOPERATIVE PROGRAM remains the best way to stretch every church’s missional buck to help fulfill the Great Commission found in Matt. 28:18-20. If we do not give and go to reach our generation, who will?
It is our time to shoulder the responsibility of taking the Gospel to the lost. Let us say, THE BUCK STOPS HERE and not PASS THE BUCK!
For more information on the Mississippi Cooperative Program and to download promotional resources, visit https://www.mbcb.org/what-is-cp/cp-resources/. E-mail: lleavell@mbcb.org. Telephone: (601) 292-3347.
For more information on the Southern Baptist Convention Cooperative Program, visit https://www.sbc.net/missions/the-cooperative-program/.
Blythe is director of the Stewardship/Prayer Ministry Department at the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board. He may be contacted at rblythe@mbcb.org.
