Praise God from Whom all blessings flow! I just received the Cooperative Program gifts report from Morris Chapman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention. The report is in reference to the 2002-2003 Southern Baptist Convention funds distribution. It is impossible to read this report without being deeply grateful for the faithfulness of over 16 million Southern Baptists.

During the 2002-2003 fiscal year the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention received and disbursed $183,201,694 of Cooperative Program gifts and $165,985,967 in designated giving for a total disbursement of $349,187,661. What an incredible gift to the glory of God this is!

Due to the economic condition in our country and world these gifts reflect a .92 percent decrease from the previous year. This does not discourage me in the least. In fact, it is very remarkable that Southern Baptists gave almost $350 million in mission gifts in one of the worst market downturns in the history of the United States.

Southern Baptist commitment to missions is healthy. We should be encouraged by these numbers to devote ourselves to making 2003-2004 the greatest year in our Southern Baptist history. The economy is improving and already we are seeing a strengthening of mission gifts.

I have read several articles bemoaning the fact that mission giving is down. I have been amazed at the tone of some of these articles. One might think that the rest of the world was experiencing an economic explosion and the only entity in the world that was experiencing a downturn in revenues was the Cooperative Program.

There can be no doubt whatsoever that missions giving is inextricably tied to church income and church income is tied to church members' income and church members' income is connected to business income and business income is connected to our economy and our economy is connected to the economy and events of the world.

We have felt the downturn in Georgia as well. We are doing significantly better at this time than we did earlier in the year, however. After the first of the year the down economy finally caught up with us after having increased our giving annually for the past ten years.

In the early months of 2003 our Cooperative Program gifts were running about 2% below the same period last year. Since the economy began to improve over the past couple of months we have seen that number move from 2% below the preceding year to a fraction of a percentage above last year's receipts for the same period.

This is encouraging and I expect to see a continuing improvement as we move through the last quarter of 2003. It is likely that we will end the 2003 fiscal year a little ahead of last year's receipts as it appears at the present time.

How are we to respond to a downturn in the economy and resulting drop in mission funds? We should react as any responsible business would react, by tightening our belt and looking for savings. The Georgia Baptist Convention Cooperative Program budget that will be presented to the Convention in November has been reduced by 7% under the preceding year's budget. Further, the Convention staff responded beautifully to my request to cut their budgets where possible to affect a 10% savings in the budget.

The staff is to be commended for recognizing the toughness of this economy and responding with an encouraging spirit in spite of the fact that they will receive no salary increase in the 2004 budget. At the same time it should be noted that we have not had to lay off any employees due to the economy. Everyone will remain gainfully employed, which was a primary goal.

Whether one leads a Southern Baptist Convention board or agency or a state Baptist Convention, the responsible thing to do is curtail spending in order to live within receipts. It is unfortunate that this has meant the laying off of some personnel and delaying the deployment of some missionaries, but fiscal responsibility will rebound to adequate resources for future ministry development.

 

What do we need right now?

(1.) We need for all Southern Baptist churches and missions to make bold new commitments to the Cooperative Program. Our churches on average have been giving less to missions in recent years. This is not acceptable in light of the words of Jesus. I encourage our churches to provide for an annual percentage increase in Cooperative Program support. It may be only one-half percent or one percent per year, but increase your Cooperative Program support until you reach at least 10%, a tithe of your church's receipts for the Cooperative Program. This needs to happen in the large churches as much as it does in the smaller churches. The churches which are led by Southern Baptist leaders, past and present, should be at the forefront of this movement.

(2.) All Southern Baptist agency leaders should commit to promote the Cooperative Program as their primary means of support. Asking for financial support outside of the Cooperative Program encourages a societal approach to missions support rather than a cooperative approach which has effectively supported Southern Baptist work through the years. The societal method has failed and will fail again.

(3.) All State Convention executive directors must throw their entire support behind the Cooperative Program, investing in more effective ways to tell the wonderful Southern Baptist story. We have at least a generation of people in our churches that do not understand how the Cooperative Program works or what it does.

(4.) All Southern Baptist pastors who believe that we have been commissioned to go into all the world must encourage their church members and budget committees to give generously in support of the Cooperative Program so that the Gospel can be preached in all the world.

God led Southern Baptists to the Cooperative Program and has blessed it through the years. With our world in need of the Gospel, it is not time to retreat from the blessing of God by keeping more for ourselves.