By Larry Robertson
President, TBC, & Clarksville Pastor
I didn’t grow up in a strong Cooperative Program giving church. When I got to Blue Mountain (Miss.) College as a ministerial student, however, my eyes were opened to the unparalleled strategy Southern Baptists have to fund missions and ministry.
Dr. James Travis, longtime biblical studies professor at Blue Mountain, taught us that being Southern Baptist is more than geography or theology. Our distinctive bond is our commitment to cooperation, namely through the Cooperative Program.
In the first church I pastored as a 19-year-old boy, we ran 22 on a good day. Yet we were connected to missions and ministries far beyond our abilities and limitations as a congregation. I was able to remind those precious people that ten cents out of every undesignated dollar they gave supported 8,000 missionaries (at that time) at home and abroad, six SBC seminaries, and a whole host of other denominational causes.
The wisdom of the Cooperative Program is that all Southern Baptists — even the smallest of congregations — can actively participate in Great Commission fulfillment. I believed in the Cooperative Program then, and I still do now.
I’ve never forgotten that sense of connection I felt while pastoring (what must have been) one of the smallest churches in the SBC. In every church I’ve pastored, I’ve insisted that we give at least 10 percent through the Cooperative Program. Before I arrived at my current pastorate, for instance, Hilldale’s CP giving was in the low single digits. As I interviewed with the pastor search team, I told them that increasing Cooperative Program giving to 10 percent would be a priority for me if they called me to be their pastor. It was, and we did.
Call me naïve, but I really do believe we can do more together than we can do apart. Sure, our church doesn’t need the local association or the state and national conventions to survive, and vice versa. I can’t get away from the idea, though, that we would all be less effective without each other.
So we prioritize intentional giving through Cooperative Program, Lottie Moon, Annie Armstrong, and SBC world hunger channels. We do this without neglecting more local needs like the Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions, Tennessee Baptist Children’s Homes, Tennessee Baptist Adult Homes, Disaster Relief, or our local association.
In the last 12 years, while emphasizing cooperative giving, we have started or supported nine new churches, five in the Clarksville area. Hundreds of our members have gone around the world on mission. Hilldale’s attendance has nearly doubled, giving has more than doubled, and baptisms have remained steady and strong.
We always wish we had done more, but my point is that we don’t have to sacrifice cooperation to pursue God’s Great Commission call. I agree that the Cooperative Program is not the only way to support missions, but it’s the best strategy out there.
So I challenge my fellow pastors — in most cases, the catalysts for substantive change in cooperative giving within local churches — to think bigger, dig deeper, and reach farther through the CP!
