Editor: William Thornton is the SBC Plodder and a keen observer of SBC life. This is a repost from his site It follows up on the discussion of the previous article he posted here, “SBC Presidents and the Cooperative Program.”
A 2007 survey yielded the unlikely statistic that 87% of SBC pastors were “generally satisfied” with the Cooperative Program.
Come on, 87% of SBC pastors will not agree that the sun rises in the east…but there you have it – SBC pastors happy with the CP.
So, why is it dropping like a rock, a trend over three decades long?
We may have more mental angst over baptism statistics but Ed Stetzer says that the trend line for baptisms over the past 60 years shows no “discernable pattern.” While baptisms may be the figure we love to tout or, lately, the one that is the subject of our jeremiads, it isn’t the most serious trend.
What’s dropping like a rock is the percentage of undesignated church offerings that is given through our venerable Cooperative Program. Check these figures:
Cooperative Program as a Percentage of Undesignated Church Offerings
1978-79…..11.130
1987-88…..10.323
1997-98….. 8.13
2007-08….. 6.082
2008-09….. 5.868
From the lusty 11.13% the year I was called in to the Christian ministry to the 5.868% for the last year for which I have statistics there is a staggering 47.3% decline. Here in 2011 we may already be at or past the 50% point.
Any way you slice this churches are sending about half of what they did thirty years ago through the Cooperative Program. If the CP were cereal, a corporation would declare it to be a dying brand and manage it accordingly, maybe putting the boxes on a lower shelf and moving on to newer and fresher products that catch the buying public’s interest.
Unfortunately, we don’t have a better plan or product than the Cooperative Program. Even though it has declined, it is still a huge funding engine and will surely continue to be the major denominational funding plan. No other plan makes as much sense.
So, how low can it go? I dunno. While I am certain that there has to be a floor to this drop, I don’t knows what it is.
Two salient questions:
1. Why the steep drop?
2. What can be done to arrest or reverse it?
I’d guess, I’d hope, that Frank Page, every state convention CEO, all the seminary presidents, Kevin Ezell and Tom Elliff arrive at work thinking about the Cooperative Program decline and what they can do about it. They cannot afford not to.
I read that Frank Page and the Executive Committee have retained an image consultant to see if the CP can be “rebranded.” I can’t pin it down but the idea of “rebranding” makes me recoil a bit. Regardless (alas, they didn’t check with me about this), we’ve now got this consultant and also a “consortium” of state convention stewardship specialists aggregated into something called the Stewardship Development Association (and I have a blog article on that).
The image consultant is a funky-haired, goateed forty-something hot shot who may have some new ideas that will help but I’d bet good Georgia dollars that every one of the state convention CP people are over fifty with most over sixty who probably don’t have many new ideas beyond, “Hey, how about you churches sending us more money.” Sorry to be so blunt but I’ve paid attention over the past 30 years to this stuff.
If this were a business you might have this conversation:
- “Hey, look at us, we’ve got “specialists” who work in the area of stewardship and Cooperative Program development.”
- “Great! How’s it working?”
- “Well, we’ve got a decades long decline in our major funding plan.”
- “Huh? Maybe we ought to get some new specialists.”
- Or, at least have them grow goatees and muss their hair…or even come up with something new.
I do think that it is important that the SBC arrive at some equilibrium on churches giving to the Cooperative Program and hope some fresh, new thoughts come to the surface.
What is behind the steep drop and what will arrest and reverse it, I don’t know but will speculate in subsequent blog articles.
By way of full disclosure my first two churches gave around 7 to 10 percent to the CP, though in my present church we have some rather serious financial challenges and will do well to give 1% this year. After evaluating what we can do, the church made a decision to give sacrificially to the IMB (we will end up with a Lottie Moon offering of about 3-4% of our budget) and maintain support as best we can to the association, state convention, NAMB and several local ministries. Plodder recognizes that he will not be in line for any denominational jobs or appointments with that low percentage but has accommodated himself to that reality.
I did not realize the drop was so precipitous
Has anyone prepared a ‘survey’ and sent it out to the Churches to discover ‘why’ this change has happened ? If the ‘survey’ is well-designed, it might yield some valuable revelations about what is troubling CP giving. AND, if the survey is diagnostic enough, honest voluntary responses to it might point the way to some practical solutions for the future.
Surely there is cause for concern, and of course some introspection is warranted,
but ‘an image consultant’???? Oh no. (groan)
The first link in my piece above is the Baptist Press article on LifeWay Research’s last CP survey of about a year ago. You can go from that to LifeWay Research and find the actual survey results. I just used one result. There were a good many questions surveyed.
But I don’t think it was all that helpful. I mean, how can 87% of pastors be ‘generally satisfied’ with something in light of the steep decline?
