Two views of the future (View 1: Bryant Wright)

In light of Christ’s mission for His church in Matthew 28:19-20,

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age;

Bryant Wright

and in light of Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt’s call for a resurgent focus on fulfilling Christ’s Great Commission; and with the overwhelming vote in the SBC’s 2009 annual meeting for the creation of the Great Commission Task Force; and in light of the urgency of these days, there is a huge need for a radical reprioritizing of Cooperative Program (CP) funds through our state conventions. The following calls for a more strategic use of funding to the areas of greatest need in reaching our world for Christ.

I propose:

That each state strive to keep no more than 25-30 percent of the CP funds in state. Funds staying in state currently range from 43-86 percent (see documentation here). The local church should be the primary vehicle in carrying out state and local missions.

That at least 50 percent of the CP funds from our local churches go to the International Mission Board (IMB) vs. the present average of approximately 16 percent. How can we keep saying that supporting the CP is supporting missions when only about 16 percent of the funds go to the IMB?

That we increase the percentage of funds directed to the North American Mission Board (NAMB) to help us reach our nation for Christ, with a primary focus on church planting – especially in unreached areas.

That we dramatically increase the percentage of CP funds going to our seminaries that are training thousands of men and women who will lead the way in carrying out the Great Commission. The called in this younger generation have a passionate love for Christ and are willing to go to the hard places.

This is a major change that would need to be implemented over 3-5 years to allow the state conventions to adjust in their planning. But implementation toward this goal needs to begin immediately with the state CP budgets that will be planned in 2010.

Johnson Ferry Baptist Church is a strong giver to the CP. For many years, our church gave 10 percent of its church budget to the CP, 1 percent to our local association, and 5-9 percent to other mission causes supporting Great Commission ministries around the world. We always want to do this because we want to have a “kingdom vision” for ministry.

In addition, the first 10 percent of every dollar given to our first five capital expansion campaigns went to global missions. We are now in our sixth capital campaign, and about 20 percent of every dollar given to this campaign will go to missions. Johnson Ferry is committed to missions.

Yet as our lay volunteers began to go in great numbers on mission trips and to partner with ministries around the world, they were absolutely appalled to find how high a percentage of our CP dollars stayed in the state and how little actually wound up on the international mission field. So several years ago, we began to dramatically shift the funding to Southern Baptist mission causes by giving 5 percent of the church budget to the CP and 5 percent directly to the IMB in what is considered a monthly gift to the Lottie Moon offering.

We’d prefer that the full amount we give to Southern Baptist mission causes go through the CP, but until the formulas change dramatically and most of the dollars go to international missions, we’ll keep giving directly to international mission causes, and that percentage may even increase in the days ahead. Our lay leaders in missions are “chomping at the bit” to do so today.

Southern Baptists, we say that we are joined together through cooperative missions. It’s time to get radically serious about the missions part. The hour is urgent in fulfilling Christ’s Great Commission through praying – going – partnering – and giving!

Bryant Wright is senior pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta.