Baptist Faith & Message Article XIV. Cooperation

Here are my notes on my ongoing series addressing Southern Baptist Beliefs by examining the Baptist Faith and Message 2000.

Article XIV. Cooperation

Christ's people should, as occasion requires, organize such associations and conventions as may best secure cooperation for the great objects of the Kingdom of God. Such organizations have no authority over one another or over the churches. They are voluntary and advisory bodies designed to elicit, combine, and direct the energies of our people in the most effective manner. Members of New Testament churches should cooperate with one another in carrying forward the missionary, educational, and benevolent ministries for the extension of Christ's Kingdom. Christian unity in the New Testament sense is spiritual harmony and voluntary cooperation for common ends by various groups of Christ's people. Cooperation is desirable between the various Christian denominations, when the end to be attained is itself justified, and when such cooperation involves no violation of conscience or compromise of loyalty to Christ and His Word as revealed in the New Testament.

Exodus 17:12; 18:17ff.; Judges 7:21; Ezra 1:3-4; 2:68-69; 5:14-15; Nehemiah 4; 8:1-5; Matthew 10:5-15; 20:1-16; 22:1-10; 28:19-20; Mark 2:3; Luke 10:1ff.; Acts 1:13-14; 2:1ff.; 4:31-37; 13:2-3; 15:1-35; 1 Corinthians 1:10-17; 3:5-15; 12; 2 Corinthians 8-9; Galatians 1:6-10; Ephesians 4:1-16; Philippians 1:15-18.

Authority

Without being overly technical the assumption of Baptists when it concerns the chain of authority looks something like this:

God-->Christ-->Spirit & Bible-->Local Church

Therefore on any occasion where Baptists cooperate, whether it is with other Southern Baptists or Christians from other denominations, it is understood that no real authority exists where one church can speak authoritatively over another local church. The cooperation is voluntary and may be dissolved at any time. Thus we find the following statement in article xiv, “Such organizations have no authority over one another or over the churches.”

Churches may have to submit to certain principles and practices in order to participate in an association or convention, but the submission comes not from an organizational dictate, but because the local church willingly entered into an agreement or contract with the organization and can dissolve the relationship at any time.

How We Cooperate

Southern Baptists have concluded that there are many reasons why we should band together in networks and associations. The heartbeat of the why the Southern Baptist Convention exists is due to our common desire to see the Great Commission fulfilled. Southern Baptists desire to see a people from every tribe, nation, and tongue worship God through the Spirit confessing Jesus is Lord.

Southern Baptists have rightly concluded that the Great Commission can be fulfilled more effectively if we come together as local churches and pool our resources for this great effort. The Cooperative Program, our chief funding mechanism in Southern Baptist life, reflects our common desire to reach the nations as the majority of money sent to the Convention is earmarked for International and National mission efforts.

Southern Baptists traditionally have cooperated on three levels: local, state, and national.

On the national level the focus of cooperation is focused on Missions and Pastor Education (six seminaries). Around 94% of Cooperative Program monies sent to the SBC goes into these two ministries. The remaining money is used by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the Southern Baptist Archives and Guidestone Financial Resources.

On the State level, Cooperative money is put into Nursing homes, Orphan Ministries, state colleges, Baptist Papers, and a plethora of other ministries such as conferences, scholarships, and state missions.

The local association focuses on projects and ministries in the community, and other ministries deemed important by the local churches. Often, the local association is a resource center for the local churches that have needs that go unfulfilled.

Dissatisfaction & New Networks

While it seems that Baptists have traditionally worked primarily with other Baptists, it appears that a new wave of Baptists have arisen that are more willing to work with Christians of various denominational stripes. New networks are being created where 2nd and 3rd tier issues of theology are no longer barriers to fruitful cooperation. So we have networks being created where the participating churches agree on gospel level issues, and the real driving force behind the cooperation are the common goals and methodologies used for reaching our communities.

Baptists are asking questions like the following:

Do I want my offering money to fund a Baptist Paper where the readership is dwindling or do I want it to go to support a church planter?

Do I want my money to fund an evangelism conference where my theology will be degraded and many stories will be told or would I rather use that same money to participate in conferences which I believe will help my local church better fulfill our Scriptural mandate?

Do I want to give money that will be channeled through two to three agencies in order for it to be put to use for the glory of God, where also overhead costs will depreciate the gift or do I want to be as directly involved as possible so that not only those who receive the gift are blessed, but we are also because of our direct participation?

