By Randy C. Davis
President and executive director, TBMB
Randy Davis
George Peppard’s character Colonel John “Hannibal” Smith on the television show, The A-Team, exclaimed after each miraculous mission success: “I love it when a plan comes together.”
His sentiment encapsulates the story of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Cooperative Program and what lies ahead for us as Tennessee Baptists through the Acts 2:17 Initiative.
Nearly 100 years ago, Southern Baptist leaders devised a systematic financial plan built around a shared passion for domestic and global missions and called it the Cooperative Program (CP). It curtailed the constant solicitation from various missionary and benevolent organizations seeking funding.
And indeed, the plan came together. Years and billions of dollars later, CP has supported tens of thousands of missionaries, and became our Great Commission mutual fund, supporting missionary enterprises, Christian education, and compassion ministries.
The miracle of this financial support for ministry and missions was that each participating church, state convention, and SBC body was and remains independent and autonomous. They chose then, and we choose now to be interdependent, believing we are better together for the cause of Christ.
Three vital cornerstones were essential to this grand experiment’s success:
- Trust from churches had to be earned and maintained. The Southern Baptist Convention established a robust system of trustees for each entity, responsible for accountability and transparency in Cooperative Program funding investments.
- Churches would ideally give 10 percent of undesignated receipts through the Cooperative Program. Until the mid-1980s, this ideal was largely realized. While the average across Tennessee stands at 5.5 percent today, over 900 Tennessee Baptist churches remain at, near or above 10 percent in their CP giving.
- Individual state conventions would send 50 percent of Cooperative Program funds to the Southern Baptist Convention. Tennessee Baptists made significant strides in the past 10 years, reaching our present 47.5/52.5 SBC/TBC distribution of CP funds, but TBC messengers also established more than a decade ago that the movement toward 50/50 distribution would be dependent upon churches increasing their CP giving to not undermine ministry in our own state.
However, due to inflation and level CP giving in Tennessee, we must reexamine Cooperative Program allocations. The Board of Directors of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board will present to messengers at the Tennessee Baptist Convention in November a proposal for a 40/55 allocation (40 percent for SBC, 55 percent for TBC) with a special allocation of 5 percent sent directly to the International Mission Board. This 5 percent will be in addition to the 50.41 percent of SBC funds that the IMB already receives.
If approved, Tennessee Baptists will send more dollars to support global missions than ever before, and an amount equal to a 50/50 distribution.
As we approach 2025, the centennial anniversary of the Cooperative Program, we have an opportunity to refocus our Great Commission priorities, recapture the cooperative hearts of Southern Baptists, and rebuild genuine collaborative trust in one another.
This brings us to the Acts 2:17 Initiative, a vision for the future of Tennessee Baptists that builds upon the foundation laid by the Cooperative Program and directed by grassroots Tennessee Baptists. The Initiative focuses on six key words: healthy churches, evangelistic disciples, and gospel leaders.
Of these, strengthening and multiplying gospel leaders emerges as the most crucial of the initiatives. The Acts 2:17 Initiative commits to encouraging every pastor and ministry leader in Tennessee. We will invite every Tennessee Baptist to listen and respond to God’s call to ministry. As a network of churches, we promise to educate, equip, mentor, and support them.
Moreover, we will issue a clarion call to men sitting in the pews to radically respond to God’s call to step into the pulpits of the estimated 400 churches in Tennessee who have no pastor. This call extends from those who identify as Paul’s young friend, Timothy, to seasoned adults like the prophet Amos. We as Tennessee Baptists, and the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, commit to walking beside and rapidly equipping them for ministry.
For many, this may involve a dual vocational role, becoming what the New Testament calls a “tentmaker,” someone who has a job to support themselves while carrying out a specific ministry assignment.
By focusing on strengthening and multiplying gospel leaders, we aim to see our Great Commission responsibility met and the gospel explode across the great state of Tennessee. This is what you, as Tennessee Baptists, told your Tennessee Baptist Mission Board you wanted. The proposed budget allocations allow the Acts 2:17 priorities to launch as we align resources and launch pilot projects in 2025.
As we look to the future, we see increased evangelistic efforts, a church planting movement, dead churches returning to life, families becoming well-equipped and fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ, and we hope to see the potential end of the foster care crisis in our state. These fruits and more are waiting to be harvested because of our combined efforts through the Cooperative Program and the Acts 2:17 Initiative.
The future of Tennessee Baptists is bright. Let us move forward together, strengthening our commitment to the Cooperative Program and embracing the vision of the Acts 2:17 Initiative. In doing so, I believe we’ll soon parrot Hannibal Smith and say, “We love it when a plan comes together.”
I’m looking forward to being with you on this journey.