As a resident newbie Southern Baptist (just 4 years in), I can honestly tell you I have no recollection of ever hearing about the CP, even conversationally, other than here at SBCVoices. Maybe once…maybe.
In fact, I’m going now to look it up.
Well, there you have it. If the thing doesn’t get some marketing, some shelf space, in the churches, why would anyone buy it? To be fair to the stewardship specialists, they can trumpet the CP to the heavens but they canno make a single pastor use their CP promo stuff in his church.
Speaking of promo stuff, after I went to the website to read up on it, I did recall seeing their latest “WE > Me” brochures at church…I just never picked one up.
I have a church full of people who have no clue about the CP. But I’ve tried to instruct them about the advantages of the method. They get Annie and Lottie better!
We use the weekly prayer guide readings during our church service to talk about the CP, but that is the extent of our promotion outside of Annie and Lottie, at least for now.
This is what I was saying in my post on the SB and being relevant. We are not doing in our churches today what was done to educate the church in the area of missions giving, and the cooperative program. It’s something that needs to be emphasized in a way that doesn’t bore folks to death. One thing you could do is find out a particular person (seminary student), pastor’s church, missionary program that was directly helped from the amount of money your own church contributed. Let them know it was them who helped make it happen. Preach on missions… Read more »
selahV,
I agree with you. We are working toward being more intentional about a great many things in our church and talking about the CP will be one of those things. Using the prayer guide during our worship service to tell the story of different IMB and NAMB missionaries was a fairly easy first step. There are plenty more that we plan to make over time.
good for you, Jeff
In my previous pastorate, I was trying to do that. The deacons asked me to stop, as it was boring and nobody cared about such things.
This church, people already understand how the CP works, but I keep them reminded anyway. It helps us stay focused.
William, I do pray for Dr. Frank Page as he leads the Executive Committee. His pastoral leadership in the area of CP was refreshing to our convention when he was President. A number of years ago, as the switch from HMB to NAMB happened, Associationalism seemed to be devalued — that was and is the preception of many that I served with, especially in new work areas. An entire division was let go and it’s only gotten smaller. Not enough people in the SBC understand the importance of the local Baptist Association in SBC Life and the role DOM’s have… Read more »
Hale is 100% right on the heart of this issue! “What we have been slowly loosing is a grand sense of trust and a healthy respect for the autonomy of each level of SBC Life” I have watched (and warned) over the past 6-8 years that the Cooperative Program was going to suffer because of the actions of a few powerful personalities in the SBC who were using their positions as Denominational Leaders to advance their own personal opinions and beliefs… and in doing so were stepping on the “autonomy” of other Southern Baptist who did not share their personal… Read more »
Does anyone else get the feeling the rest of the story is not being told? When we have large churches that have huge influence that give 0.01-3 percent then we have a problem. Our leaders smile and tell us how great the cp is but then show us they do not trust it by bypassing the cp. I applaud the missions giving but something stinks. I would love for some of our mega church pastors just be open and honest about why their churches give the way they give.
There are a number of reasons for the drop. One has been the tremendous struggle over the issue of Scripture. I can remember why I voted for the Conservative view, namely, because many of the Moderates would do everything they could to hinder one held to a strong view of Scripture from getting a church. Also there was not a single verbal inspirationist that taught at the Seminary I attended, and I was told emphatically be the dean and a professor that they could not have sch teaching there whic meant I would never be able to teach there. At… Read more »
The CR is reaping what it sowed by electing presidents that did not care about the CP. The SBC is following their leaders.
I’m surprised it took this long for someone to play the “Blame the CR” card. Isn’t that kind of opportunistic – like Obama blaming everything that is wrong with the country on Bush?
Simplistic and convenient.
Kind if hard to dispute facts when they stare you right in the face. It would be interesting to put the corresponding SBC presidents church CP giving year by year to compare to the drop in giving.
Another reason I believe we have seen a drop is that programs like WMU, GAs and RAs were essentially done away with at larger churches, smaller churches followed that lead resulting in less of a missions atmosphere.
