The Southern Baptist Convention is a big house. It’s the largest association of evangelicals in the world.
The Cooperative Program brings home the bacon! The Cooperative Program is so far reaching, it’s often difficult to wrap our brains around all God is doing through our giving.
A book could be written about all that has been accomplished here in Tennessee and around the world, but 10 things are all I have room for in this article. When you think about the Cooperative Program, I hope you will remember these wonderful impacts!
(1) There were 29 professions of faith at Youth Evangelism Conference (YEC) Camp.
(2) Cooperative Program is helping to fund new churches through the Blue Oval City Church Planting Project in West Tennessee where the population could increase by 1,000 percent in some places, providing opportunities for evangelism and church planting.
(3) In the past month, Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief has handed out over 400,000 bottles of water, served 45,000 meals, and seen over 100 professions of faith! Those are just three facts about the work done in Florida after Hurricane Ian.
Matt Tullos
(4) Southern Baptists raised more than $5.5 million for the crisis in Ukraine and began sending Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers to minister to refugees.
(5) Amid major renovations over the summer, Tennessee Baptist Camps and Conference Centers hosted 5,000 guests and witnessed 169 professions of faith. Represented among those guests were 49 different groups from Tennessee and every surrounding state.
(6) Last quarter, Tennessee Compassion Ministries had 7,030 evangelistic encounters and 61 professions of faith.
(7) Over the summer, 17 new churches were planted in Tennessee.
(8) God is blessing churches all over the state who give cooperatively. We are seeing pockets of awakening throughout the state through WinTN rallies and training events.
(9) Eighteen Tennessee BCM campus missionaries were trained and are now serving for the entire 2022-2023 university school year.
(10) IMB trustees appointed 56 new fully funded missionaries, in May 2022. Southern Baptists recognized these missionaries at a Sending Celebration held in conjunction with the SBC annual meeting in June 2022.
The Cooperative Program is — a seed to sow, a dream to grow, a chance to give, a mission to live, a Word to preach and a world to reach.
What an honor to be a part of the greatest missionary effort in the history of the church!
The best days are ahead. The stakes are high and eternal.
We know that the enemy loves division. He’s an arsonist who has set his sights on the work of Southern Baptists. We’ve certainly seen his strategy over the past year, haven’t we? He’s not subtle. Attacking the unity of churches and believers is his specialty.
Here’s my challenge: When you hear people criticizing our house of cooperation, remember the people in that house: over 3,400 international missionaries, church planters all over the U.S., disaster relief projects, plans to reach the four million Tennesseans who are spiritually lost and the hundreds of unreached, unengaged people groups around the world.
Yes, the house could always use some updating and renovation, but more than anything, we need revival. May our conversation be seasoned with prayer and grace. Let’s expand the house and make sure the smoke alarms work! B&R
