FIRST-PERSON: From the Mississippi to the nations – On 100 years of the SBC Cooperative Program

By Tony Wolfe
Executive Director-Treasurer
South Carolina Baptist Convention

Four thousand and one Southern Baptists from across the States entered the newly constructed Ellis Auditorium Wednesday, May 13, 1925, as the morning sun crested the eastern hills which stood guard over the Crossroads of the South. On the west side of Memphis, the river’s morning song was soon ebbed beneath a chorus of Great Commission cooperants.

Their voices ascended with convictional solidarity at 9:30 a.m: “How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith, in His excellent Word.” Then another: “Let every kindred, every tribe, on this terrestrial ball, to Him all majesty ascribe, and crown Him Lord of all!”

The business of the morning was as rhythmic as the meter of their song. “Ye have not passed this way heretofore,” Florida Pastor Len Broughton read his text for the Convention Sermon, “Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” Anticipation faced the afternoon when they would cast their bread upon the waters in sacrificial solidarity and extravagant faith.

As the afternoon session began around 2:30 p.m., L.R. Scarborough, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, gave the final report on the $75 Million Campaign, which, though failing in funds collected, succeeded in emblazing the hearts of Southern Baptists with systemized Great Commission funding strategy.

“We must not lose the things we have already wrought through the mercies and power of God,” Scarborough concluded, “but we must do our best to bring them to a full reward.” The seminary president yielded the podium to Charles E. Burts, former South Carolina Baptist Convention executive director and current general director of the Future Program Commission. His opening words arrested the room: “That ours is a critical situation as a denomination all must admit.”

Institutional indebtedness, overcommitted and underfunded missional priorities, organizational distrust and secondary doctrinal disagreement lingered ominously in the rafters. But the opportunity for unprecedented Great Commission advancement lay at their feet. Concern was in the air, but commitment was on the floor.

The heart of Burts’ address captured the spirit of the moment with an inspiring blend of solemnity and hope: “MAY GOD HELP OUR PEOPLE TO SEE IT! … Your Commission believes that the very time has come when this entire Convention should commit itself, with a unity of purpose and consecration never known before.” The churches were asked to give funds systematically, the state conventions to collect and distribute them quickly and the national entities to deploy them prudently. This was to be their “Future Program” – the “Cooperative Program of Southern Baptists.”

Sometimes I wonder if that small gathering could have imagined the greatness of their moment. Four thousand Baptists lifted their ballots in a unison of faith that scored the melody for these past 100 years and $20 billion of Southern Baptist missional engagement. Through it, salvation’s song has been sung over the nations by generations of cooperating Baptists who rose to the greatness of their own days.

Itasca’s whisper is Memphis’ roar,

So the nations have heard from Memphis’ shore.

Sometimes I also wonder if our small number today might imagine the greatness of our moment. This day is now ours to live, and this song is now ours to sing. For 100 years, God has multiplied His kindness to Southern Baptists through our Cooperative Program missions funding strategy. But let not our ears be deafened to the roars of many waters. Macedonians still call.

Will the song of the saints drown out the roar of the Trinity River in Dallas this June? Will a “unity of purpose and consecration” ignite a renewed passion for sacrificial Great Commission advance? Does the hope of the Gospel still ring from the river to the nations? Will the commitment beneath our feet withstand the concern in the air? Each generation must decide. As the wise teacher insists – although we know not the path of the wind or the place where the tree might fall – let us, in our day, cast our bread upon the surface of the waters in sacrificial obedience and extravagant faith (Ecclesiastes 11:1-5) so that the Gospel of Jesus Christ may even more loudly ring from the river to the nations.