The church has been a part of one of the missionary Baptist groups for years. The pastor has always been a part of that denomination.   He is retired from serving a church full-time, and now is bi-vocational, deeply loved by the church, and is an effective leader.

He told me this story during lunch:  Recently a tornado moved through his community, and left a tree on a church member’s house.  Within hours the Associational Missionary in his community brought a group of Disaster Relief workers to the church member’s house and started to remove the tree.  The pastor told me “that was our job, but we couldn’t do it.” That was when he realized that his church should be a part of the local association, the ABSC, and the SBC.  Disaster relief work funded by the Cooperative Agreements that we have with NAMB, the CP, and the state mission offerings reached out to a whole church.  This church has voted to join with Southern Baptists to meet needs of people around the world.  Now, when a tornado touches down in AR, or a hurricane comes to LA, or an earthquake hits Haiti, this church will be involved.  When an SBC missionary leads a child to Christ anywhere in the world, this church is a part.

Meanwhile, back at the Baptist Building… a pastor and his wife have been married 37 years.  He told your Program Committee this story: After a lifelong commitment to another denomination, he became pastor of an SBC church.  Now he is a church planter, funded by the Cooperative Agreements with NAMB, the CP, and the state missions offering.  In his 37 year marriage, no one had ever tried to strengthen the relationship between him and his wife.  Together they testified about attending the Galatians 6:6 Conference, at no charge for SBC church staff.  Listening to how the conference impacted them would bring tears to your eyes.

My purpose is not to claim “SBC Exceptionalism,” but to remind us all that we have a system of ministry that is a blessing, not a burden.  In the case of the established church led by a bi-vocational church pastor, funding will now flow to IMB missionaries and to ministries across Arkansas and around the world.   In the case of the church planter, funding will now flow from a new church to a lost world.  And in both cases, your church helps strengthen theirs.  We can do this because we cooperate.

We really do more when we do it together.

Want to hear what your church has done through the Cooperative Program?  Email me, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or Bill Bullington, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . This blog is posted every Friday.