Chad Brand - One Sacred Effort: The Cooperative Program of Southern Baptists

We dedicate this volume to
the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention.

I t has been over twenty years since the Stewardship Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention published Cooperation: The Baptist Way to a Lost World by Cecil and Susan Ray. Simply the passing of time would justify another book about the Cooperative Program. Most things need updating every couple of decades. But the last twenty years have been unusually significant for Southern Baptists, making it even more critical for this subject to be addressed now. In these years Southern Baptists have reaffirmed their convictions about the truthfulness and trustworthiness of the Bible. The Convention has experienced the conservative resurgence, an almost unheard-of return to orthodoxy by a modern denomination. The SBC and its institutions are now at the forefront of conservative theology and historic Christianity in our culture.

The 1990s also saw the largest restructuring in Southern Baptist history. Guided by the Convention-adopted Covenant for a New Century, the SBC was refitted for ministry in the twenty-first century. A part of that restructuring dissolved the Stewardship Commission and returned the assignment for Cooperative Program promotion to the SBC Executive Committee.

We have prepared ourselves theologically and organizationally for the new century. It is time for Southern Baptists to turn our attention once again to the cooperative missions methodology that has been so useful in the past. There are disturbing clouds on the horizon. Some of our brethren have begun to exhibit tendencies of independents that undervalue cooperation among Baptists. Others seem to be returning to the cumbersome and hapless societal methods of mission support from a century ago. Still others are redefining the Cooperative Program in ways that harm its basic unifying tenets.

I am convinced our Lord providentially gave the plan called Co-Operative Program to our Southern Baptist leaders in the 1920s. The mark of God's Spirit has been upon it. It has been used to propel Southern Baptists, by God's grace, into great kingdom advance. I am also convinced the Cooperative Program remains the most effective vehicle for carrying out our work.

Southern Baptists must be prepared to wage old battles on new battlefields. Will we who have recaptured theological soundness also recapture the spirit of cooperation? Are we not compelled to ask the question, Shall we devote ourselves to cooperation as did our forefathers? Conservative theology has triumphed in our day in our return to the biblical faith of our fathers. Shall we hold just as fiercely to the cooperative methodology instituted by those upon whose shoulders we stand? God has poured out his greatest blessings upon the Southern Baptist Convention when the churches, large and small, have cooperated for the sake of world missions and God's glory.

Chad Brand and David Hankins have prepared a book that tells who Southern Baptists are and how they get their work done. One Sacred Effort not only celebrates the Cooperative Program's great accomplishments of the past but champions its usefulness for the future. As you read, you will discover the pivotal role of the Cooperative Program. The Executive Committee's ministry assignment reads in part: Assist churches through the promotion of cooperative giving. I am glad to have this informed study in our arsenal as we challenge a new generation of Baptist leaders to cooperate in the growth of the kingdom of God.

Sincerely in Jesus' name,

Morris H. Chapman

President and Chief Executive Officer

The Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention

Nashville, Tennessee

T he authors of this book are Baptists. We wish that to be clear at the outset, and we make no apology for it. It is not that we are arrogant about the fact, as if to say that only Baptists are genuine Christians or that the only churches in the world are Baptist churches. That is not it at all. We recognize that there are many Christians in the world who wear labels other than the Baptist one. At the same time it is our conviction that the Baptist understanding of the nature of the church is consistent with the teachings of Scripture, and, even more than that, we believe the Baptist interpretation is the understanding most consistent with the New Testament on this issue. That is, after all, why we are and remain Baptists! If we believed that, say, the Presbyterian or the Episcopal interpretations were closer to Scripture, we would be compelled to abandon the Baptist heritage in favor of one more biblical.

This book, then, is a book by Baptists, and it is primarily for Baptists as well, though we also believe non-Baptists will find helpful materials within these pages. At the very least, non-Baptists who read this book will be better informed (we hope) about the nature of Baptist hermeneutics and theology. Baptist people, though, will especially find this volume helpful, that is, if we (David and Chad) are able to present this material in the way we feel called to do. And, even more specifically, Southern Baptists will benefit most since the book is specifically a treatment of the way in which Southern Baptists have understood church and have attempted to implement a strategy for carrying out ministry together on a scale wider than that of the local congregation.

But we encourage Baptists from other traditions, such as American Baptists, Baptist General Conference, Freewill Baptists, even Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists (if there are still any of them around) to pick up this volume and find out whether there is any help in it for their understanding of their heritage and of the call of God on their churches for ministry.

The writing of this volume has been a shared task. Chad has concentrated on the biblical, theological, and historical backgrounds of Southern Baptists and the Cooperative Program (chapters 1-5 and most of 9). David has concentrated on the current practices and future possibilities for Southern Baptists and the Cooperative Program (chapters 6-8, 10-12, and part of chapter 9). Each has offered counsel to the other in all of the content. We have been aided by colleagues, assistants, and students in the preparation of the book, for which we are especially grateful. Debra Bledsoe, administrative assistant to the vice president for the Cooperative Program at the SBC Executive Committee, provided invaluable research and technical assistance for David. Carl Lee Bean, research assistant to Chad at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, provided invaluable aid in locating sources. We are also grateful to Travis Kerns, Ph.D. student at Southern Seminary, for preparing the index to this volume.