CP Commitment

                                                                                                                              Vol. IV, No. 3, April 1991

The president of the SBC Stewardship Commission told students and faculty of New Orleans Seminary that Southern Baptists need to renew their commitment to the Cooperative Program. "On an average, Christians, and Southern Baptists in particular, give about two percent of their per capita income to support their churches." Twenty percent give 80% of funds received; 30% give the other 20%; and 50% give nothing. Dr. A.R. Fagan said that in his opinion the person who gives nothing "is either dead or he has never been born again." Fagan pointed out three needs facing us: the need for a new, personal realization of who God is (He is the Creator of all there is; we are His; everything we hold is His.), the need to understand the doctrine of man ("...anytime you fail to remind this world of God.... you have not accomplished the purpose for which you were born."), and third the need to remember the doctrine of sin, "taking what you know belongs to God and using it as if it belonged to you." "If the dollar stays in the state, regardless of what you call it, it is not the Cooperative Program," emphasized Fagan, former president of the Florida Baptist Convention. "The state convention cannot design and adopt the budget for the Southern Baptist Convention."