Southern Baptists’ Cooperative Spirit
How the Cooperative Program has advanced Southern Baptists’ commitment to the gospel for a century
This is another in a series of features on Missouri Baptist ministries supported for a century through the Cooperative Program giving of MBC-affiliated churches.
By Aaron Lumpkin
From the earliest days of the modern missions movement, Baptists have been a people committed to taking the gospel to their neighbors and the nations. And, to do this, Baptists have fostered a cooperative spirit, clinging to the adage, “We can do more together than we can apart.”
Early English Baptists worked together through local associations, and official denominational structures developed over time, particularly in the 19th century. Though the Southern Baptist Convention was born in 1845, the preceding Triennial Convention played a significant role in fostering a cooperative spirit among Baptists. The work of individuals like Adoniram and Ann Judson, Luther Rice, Thomas Baldwin, and Richard Furman helped advance the cooperation we know today.
After the formation of the SBC, messengers and leaders began forming various institutions to advance the spreading of the gospel, beginning with the Foreign Mission Board. As time progressed, the increasing need for support for the work of the SBC became even more apparent.
For a time, the entities sought to raise support through the “societal method.” Through this method, each entity held its own board that was responsible for the oversight of the ministry, including fundraising. This method did not prove sufficient for the SBC entities, which resulted in budget shortages, unhelpful competition, and other challenges.
In the early 20th century, the Executive Committee was established to oversee the day-to-day operations of the convention’s annual meeting proceedings. With this shift to the “convention method,” the SBC was ready to pursue larger fundraising efforts, as the Executive Committee would oversee the programmatic approach to mission-driven fundraising and distribution.
Shortly after the end of World War I, the leaders of the SBC proposed the Seventy-Five Million Campaign. Led by L. R. Scarborough, the SBC sought to raise $75 million to fund its various entities and ministries, including home and foreign missions, state and associated missions, Christian education, orphanages, hospitals, ministerial relief, and famine relief.
During the campaign, Southern Baptists committed to giving $92 million to their entities and ministries; however, the campaign only received $58.5 million. In the 1925 SBC Annual Report, Scarborough conveyed, “All of us were disappointed in that these collections were not greater … We are grateful that this sum represents a far greater sum of money raised than was ever raised during any similar period by our people for the kingdom of God.”
Turning point
While the goal was not achieved and some considered it a failure, the experience proved to be a turning point in the SBC’s history. The SBC pursued a new fundraising strategy in light of the Seventy-Five Million Campaign.
During the 1925 annual meeting at Ellis Auditorium in Memphis, Tenn., messengers received a report from the Future Program Commission.
This group reported and recommended that messengers adopt “The Co-Operative Program of Southern Baptists,” remarking that “the only way of liquidating our debts and creating an adequate financial support of all our institutions and activities under God is to commit ourselves thoroughly to our Co-Operative Program, taking the nucleus of regular and systematic givers and the wholly or partially enlisted churches and the great body of the unenlisted members, and week by week and month by month, build them into a great and mighty host of never-failing supporters of Kingdom causes.”
The first budget was $5 million, and states were encouraged to share their offerings with the Cooperative Program at a 50/50 split.
Scarborough later reported and invited Southern Baptists to “give ourselves in the fullest support to the Co-Operative Program as the best and most practical way of meeting our obligations and providing for the ongoing of all our enterprises. The hearty support of this Program by all our people will relieve our present embarrassments and provide for our future responsibilities.”
The messengers affirmed the formation of a unified budget for the entities and ministries of the SBC, now known as the Cooperative Program.
One-hundred years ago, Scarborough longed for Southern Baptists to do more together for the sake of the kingdom of God. And we’ve done just that. Since forming the Cooperative Program, Southern Baptists have given more than $20 billion toward kingdom causes, with Missouri Baptists contributing more than $770 million of that total.
Lives have been and continue to be changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. But it wouldn’t have been a reality apart from the faithful sacrifices made by Southern Baptists, who continue to invest in kingdom ministries through the Cooperative Program.
Aaron Lumpkin serves as associate vice president for Spiritual Formation and assistant professor of Theology at Missouri Baptist University. He’s also an elder at Church of the Redeemer in St. Louis.
