Point of View

If you are a Southern Baptist, what do you need to know about the Cooperative Program? Is it merely a way to support the denomination, or is it a relevant, viable process that makes a difference in people’s lives beginning where you live and extending around the world?

The Cooperative Program has the potential, when rightly employed, for moving Southern Baptist missions and ministries from the ordinary, the average, the good – to superlative, outstanding, great fruitfulness for the Kingdom of God.

YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE GREAT RESULTS

Only our Lord knows all the eternal good that has been done because of Cooperative Program missions and ministries. Too many Baptists are not hearing about the great results flowing directly from Cooperative Program-supported endeavors. We need to tell our stories better. You need to know about the great results.

You need to know about a Yezidi Kurd we will call Milo (not his real name). Soviet schools taught him, growing up in Armenia, that God was not real. But as an adult, Milo grew desperate. Milo knew that Yezidi priests teach Yezidis to kill other Yezidis who embrace a different faith. For two months Milo went to church, listening to preaching about Jesus Christ. Milo also thought about killing the Yezidi Christians. After a personal encounter with Jesus, Milo became a believer. Despite persecutions, he is a light among Yezidis. He heads a church of Armenian and Yezidi believers. He wrote and compiled a Kurmanji Christian songbook. And because Yezidis love stories, he has written and published parables that flow from biblical principles. Your love for the Lord and commitment to reaching people through Cooperative Program missions supports churches such as the one where Milo met Christ.

You need to know about Carlos and Cristina De La Barra who, 14 years ago, sold their computer business and left a financially secure life in their native Santiago, Chile, to help start Spanish-speaking churches in Hispanic areas in South Carolina, Indiana, and now Kentucky. “I am a product of Southern Baptist missions,” says Carlos. “I am a Christian and a missionary because a missionary couple answered God’s call to Chile many years ago.”

You need to know about our disaster relief work. Recent hurricanes have shown the country and the world the heart of Southern Baptists. We were among the first to respond and we are still on the job. Yet, in spite of responding to the greatest natural disaster in our nation’s history, not one missionary had to be recalled due to lack of resources.

You need to know about the university students and campuses that are being reached by the nearly 700 collegiate ministers supported by Baptist state conventions. Student ministry researcher Steve Shadrach identified Southern Baptist collegiate ministry as one of the top ten in the nation and the one that reached the most students. The next largest ministry, the very fine Campus Crusade for Christ organization, has many more campus ministers (2,500+) but reaches only about 43,000 students.

You need to know about the revival taking place in the Louisiana Penitentiary at Angola because of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary extension courses being taught there and the scores of Baptist volunteers coordinated by the evangelism division of the state convention who conduct Bible studies and evangelistic events. In May of 2005, 94 inmates and 30 prison employees’ family members prayed to receive Christ, and nearly 50 Christian inmates received Bible degrees from New Orleans Seminary. These graduates are leading the “church” inside the prison walls. The Cooperative Program is changing lives.

The Cooperative Program supports thousands of missionaries, thousands of seminary students, and hundreds of workers in children’s homes and other helping ministries. All of them have inspirational stories of how God is changing lives. By God’s grace, Southern Baptists are caring people and together we are touching the world.

This column is the third of four adapted from “One Sacred Effort” by Chad Brand and David Hankins. Copyright 2005. Used with permission. All rights reserved.