Most of us who know the Lord remember the Great Commission that He gave His church:

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. (Matthew 28:19-20a)

Let me go ahead and say it … I fear that the system that we call the Cooperative Program, as wonderful and effective as it has been, may have actually distorted the local church’s understanding of the above-quoted Great Commission.  Indeed, I fear that the Cooperative Program may have served as a type of “inoculation” against a complete and true fulfillment of that commission.

Let me explain …

For several generations now, Southern Baptists have “pooled” their missions funds through the Cooperative Program.  Local churches have set aside a percentage of their undesignated receipts to go to the CP.  Checks are mailed monthly to state conventions, which keep a major portion of the funds, then the rest trickles down to the various and sundry entities of the SBC.  Lately, many churches have chosen to “by-pass” the state conventions and give directly to the SBC Executive Committee.

Periodically, churches receive beautiful, colorful reports from the various entities, telling them (the churches) what an incredible job they are “doing” in fulfilling the “Great Commission” by contributing the the Cooperative Program.  Occasionally, missionaries come to the churches to show their pictures and videos and give their reports.  Much of the visual and informational focus is upon fulfilling the Great Commission abroad, through the work of our amazingly effective International Mission Board.

But I wonder … does the average Southern Baptist realize that the majority of the dollars that they give remain within their own state, and that the vast majority of those dollars never leave the shores of the United States?  (Thank the Lord for Lottie Moon!!)

And all the while, millions of Southern Baptists remain in the comfort of their home churches, content and convinced that they have “done their part” to fulfill the Great Commission.

But have they … really?  Is this what Jesus envisioned for His church when he proclaimed the Great Commission?  Did He envision …

Therefore give a certain percentage regularly (10% or more recommended) and in so doing create large bureaucracies, systems, and facilities to administer and  fund other willing Christians to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

Somehow, I don’t think so.

The same generation that instituted the Cooperative Program (1925) was the generation that envisioned and implemented Social Security (1935).  Tragically, we all know that millions of Americans have come to depend upon Social Security as the only means of provision for their retire ment years, and they have suffered greatly.   They have paid a harsh price for “placing all of their apples in a single basket.”  Could it be that a similar phenomenon has occurred in and through the Southern Baptist Cooperative Program?

Don’t get me wrong … the Cooperative Program has been a blessing.  God has used it in a mighty way.  But things have changed a lot since 1925 (an incredible understatement).  Yet my fear is that there are so many churches in the SBC that think of the CP as the “only way.”  I fear that there has, indeed, been a mass “inoculation” against “going.”  Instead, we have chosen to substitute giving.   And, in the process, we have created vast denominational systems of dependency … organizations, conventions, committees, offices, staff … which count on a regular diet of local church dollars to maintain those systems.  Instead of healthy, streamlined distributors of the Gospel message, I fear that we have huge, bulky, “low-mileage” consumers of our missions dollars.  How much “bang” are we actually getting for our missions “buck?”  Our systems are so huge now, that may not even be calculable.

Are we really “doing more together than we can do separately?”  After all, that’s what I’ve always been told about the CP.  But does that mantra really “wash” in the 21st century?  What really “works” better and “employs” more people, a huge corporate conglomerate, or 50,000 small businesses?

In the end, is mailing a check to the state Baptist convention, or to the Executive Committee, really  a satisfactory attempt at fulfilling the Great Commission?  Or should it just be a small part of the overall missions strategies of our local churches?

A little less give … and a lot more go …