Associational Effectiveness

The third sentence in the article on cooperation states, “They are voluntary and advisory bodies designed to elicit, combine, and direct the energies of our people in the most effective manner.” The most important aspect of this statement is the last stanza which emphasizes the importance on using networks and associations which are most effective in fulfilling Biblical mandates.

Year after year, we hear reports of our declining influence as Baptists to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Many of our churches are filled with aging members and there is a glaring absence of younger generations who will be necessary if many of these local churches are going to be in existence in the next 20 years.

As each local church is directly under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and as such accountable to him, we need to use the sum of our talents and resources to maximize our effectiveness for his Kingdom. And if current networks are not effective, or if we find ourselves going in different directions, then we might need to reconsider our allegiance with them.

Missions, Education, & Benevolence

We believe as the statement says, “Members of New Testament churches should cooperate with one another in carrying forward the missionary, educational, and benevolent ministries for the extension of Christ's Kingdom.”

Southern Baptists join together to send out Christians to serve around the world through the International Mission Board and we send Christians out nationally through the North American Mission Board. In addition to our mission efforts Southern Baptists fund many educational institutions such as our six seminaries and other colleges such as Anderson University, North Greenville College and Charleston Southern here in South Carolina.

Furthermore, Southern Baptists routinely contribute to benevolent ministries. World Hunger and Disaster Relief assistance are two ways we yearly help in these areas.

Here again though, we need to make the commitment to yearly think through the different causes we fund and measure their effectiveness. We may find that instead of supporting World Hunger we may want to divert some of our benevolent funds to Blood, Water, Missions to see clean water wells provided for communities without clean water.

As a part of our mission endeavors we may want to contribute to the renewed movement of church planting because we have learned that newly planted churches are often more effective in reaching younger people than older established traditional ones are, and while we may not change certain aspects of our local church, we still want to see the younger generation reached with the gospel.

Beyond Denominations

The last statement made on cooperation involves Baptist cooperation with other denominations. It reads, “Cooperation is desirable between the various Christian denominations, when the end to be attained is itself justified, and when such cooperation involves no violation of conscience or compromise of loyalty to Christ and His Word as revealed in the New Testament.”

This statement can be said for cooperative efforts with other Southern Baptists churches as well. There is no Biblical mandate that says we must cooperate with every church that identifies itself as Southern Baptist. In fact, there are many Southern Baptists churches that I probably would not want to be associated with because of particular attitudes and perspectives on what it means to be a Christian.

There can no doubt that the more local churches can cooperate the better the image we can put forth to the world on what it means in part to follow Jesus Christ. Unnecessary division and divisiveness between Christians takes away from God’s glory in the church.

On the other hand, we should not pretend that there are no real differences between Christians. Local churches should not compromise themselves on gospel level issues just to bring about a sense of togetherness. In the end, if we do not have unanimity on the gospel then we do not have true fellowship anyway.

Outlook

I see both a decline and incline in participation in cooperating networks.

I see a decline especially in Baptist circles of churches choosing to participate in the traditional avenues. Already there are many Southern Baptist churches unsatisfied with the take of State Conventions Cooperative Program dollars, and are choosing to bypass the State Conventions and send their funds directly to the Executive Committee of which Highview BC is a prominent example.

Active participation in many local associations is abysmal. I know on many occasions, I am the only one present at meetings who does not have gray hair. This cannot be a good sign for traditional local associations.

New affinity groups are springing up where denominational affiliation is not so much as important as the goals and methodologies of the local churches.

Many are rejecting the traditional means of cooperation because of the feeling that too much money is being wasted, or not directed to the most needed areas of ministry. For example many are tired that so much money is being spent on ourselves here in America when we have so much already.

I see an incline in participation between churches across denominational lines.

I see an incline in membership to new networks due mainly to the great church planting movement that has begun here. Many younger pastors get burned out spending years trying to reform dying or stagnant churches that are unwilling to change anything and are unwilling to do anything about the stagnant condition of the church. So they move on and take the hard road of raising funds and working part time jobs to make ends meet in order to start healthy churches where discipline and order can be properly maintained.

This is already happening in Southern Baptist life where fewer and fewer Southern Baptists attend any Convention or Associational meetings but can be seen gathering at non-Baptist conferences and fellowshipping and meeting with diverse Christians in order to be more fruitful.