SBC leaders gather for a ‘Declaration of Cooperation’ to mark the Cooperative Program’s 100th anniversary

This article was originally written by Brandon Porter and published to BaptistPress.com. Some additions have been made to by the Baptist Messenger Staff. Feature photo taken by Jim Veneman

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The Ellis Auditorium was brand new May 13, 1925, when Southern Baptists met on a spring afternoon and voted to begin the Cooperative Program. Precisely 100 years later, on May 13, though the auditorium is gone, Southern Baptists gathered a just few yards away from the original location to recommit to cooperative partnership.

“The Cooperative Program, while commonplace to Southern Baptists today, was a never-before-attempted method of funding shared ministry and mission efforts,” SBC Executive Committee President Jeff Iorg said in the keynote address to the group.

Once again, dozens of Southern Baptist pastors and leaders gathered to sign a Declaration of Cooperation, just as SBC leaders did to mark the 50^th anniversary in 1975.

“My appeal today is to reaffirm our commitment to cooperation and the Cooperative Program in its simplest form – a shared funding mechanism for state and regional conventions and the national Convention to substantially provide the funding needed for all our work,” Iorg said.

“We should do this for many biblical, theological and methodological reasons – but mostly for this very practical, proven reason – it works!”

Seventy-three pastors, national SBC leaders, state convention leaders and ethnic leaders gathered to sign the document that thanked local churches for a century of generosity and commended “all who promote, support, and renew their commitment to the Cooperative Program among our family of churches, mission boards, seminaries, entities, local Baptist associations and state conventions.”

Before 1925, Southern Baptist churches gave to missionary, evangelistic and educational endeavors based on individual pleas by organizational or societal representatives. Each church gave what it deemed best, leaving fundraisers constantly scrambling to make their pitch and churches feeling the pressure of constant requests.

In 1919, Southern Baptists agreed to a five-year campaign to raise $75 million to fund these missionary endeavors. While the pledges came in at $92,630,923, the actual giving by 1924 fell short at $58,591,713.

It was the next year that a group led by Louisiana pastor M.E. Dodd brought the idea of the Cooperative Program to the annual meeting and messengers adopted it. Southern Baptist calls for a systematic method of giving date all the way back to 1888.

Dodd pastored First Baptist Church Shreveport, La., from 1912 until his retirement in 1950. He is known in Southern Baptist history as one of the greatest promoters of the Cooperative Program in its early years, rallying hundreds of churches to cooperate.

The pulpit Dodd preached from at Shreveport, First from 1925-1950 was shared by the Northeast Louisiana Baptist Association for the May 3 gathering.

To stand at Dodd’s pulpit was special for South Carolina Baptist Convention Executive Director Tony Wolfe, who spearheaded the event.

“It’s very meaningful, not just for me, but I think for everybody who steps up to that pulpit and signs this Declaration of Cooperation,” Wolfe said.

He hopes for a renewal of “unity and purpose” for Southern Baptists, as M.E. Dodd said in 1925.

SBC Registration Secretary Don Currence said he fought tears as he prepared to sign the declaration.

“It was a very humbling experience,” said Currence. “It’s a day I’ll never forget.”

Other platform guests included International Mission Board President Paul Chitwood, Texas pastor Caleb Turner and Baptist Convention of New England Executive Director Terry Dorsett.

Turner, pastor of Mesquite Friendship Baptist, told Baptist Press, “We are invested in the Cooperative Program because we wouldn’t be where we are today without what we receive through the Cooperative Program.”

Mesquite started as a church plant in 1991.

“From the very beginning we understood the importance of receiving. And so therefore, because we’ve been blessed in such a way, we want to reciprocate that same thing,” he said.

Dorsett remembered the early days of the Cooperative Program and the challenges Southern Baptists faced in 1925.

He quoted South Carolina’s Charles E. Burts who spoke to messengers in 1925: “The difficulties we face are more than matched by the ability of our people to meet them if we approach them in faith, prayer, courage and sacrifice.”

A season of prayer for churches and pastors, SBC entities and state conventions was led by April Bunn, Chuck Lawless, Carolyn Fountain, Bruno Molina, Hoon Im and Hershael York.

Oklahoma Baptists represented at CP event

Multiple representatives from Oklahoma Baptists attended the event, including Baptist Messenger Editor Brian Hobbs and Ada, First Pastor Brad Graves, who is serving a one-year term as SBC first vice president.

Oklahoma Baptists’ Executive Director-Treasurer Todd Fisher, who was unable to travel to the event due to travel restrictions related to his ongoing recovery from a serious automobile accident last summer, noted the significance of the occasion with a post on social media.

“Today in Memphis the SBC is officially celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Cooperative Program,” Fisher said, “As we celebrate the 100th birthday of the Cooperative Program, we have learned over these 100 years that we truly can do more for the Kingdom of God together than we can apart. The Cooperative Program is the distinctive mark of Southern Baptists that enables us to fulfill the very reason we formed together as a convention in the first place: to reach the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

“Thank you Oklahoma Baptists churches for your faithful, sacrificial giving through the CP. In these last 100 years, Oklahoma Baptists churches have more than $1 billion through the CP! I am grateful for our rich history of cooperatively supporting missions and ministry across the globe and look forward to a bright future of continuing to do the same through the CP.”

Committed to the Great Commission

Sandy Wisdom-Martin, executive director-treasurer of the Woman’s Missionary Union, signed the declaration on behalf of the organization.

“You know, as Southern Baptists, we have one thing that unites us at the core, and that is our responsibility to take the Gospel to the ends of the Earth,” Wisdom-Martin told Baptist Press. “The Great Commission is urgent, and it’s a priority for us as Southern Baptists.”

Through the Cooperative Program, Southern Baptists have 3,500 fully-funded missionaries across every continent, help support 600 church plants annually and help train thousands of seminary students for the purposes of spreading Jesus’ message and making disciples.

Chitwood pointed the gathering to another gathering found in Revelation 7 where God’s people from every tribe and nation will lift their voices in praise to God.

“Thank you, Lord, for letting us be a part of the vision coming to pass,” Chitwood prayed to close the event. “Thank you for a people called Southern Baptists, who for 180 years have worked together to steward that vision and who for 100 years have given generously through the Cooperative Program to steward that vision.

“Lord, might You find us, in our generation, faithful stewards of this vision, giving generously to see that missionaries are sent and supported, that the Gospel is preached and that the lost are saved.”

Committed to generosity

Since the inception of the Cooperative Program, Southern Baptists have given more than $20 billion nationally to support missions, seminary education, church planting, disaster relief, public policy work and more.

“The Great Commission is why we cooperate,” SBC President Clint Pressley told Baptist Press. “We have to cooperate to accomplish what we’re all trying to do together.”

The celebration took place just weeks before the 2025 SBC Annual Meeting in Dallas June 10-11.