By Tony Martin
Editor
The year 2025 will mark a significant milestone for the Southern Baptist Convention as it celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Cooperative Program (CP). This initiative, born out of a need for a unified approach to mission work and resource allocation, has been a cornerstone of Southern Baptist life, reflecting a commitment to spreading the Gospel and serving communities both locally and globally.
Since its inception, many Mississippi Baptist churches have elected to take part in the Cooperative Program. Some churches give a percentage of their receipts, and some have a CP line item in their budgets.
There is no such thing as a “typical” church when it comes to CP giving.
For instance, Woodville Baptist Church, Woodville, is widely considered to be the oldest Baptist church in Mississippi, having been founded in 1800. In 2023 the church gave a generous 14.61% of their undesignated gifts to the Cooperative Program. George Bannister is pastor.
First Baptist Church, Jackson, was one of the first two Baptist churches in Mississippi that gave to the Cooperative Program in 1926. Founded in 1838, the church gives 8.99% of its undesignated gifts to CP.
“Stewardship is a spiritual discipline,” said pastor Chip Stevens. “It’s certainly a part of what’s taught to us in the scriptures. So I believe in just preaching the text and when you preach the text, pretty often stewardship is going to come up. My approach is really just preaching the text and help other people understand how this applies to daily life.
“My goal is to help people fall in love with Jesus,” Stevens continued. “I tell folks I love my wife. When it comes time for birthdays or Christmas or whatever, I never approach it with ‘how much do I have to spend?’ It’s rather, ‘How much do I get to spend?’ That’s the way I approach stewardship.”
Stevens said that the church uses special emphases to talk about CP. “When we do an IMB weekend, we’ll tell people that part of what you give to the Cooperative Program goes to international missions. When Jamie Dew [president of New Orleans Seminary] is here, we share that part of your giving to CP goes to helping the seminary. So we look for opportunities to educate people.
“I would point to Acts, when they were taking up an offering to send to the believers in Jerusalem who were struggling,” Stevens said. “I think it’s the cooperative effort — ultimately, you aren’t giving to the church. You’re giving through the church.
“Stewardship is a fruit,” Stevens concluded. “It’s a fruit of discipleship as you grow in the Lord. So the more you loosen your grip on stuff, the more you want to be a part of what God is doing in the world.”
First Baptist Church, Natchez, was the other of the first two Baptist churches in Mississippi that gave to the Cooperative Program back in 1926. In 2023 the church gave 9.7% of their undesignated gifts to CP.
“I think it’s the greatest thing that’s ever been devised and developed for support of missions,” said Doug Broome, pastor. “Our stewardship is based on the idea of giving your time, your tithe, and your talents to the Lord. We don’t just try to exclusively focus on one of those areas but try to have a balance between them all. Most of the time when people hear the word ‘stewardship’ they just think of money. It’s not something we talk about every week. But we encourage people to give and be tithers.”
The church has added 75 new members in 2024 as of July. “That’s pretty amazing,” said Broome. “We’ve been incredibly blessed.”
North Greenwood Baptist Church, Greenwood, gave 8.56% to the Cooperative Program in 2023. Pastor Jim Phillips said, “Every fall or late summer, we look at the giving patterns for the previous year. We use a formula we’ve used for 20 years to predict what our giving will be.”
The church has a specific line item in the budget for direct cooperative missions — offerings such as the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering, the Baptist Children’s Village, and other causes.
“A pastor can see the tangible evidence of their stewardship beyond themselves [through the Cooperative Program],” Phillips said. “I told a pastor who was talking about planning a mission trip — I’d just gotten back from Zimbabwe — that if they wanted to do that, then he would have to lead the charge. You need to look for where God is working and join Him. That works for the Cooperative Program too. I’ve just helped our church to realize we’re not here just to sustain ourselves. God had a purpose for this church in 1955, and it’s not just so we can maintain our presence on this corner.”
Liberty Baptist Church in Amite County is another church which embraced the Cooperative Program years ago. The church gave 8.21% of their undesignated gifts to CP.
Pastor Brock Burch has only been at the church since April. “I think we have a good church, a good fellowship. I think the church is in good health.”
When asked about the church’s relationship with the Cooperative Program, Burch said, “When I came here, I asked what was their cooperation with CP. I think the church understands how it works. We have a professor from Southwestern Seminary that came from the church. I’m a seminary graduate. We’ve sent off seminary graduates. We have former International Mission Board missionaries who are members here. We have Baptist Children’s Village workers that are members here. So the church can see the cooperation together, how we can do more together, and how a portion of their tithe goes to that. I believe they’ve seen the work happen.
“I tell a lot of people I share with about the Convention,” Burch continued. “I say that by ourselves we can’t fund six seminaries and all the international missionaries and the North American missionaries. We can’t do the things that Send Relief is doing. But you are all a part of it. You’re doing this through your giving. So, together we are able.”
This article first appeared in the Fall 2024 Mississippi Baptist Cooperative Program magazine. To view the full magazine, click here.
