Cooperative Program Giving

by   Tim Piland                                                                                                                                            Vol. XVI, No. 7, August 2003

[Rev. Tim Piland is senior pastor of Nansemond River Baptist Church, Suffolk, and president of the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia.]

We live in an awesome time! The door is open to parts of the world where the Gospel has long been closed. Today, we stand upon the threshold of an opportunity that could result in hundreds of hitherto unreached people groups hearing the Good News. The IMB is reporting a rapidly increasing number of volunteers who are ready to leave all and follow Jesus. Even offerings are up over previous years. What could be better in the Kingdom’s work?

Yet, in spite of all the positives, there is a notable shortfall! Even with increased gifts, we are not meeting our goals, and many volunteers are told they must wait for their positions to be funded. Our seminaries, where workers are trained and prepared to serve the Lord even unto the ends of the earth, are staffed with faculty who are grossly underpaid and, in some cases, are deprived of many things that the rest of us take for granted. While the world is crying out for help, Southern Baptists appear to be dragging their feet. How it must break the heart of our Lord! Must He pass the baton to another denomination which is more willing to redeem the time?

What is the answer to our present dilemma? At the 2002 SBCV annual meeting last November, it was suggested that over the next five years, we increase our giving percentage to SBC causes one percent a year from fifty to fifty-five percent. As wonderful as that appears, it would most likely have negative results. First, it would deprive our state of the funds needed to plant new churches and enlarge the base for our mission effort. It is true that “the light that shines the farthest shines the brightest at home.” Second, even if we gave 100% to SBC causes, it would not cure the illness that is degrading our SBC global outreach. There must be another way… and there is!

When the Cooperative Program was born, it was born with a vision that every state send 50% of its undesignated receipts to SBC causes. Unfortunately, there are presently only two states that share that vision, Virginia and Texas. Both are new state conventions which possess a youthful zeal, unfettered by bureaucracy and over-sized budgets that seem to plague older organizations. Giving among the forty-one states which contribute to the CP ranges from fifty-one percent to as low as fourteen percent! The average of all states is only 33%. A deplorable situation! Even our larger, more established state conventions are missing the mark by as much as ten percent or more.

And, where is the money going? Individual states must account for that, but we know where much of it is not going. It is not fulfilling our Great Commission mandate! Ours is a global commission, but, sadly, it appears that our vision has become rather short-sighted.

If we are to remedy the present funding deficit, I suggest that three things take place immediately. First, state conventions must evaluate and reprioritize their budgets. There must be no sacred cows. Our very purpose for being here is at stake. With courage and conviction, states must do whatever it takes to return to a 50/50 giving method in order to ensure that both state and global mission work are underwritten.

Second, individual churches must join the effort by evaluating and reprioritizing their own budgets. Every church must accept the challenge of ten percent of their undesignated receipts being directed to state and world mission causes, and that ten percent must not be a goal; it is the minimum. Sure, there are many things that we could be doing at home, but the global opportunities which we now face may be short lived. Open windows have a way of closing. There must be equal courage and conviction within every SBC church to do its part and to do it faithfully.

Finally, those of us who stand behind pulpits must not be negligent in proclaiming a biblical standard for financial stewardship. Tithing by Christian families is not legalism. It is the biblical method for ensuring that everyone has an equal part in financially underwriting the Kingdom’s work. The fact that the percentage of tithing church members is falling may be an indictment upon our teaching and not only on the faithfulness and commitment of our members. God does not need our money, but He has chosen to call us into a partnership with Himself. It is a fact, when we fail to give, the work suffers and we miss the blessing.

I do not believe that God is finished with us yet. We are still the denomination of the hour. But, when Paul wrote that in Ephesus there was “a great and effective door opened” to him, he added, “and there are many adversaries.” Adversaries will always be with us, but we dare not fulfill “Pogo Possum’s” observation, “We have met the enemy and he is us!”