By Jennifer Rash
Editor, The Baptist Paper
and local reports
Seventy-three of the more than 175 Baptist leaders sitting in the meeting hall the afternoon of May 13 made the ceremonial walk to the historic podium.
Their signatures on the Declaration of Cooperation document plus the group picture veteran photographer Jim Veneman took of all who attended will forever be memorialized in the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives.
But even though a specific group of Baptists serving in leadership roles were selected to sign the declaration, “the hope is that every Southern Baptist can see themselves in a name on that sheet,” event organizer Tony Wolfe shared with The Baptist Paper following the event.
‘Prayer is for unity’
Held at the Renasant Convention Center in Memphis exactly 100 years to the date, time and nearby location of the launch of the Cooperative Program, the Centennial Celebration Gathering has been more than two years in the making.
A sense of unity, cooperation and fellowship swept across the room as the event unfolded, said Wolfe, executive director of the South Carolina Baptist Convention.
Every SBC entity and every state convention were represented by at least one staff member, he said. Also represented were the various ethnic groups, pastors, pastors’ wives and other women serving in ministry positions as well as the current SBC officers.
“The thought of being near the spot at the very hour when Southern Baptist leaders launched the Cooperative Program 100 years ago was special,” said Shawn Parker, Executive Director/Treasurer, Mississippi Baptist Convention Board. “The service itself was saturated with historical significance, and the leaders who were there, I think, all felt a strong bond of partnership. I was greatly honored to sign a declaration of cooperation, along with other Southern Baptist leaders, on behalf of all Mississippi Baptists. I’m deeply grateful for the renewed focus among Southern Baptists on the Cooperative Program as a tool for fulfilling the Great Commission.”
“It’s one thing to say we work together … but it’s something else when something like this brings you together,” Wolfe said. “You are reminded of the friendships. We really do want the same things and work for the same things. We also have a deep affection for one another across every divide you can name in the SBC.
“Moments like this really bring this out,” he noted, adding that “the hope and prayer is for unity.”
‘Beauty of Baptist life’
“One moment is not going to change the entire trajectory of what we do, but it can remind us of some very important things,” Wolfe said. “The beauty of Baptist life and cooperation is that everybody is autonomous, every church, every entity is autonomous.
“We don’t work together because we have to, we work together because we want to,” he said. “The CP is a tool in our hands for exactly that — to look back on 100 years and $20 billion. It’s not a mechanism but a series of moments that God in His grace has chosen to bless and multiply His favor upon us so the gospel literally can reach the nations.”
“The cooperative program means everything to me because it paid for my education and it has helped us to send missionaries over across the world,” said Bill Hurt, pastor of Pleasant Hill Church, Columbus, and president of the Mississippi Baptist Convention. “It’s also been something that we can come together and learn that we are better when we cooperate together as not just Baptists, but as Christians.”
‘Consecration [and] purpose’
A unity of consecration is how Wolfe described it.
“We are consecrated to the gospel and to our core doctrinal convictions … that’s what brings us together,” he said. “But it’s also a unity of purpose.
“We have had a singular purpose since (the SBC’s founding in) 1845 — to elicit, combine and direct the energies of our Baptist people in one sacred effort. That one sacred effort … pulls us together through the generations, and here we are declaring that, confessing it and resolving it again.”
“I was honored to be able to represent Mississippi Baptists at the Centennial Celebration of the Cooperative Program,” said Jon Martin, Chief Strategy Officer, MBCB. “It truly is an amazing blessing from the Lord that the Cooperative Program has endured and mobilized Southern Baptists to global missions since 1925.
“Seeing the various entities represented in that room reminded me of the breadth of the impact of the Cooperative Program,” Martin continued. “Each entity has a unique purpose that enables Southern Baptists to have an incalculable impact on our world. This is something special. The unity that is found in the Cooperative Program was also represented in the room, from the various entities, to the State Conventions, and the various multi-cultural leaders reminded me that when we link together for the sake of the Gospel, we can do much more than we could ever do alone.”
Ceremony included message and time of prayer
Jeff Iorg, president and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee, delivered the keynote address at the event prior to a time of prayer led by six different leaders including Carolyn Fountain of Louisiana, who serves on the EC board of trustees, and Hoon Im, who serves with GuideStone Financial Resources.
The podium used in the ceremony is the one M.E. Dodd used while serving as pastor of First Baptist Church Shreveport, Louisiana, from 1912 until 1950, when he retired.
Dodd is credited with bringing the idea of the CP to messengers in 1925.
Iorg calls for recommitment
Iorg challenged Baptists of 2025 to recommit to high levels of giving through the CP and called out churches, state conventions and national entities alike — but it starts “with increased giving by churches.”
“We are asking a rising generation of leaders to take up the mantle of this historic resolution,” he said. “My confidence is high as this generation stands shoulder to shoulder to advance God’s mission.
“The Cooperative Program works,” Iorg said. “We must become even more dependent on it, not less.
“These gifts are sacrificial gifts. They are blood money, earned and given by hard working Southern Baptists, and they must be managed carefully, accounted for fully and spent frugally.
“We are entrusted annually with millions of dollars, and we must steward God’s money wisely,” he said as possibly a nod, along with other comments made, toward some of the current finance-related and fundraising debates stirring in Baptist life.
“May God grace us with His power as we endeavor to do more together than we can ever do on our own,” Iorg said. “And may God bless us as we give generously through the Cooperative Program.”
Next steps for the declaration
Two versions of the document were signed during the ceremony. While one will be archived, the other will be displayed in the exhibit hall at the SBC Annual Meeting in Dallas in June.
The document is written in the form of a resolution acknowledging the purpose, history and success of the CP as well as calling for renewed support and affirmation of it.
The resolution will be submitted to the 2025 SBC Resolutions Committee for review. If the committee reports it out and the messengers to the annual meeting adopt it, then it will be posted online for others who are interested to sign.
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