Then we have the debt load that so many churches have. They can’t afford the buildings and staff so they cut back on CP
I think the “Another Reason” is the key: we have lost a huge portion of missions education, even in small churches. This is hurting us in every aspect: missions, funding, growth. We tossed out those activities, focused on Sunday School and making it fun, and now are reaping the decline. As to blaming the CR: the primary criterion used to evaluate leadership in the CR was inerrancy. This was good. However, did the CR possibly push high-profile inerrantists that weren’t big CP folks rather than risk lower-profile people who were inerrantists and big CP givers that might have lost? If… Read more »
I would venture to say that “A” reason why the CP is failing is due largely to the size of the SBC. Or rather not necessarily size alone but rather the inability for the many different sub-groups within the SBC to get along with one another. Take for example the realm of church planting in the SBC. First lets look at “We’ve been here forever” Baptist Church. Their membership is in decline. Back in the 50’s they were hitting 500+ members, but now they are lucky if they have 50 on a Sunday. And are lucky if they get 2000… Read more »
Why? 1.) Because the CP is the hand that has fed you, since you aren’t paying anywhere near the full cost of your education. Or should you be among the last to reap that blessing from the hands of SBC churches? 2.) Because the SBC doesn’t exist to help your church. The SBC exists to jointly fund the efforts of churches to reach the lost. You fund the CP because the missionaries need it, not because your church benefits. 3.) Because the CP funds go to ministries/missions that are in agreement with the doctrines your church claims to hold. When… Read more »
Here is where everything you just said falls flat…MY calling is to serve the “We’ve been here forever” Baptist Church’s. I am called to be bi-vo as I continue my education and eventually (God willing) become a History Professor at some college/university. I want to serve these small rural churches (or maybe old urban churches( that have been around since the 1800’s. I already have had the privilege of serving some of these churches as a pulpit supply preacher. And my example that I showed…Of “WBFBC” being ignored while NAMB, State, and Local associations planted a “NEW” church right down… Read more »
Smuschany I would like to address some of your assumptions you have in your response to Doug if I may. First of all, if you believe God is calling you to serve the smaller, bi-vocational churches, I say go for it. We need men who are willing to serve faithfully where God has called them rather than continually looking for the next “bigger” place to serve. If God has called you to a revitalization or refocusing ministry to existing churches, then go for it with your whole heart. Small does not equal bad and large does not equal good. In… Read more »
Smuschany, I understand you ideas of church A (wbf) and B (ng). Most times you will find chruch A still a strong giver because they will understand CP goes beyond themselves. As to chruch B this (although in another form) takes place many, many time. The deal is they want NAMB, State, Assn CP money when they are starting out and then when the funding declines, they cut thier CP giving, even though it was that funding that allowed them to get started and pay the bills and now all of a sudden it is irrelevent. Allow me to share… Read more »
I think you bring up a really good point.
Reformed SBCers would naturally be drawn toward something like Acts 29 which plants churches more in line with their own theology. Southern Baptists with, say, a more charismatic bent would lead that way.
We are such a varied community. The temptation is for each of us to align ourselves with groups that more closely reflect our viewpoint.
Is this bad? It is certainly bad for the SBC.
” . . . the NAMB, State, and local assocation come in and plant a new church 2 miles down the street from “We’ve been here for ever” Baptist Church. This new church gets all the help, all the attention, financial support to get up and going and to reach all the people in the area. As a result 20 of the 50 that attended the old church up and leave.” has this REALLY happened? . . . if it has happened, wow . . . ‘cooperation’? . . sounds more like setting up ‘competition’ . . . and ‘sheep-stealing’… Read more »
I think the problem is that the previous generation that gave over 11% did a poor job passing their reasoning for such giving, onto the next generation. New generations have continued the trend. I think this is the biggest problem with Southern Baptists; we are terrible at passing anything onto the next generation. If you ask Southern Baptists today that give over 10% to the CP, “why” they do, many will have difficulty responding beyond “This is what we’ve always done.” Youth don’t care about “what we’ve always done.” They need a logical reason; and many today–praise God–need a Scriptural… Read more »
I’m just a hacker and plodder pastor but I suggest 18 reasons why the CP has been steadily dropping. Many of those reasons are in some of these comments. Perhaps some can be fixed but some cannot. But I will say that whatever the flaws of the CP, it is a program that has one indisputable advantage: it just makes sense. It makes sense to give a single dollar that we know will be sliced up in thousands of pieces to cover all the stuff that we need. It makes sense not to depend on 44k autonomous churches to provide… Read more »
The one result of the fracturing of our SBC will be the end of the largest mission force in the history of the Protestant/Baptist Faith. This has been the desired goal of some, perhaps many, outside the SBC. Fracture the last remaining great missionary effort, and there will be no one on the national scene to maintain the cause of freedom as well as the cause of the Christian Faith in the public forum with any thing like the numbers required. Of course, it might be a Divine purpose to win the rest of the earth by the martyrdom of… Read more »
This is not that hard to explain. Just ask a few questions: 1. Consider the financial situation of churches and people today. 2. How many SBC churches see the CP as the primary means of doing missions vs. local causes, direct funding of missionaries, other parachurch causes? I suspect that most churches enjoy giving to other things, too, and there are lots of options. 3. What is the state of denominational giving in other similar Protestant denominations? I suspect they are all down. Denominationalism continues to decline in popularity. Many strong churches would rather be known for their commitment to… Read more »