BY DR. JOHN SULLIVAN
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR-TREASURER
FLORIDA BAPTIST CONVENTION

Reflections on the Southern Baptist Convention: The Cooperative Program
July 20, 2006

One last word about my reflection on the 2006 Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Greensboro.

Almost three years ago, an Ad Hoc Committee was formed by the SBC Executive Committee and the SBC Executive Directors’ Fellowship to study Cooperative Program giving. It had been a long time since the Cooperative Program had been studied and even longer since recommendations had been made to the SBC in session. Those on the committee became increasingly aware that support of SBC messengers in session would be critical to the issue. So the report intentionally was brought through the Executive Committee process.

My prediction to the Ad Hoc Committee was that the report and the ensuing discussion would be the centerpiece of the Greensboro convention. This was my conclusion long before anyone was announced as a candidate for convention president or the “bloggers” began their thing. Cooperative Program had to become an issue.

As a means of strengthening the Cooperative Program, one of the recommendations brought to the SBC through the Executive Committee encouraged churches “to give an increasing percentage of undesignated receipts through the Cooperate Program.” A second one encouraged the election of leaders whose churches had “systematically and enthusiastically lead by example and proportionally through the Cooperative Program.”

In their first form, both of these recommendations specified a 10 percent goal as a standard of Cooperative Program support. However when presented to the SBC, the recommendations were amended to delete the specified percentage. Messengers approved the revision.

In a sermon preached in 1980 to the SBC stewardship and Cooperative Program personnel, I stated, “Cooperative Program is not a ‘sacred cow’ but a ‘sacred how’!”

I have not changed my mind. The Cooperative Program is not a sacred cow and should never be made one. The committee report was never intended to do that.

For that reason I had no heartburn over removing the 10 percent specification from the original report. Perhaps it could have been interpreted as a litmus test even though that was never intended to be.

Having said that, my conviction is every church needs to apply the Great Commission to its mission strategy: Go into all the world, all of the time, at the same time with all of the gospel. There must be a financial goal of some kind to support this New Testament strategy.

In 1925, after years of praying, planning and theological reflection, God gave the Cooperative Program as a plan to Southern Baptists. It is neither a perfect plan nor a foolproof plan. However, it is the best financial methodology I can find for funding a world mission strategy. And my conviction is that God gave this plan as a sacred gift to Southern Baptists. It is the primary support for our missionaries and the God-called in our institutions and seminaries. It creates support for the priorities of the Florida Baptist Convention: evangelism without apology; intentional church planting; and developing existing churches.

At the Florida Baptist Convention administrative staff retreat in July, we will discuss and develop recommendations to the State Board of Missions on how to address the concerns of the SBC report. We will further evaluate all our work supported by Cooperative Program dollars. The Cooperative Program is God-given and missions-driven. If we have to make tough decisions; we will.

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