By Tony Martin
Editor
The Stewardship Department of the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board (MBCB) hosted three dinners celebrating 100 years of the Cooperative Program.
The Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) Cooperative Program is a unified giving system designed to collectively support missions, ministries, and educational initiatives at local, national, and global levels. Through contributions from individual churches, the Cooperative Program funds missionary work, theological education, church planting, disaster relief, and other strategic efforts, maximizing the impact of Southern Baptists’ collaborative generosity to effectively spread the Gospel and serve communities around the world.
The three dinners were held at First Church, Oxford, on March 20; First Church, Biloxi, on April 3; and First Church, Madison, on April 4.
Four hundred Mississippi Baptists from every region participated, with 162 churches, 16 Associational Mission Strategists, three agencies, and one institution (Blue Mountain Christian University) represented.
“The Cooperative Program dinners celebrating 100 years of the Cooperative Program serve as a vital reminder of our shared commitment to supporting Gospel ministry through voluntary cooperation,” said Rick Blythe, director of the Stewardship Department. “As we gathered to reflect on the incredible impact our collective efforts have had over the past century, we wanted to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Mississippi churches that have faithfully contributed to this mission.”
Jeff Iorg, President/CEO of the SBC Executive Committee, was the keynote speaker at each of the dinners.
Iorg (who insisted on being called “Jeff”), said “We cooperate because it works. While other denominations have strained to produce top-down loyalty through control, or they have experienced doctrinal drift because power was vested in a heretical few or they have demanded financial support through assessments, or they have struggled to produce leaders loyal to their movement, our cooperative efforts have excelled in these areas because of cooperation for more than 175 years.
“My friends, we cooperate because cooperation works producing supernatural spiritual results which reflect God’s power and grace and favor on our movement,” Iorg continued. The examples of this are evident to anyone who will honestly look at the data at hand. Did you know that on a typical Sunday morning, more than 4 million people gather voluntarily in Southern Baptist churches for worship, and about two and a half million of them also come for Sunday school in a church building on a Sunday morning.”
Iorg went on to note:
- Six million people participate annually in some kind of regular Bible study using curriculum provided by LifeWay.
- 144,000 children and teenagers attended camps sponsored by lifeway, with 3500 conversions and 1500 teenagers saying that they felt God was calling them into ministry leadership.
- 2500 children received residential care from Baptist children’s homes, facilitating more than 5000 children into foster care, helping nearly 200,000 mothers in crisis ministry, and facilitating over 600 adoptions.
- In a typical year, more than 200,000 students are enrolled in more than 50 Southern Baptist affiliated colleges and universities.
- Six Southern Baptist seminaries and the colleges they support enroll more than 22,000 students. Depending on the year, all six of them are ranked one of the 10 or 11 largest seminaries in the nation.
- Baptist collegiate ministries involve more than 400,000 students on more than 600 campuses. More than 5000 conversions were reported, with almost 10,000 students participating in short-term mission projects.
- Guidestone Financial Resources manages more than $20 billion in total assets and has the largest religious retirement program in the world.
- Southern Baptists in 47,000 churches will contribute more than $10 billion through tithes and offerings to local churches.
- Out of those resources, about $450 million or more of that will be given to the Cooperative Program. About $190 million of that will end up in Nashville to be distributed to our national ministry entities.
“Because of national property program gifts, we have the largest mission sending agency, the largest domestic church planting movement in North America, the largest single seminary and the largest seminary system in the United States and likely the world,” Iorg said. “The depth and breadth of these organizations represents the cumulative impact of almost two centuries of cooperation and the direct impact of a hundred years of Cooperative program giving by Southern Baptists.”
“If you think tonight is about the last 100 years of the cooperative program, we have failed in our mission tonight,” said Shawn Parker, Executive Director/Treasurer, MBCB. “Tonight is not about the last 100 years, but tonight is about the next 100 years. If you think tonight is about the Cooperative Program, you have missed the message. Tonight is not about the Cooperative Program. Tonight is about the Great Commission. If you think tonight is about money you have missed the message. The message tonight is not about money, it’s about mission. And I’m convinced when we understand these things, there’ll be no doubt that the next 100 years will be as bright as the last and the impact of the ripple will be felt around the world. May it be so for His glory.”
“As we look ahead, the urgency to pass the baton to the next generation of young pastors and leaders becomes increasingly clear,” said Blythe. “The future of our mission rests in equipping and empowering these individuals to carry forward the vision of the Cooperative Program. By investing in their growth and development, we not only honor the past but also ensure that the transformative power of the Gospel reaches even further in the years to come. Let us remain steadfast in our dedication, fostering an atmosphere that encourages passion among our younger leaders. Together, we can continue to impact lives for Christ, ensuring that our collective mission endures for the next 100 years and beyond.”
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