At a large number of our entities (I suspect that this is true of them all, but am unwilling to do the necessary research to make the universal statement), giving money directly to that entity will win you some enhanced level of recognition or access. In my fifteen years at FBC Farmersville, Dr. Ken Hemphill first admitted us into the President’s Club at SWBTS. We’ve been invited to meals because of our level of contribution to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering. Our entities, like virtually all donation seeking entities in the world, show appreciation to donors in proportion to their level of donation.
Unless, that is, those donations come through the Cooperative Program.
If you give $10 million to an SBC seminary, they’ll name a building after you. If you give $10 million through the Cooperative Program to each of the SBC seminaries, as far as I know, none of them will even know who you are in order to be able to acknowledge the gift.
If the Cooperative Program really is our preferred vehicle for funding our cooperative Great Commission enterprises, why doesn’t it count? Why don’t our entities recognize and celebrate CP contributions on perfect parity with contributions made through other channels? One would think that the “preferred” vehicle might even get SPECIAL recognition, but I think it would be a step forward for our State Conventions, our Executive Committee, and our entities to work together to do whatever it takes for CP dollars simply to be promoted to equal standing among all of the donations that our entities receive.
