If you’re reading this page, I’m assuming that you’re a hard-core Southern Baptist. So am I! I grew up in a church that gave a huge part of its budget to the Cooperative Program (CP). When I was just 22 years old I went to my new church in Cincinnati and asked if they would increase their CP giving…and they did! For many years I went through the drudgery of serving on our church’s finance committee so that I could be a watchdog for CP. For more than a decade I was the person at our church who promoted the missions offerings – Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong and CE Wiley (state).
I paid attention in Dr. Baker’s Baptist History class. I know all the problems with the old society method of supporting missions and all the benefits of cooperative giving. Many times I have explained to people (proudly, I must confess) that Southern Baptist missionaries have the freedom to devote all their time to ministry without having to worry about raising support like those other missionaries. Now I am one of those “other” missionaries.
Blackaby is right. Going with God requires major adjustments, and this has required a HUGE adjustment in my thinking. At Mission Service Corps (MSC) support school they asked us to consider how Jesus funded his ministry. It was through the gifts of individuals. If the creator of the universe relied on the gifts of individuals to fund his ministry, I should surely be willing to do that as well.
I would NEVER EVER want anyone to help fund our ministry by taking money from another missionary. At the same time, missions structures are changing as Southern Baptists focus on church planting to the exclusion of many other things. I once could give to Lottie and know I was undergirding hospitals and seminaries and agricultural missionaries overseas. Not so much anymore. I could once give to Annie and know I was supporting Baptist Mission Centers in the heart of America’s major cities. Not so much anymore. I could once give to CE Wiley and know I was helping the international seamen’s center on Lake Michigan and the other Indiana BCMs. No more. If I want to be a part of what God is doing in those places, I have to find new ways to do it.
Before all this happened, I never even considered giving outside CP and the missions offerings. If anyone sent me a letter asking for support I pitched it in the trash without ever considering it or praying about it. “I already support ten thousand missionaries through the CP,” I said, and never gave it another thought. Now I am a financial ministry partner for a girl I met at MSC support school. We will still give to CP and the missions offerings, but for the first time in a very long time I am actually praying about how God wants us to give. In the midst of all these changes, God is changing me!
