THE SBC, M.E. DODD AND WILLIE MCLAURIN

By Todd E. Brady
Vice president For university ministries, Union University, Jackson

If M.E. Dodd were living and were to come to the Southern Baptist Convention in Anaheim, I think Willie McLaurin would hug Dodd’s neck and take him to a long, long lunch so he could pick his brain.  

As the oldest institution related to the SBC, Union University is grateful for men like Dodd and  McLaurin. Dodd was a 1904 graduate and McLaurin is a current trustee. 

Union University is grateful to provide the M. E. Dodd Denominational Service Award each year which recognizes service, leadership and commitment to the Cooperative Program on behalf of Tennessee Baptists and the Southern Baptist Convention. McLaurin is the recipient of the 2022 M.E. Dodd Denominational Service Award.

The Cooperative Program is the funding mechanism for the over 47,000 churches affiliated with the SBC and is the financial avenue through which the denomination conducts ministry and missions efforts. Churches pool their monies to cooperate with other churches so that they may do more together than individually. 

Union University’s annual denominational service award is named in honor of one of its distinguished alumni — Dodd.

Born in Brazil, Tenn., and growing up in the ministry of  Poplar Grove Baptist Church, Dodd’s love for the church and its work is heard in his statement, “An ounce of energy, a pound of talent, an hour of time, a dollar of money given to the church will go farther, rise higher, sink deeper, spread wider, last longer, and accomplish more than when given to any other cause in the world.”

Dodd married Union University president George M. Savage’s daughter, Emma Savage and served as pastor in churches in West Tennessee, western Kentucky, and Shreveport, La. 

It was from First Baptist Church, Shreveport, that he attended the annual meeting of the SBC in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1925 and led the 39-member Commission on Future Program which developed the method of funding the work of ministry and missions — what we know today as the Cooperative Program.  

Dodd is recognized as the Father of the SBC’s Cooperative Program, and Jewel Mae Daniel’s biography of Dodd chronicles him as “The Heart of the Cooperative Program.” 

Noted evangelist Billy Graham once said that Dodd was “one of the greats, not only to Southern Baptists, but to the church at large during the last generation.”

In 1925, Southern Baptists gave $4.1 million through the Cooperative Program. In 2020 (a year affected by the COVID pandemic), 47,592 churches gave over $455 million through the Cooperative Program for the work of missions, ministry and education. 

Since 1930, Southern Baptists have given over $19 billion through the Cooperative Program. Would Dodd have ever dreamed Baptist churches would give in this way? His earlier statement about the tremendous impact of a dollar given to the church was indeed prophetic.

In the past, Union University has given the M.E. Dodd Denominational Service Award to those like Adrian Rogers, Morris Chapman, Albert Mohler, Randy C. Davis, Steve Gaines, Paul Chitwood, David S. Dockery and others. 

Now, McLaurin joins this prestigious group of Baptist leaders.

While the Executive Committee of the SBC is in a time of interim leadership, we are thankful that McLaurin stands at the helm. 

McLaurin, who has served as the vice president for Great Commission relations and mobilization of the Executive Committee of the SBC since December 2019, was named the interim president and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee in February of this year. 

He gives leadership to the fiscal, fiduciary and executive responsibilities of the SBC.

In a tenuous world where uncertainties and confusion abound, Union is glad to recognize McLaurin for his gracious, stable, competent, and integrity-filled leadership in service to Southern Baptists.   

Union University is grateful to God for the legacy of M.E. Dodd and the leadership of Willie McLaurin. So should all Southern Baptists. B&R