Cooperation
The Baptist Faith & Message • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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BF&M 2K
BF&M 2K
Christ’s people should, as occasion requires, organize such associations and conventions as may best secure cooperation for the great objects of the Kingdom of God. Such organizations have no authority over one another or over the churches. They are voluntary and advisory bodies designed to elicit, combine, and direct the energies of our people in the most effective manner. Members of New Testament churches should cooperate with one another in carrying forward the missionary, educational, and benevolent ministries for the extension of Christ’s Kingdom. Christian unity in the New Testament sense is spiritual harmony and voluntary cooperation for common ends by various groups of Christ’s people. Cooperation is desirable between the various Christian denominations, when the end to be attained is itself justified, and when such cooperation involves no violation of conscience or compromise of loyalty to Christ and His Word as revealed in the New Testament.
Memory Verse
Memory Verse
For we are God’s coworkers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
“Christian unity in the New Testament sense is spiritual harmony and voluntary cooperation for common ends by various groups of Christ’s people.”
Baptists share a common salvation and are called to common purposes that can best be accomplished by working together.
I have said many times: Christianity is not a solo sport, it is a team event.
As a church, we need to not have the mentality that it is us verse the other churches, but rather “one team, one fight”.
Biblically there are many occasions when God’s people have united together:
Ezra - they united together to rebuild the temple
Nehemiah - they united together to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem
Mark 2 - people united together to bring a man who needed help to Jesus
Acts 1 - United in prayer
Acts 2 & 4 - people united together to provide for people in need
1 cor 3 - called to unit together as leaders in Ministry
1 cor 12 - called to serve together with our spiritual gifts
We are to “organize such associations and conventions as may best secure cooperation for the great objects of the Kingdom of God”.
It is a big statement, but it goes back to the original Baptist churches in London. They formed together a convention for relationships, and to hold each other accountable to the Gospel, and to show that we have a common witness to the world.
Biblical Balance
Biblical Balance
In the Baptist world we have a Biblical balance.
We understand that each church is autonomous and only answers to the Lord Jesus. We do not believe in hierarchy systems found in other denominations. God alone has the authority to direct each individual church.
We also understand that we have a big mission, and that we are not all each cast to do things on our own. The very letters we find in the Word of God tell us that though we are individual congregations, we are part of the greater body of Christ. Each congregation is called to cooperate with other congregations for the purposes of the Gospel.
So we are Congregational, meaning the local congregation is directly responsible to Christ’s authority with no intervening authority.
And we are in voluntary association with other churches with common beliefs so that we can do together what we could not do alone.
Our churches can do together what no one church could do alone!
So how does this voluntary association work? Is it just a play on words?
We do have the local association, as well as the state and national convention with which we cooperate.
These entities are voluntary and advisory bodies, not authoritative structures. This means we choose when and what to report, what and how we give, in what ways and to what extent we work with them, and so forth.
These entities do have the responsibility to elicit, combine, and direct the energies of people who choose to work with them in the most effective manner.
What does that mean? It means that we cooperate, not for the sake of cooperating, but for the purpose of the Gospel.
So how do these churches cooperate? We gather together, we combine resources, we figure out together what we want to do, and the entities “make it happen”.
GO back to their responsibility: eliciting, combining, and directing the energies of our people requires a mobilization and coordination that starts with the local church, but extends through cooperation with other churches.
What about working with other denominations?
What about working with other denominations?
The BF&M says:
cooperation is desirable between various christian denominations but only “when the end to be attained is itself justified, and when such cooperation involves no violation of conscience or compromise of loyalty to Christ and His Word as revealed in the New Testament”.
That statement, or warning, explains why Southern Baptists do not join ecumenical organizations or church councils. We believe in cooperation, but we limit this cooperation to organizations and denominations that hold to the same tenants to which we cling.
Carrying forward missionary, educational and benevolent ministries.
Carrying forward missionary, educational and benevolent ministries.
The SBC began with the central mission to fund missionaries. We cling to this ministry still, and the cooperation of baptist churches allows us to magnify our efforts for the glory of God.
Since 1925, SBC affiliated churches have worked though the Cooperative Program. THE CP is the central funding plan for our combined work. It is one of the most efficient and effective funding mechanisms in the history or organized Christian work.
It allows local baptist congregations to unite in a single, unified budget for the advancement of the cause of Christ.
M.E. Dodd, who led in developing the CP:
The CP is intercession in behalf of all our great causes which Christ has commited to ur trust. we believe that SB should go forward together year by year in high an holy endeavor until His kingdom shall stretch from shore to shore, and His name shall be known from the rive to the ends of the earth… Money given to the church and the CP will go farther, rise higher, spread wider, work deeper, and last longer than when give to any other place or cause.
