Atlanta area megachurch Johnson Ferry Baptist announced the results of their annual Great Commission Offering. It was suitably mega with over $5 million given. The offering was divided: $2.7m Lottie Moon, $1.7m Johnson Ferry missions budget, and $680k Annie Armstrong. That’s a single SBC church giving about 1.5% of the total Lottie Moon offering.
Megachurches, of course, aren’t like your church and mine, but they are influencers for us and the trend of giving heavily, aggressively, enthusiastically to the two major SBC mission offerings has long been evident. Designated giving grows. Cooperative Program giving languishes, by design.
Back when Bryant Wright was SBC president the church was somewhere in the 3-4% range with CP giving. I don’t know where they are now but this grand, annual, combined mission offering is what many churches do these days. CP isn’t a part of it. The reasons for this are obvious.
Our venerable Cooperative Program is important but doesn’t capture the vision and enthusiasm that it did in the mid-20th century. The system we have operating today may be the best we can do.
Regardless, congratulations to JFBC for their outstanding support of SBC missions.
