“Massachusetts independent movie theatre turns 100 — and shows how to survive and thrive.” That was the headline from a Nov. 25 episode of a national radio show featuring The Capital Theatre in Arlington, Mass., identifying it as a success story in the context of 5,000 similar venues closing their doors since 2020.
What did this theatre do differently from their movie showing peers? They provided good service, expanded their business and found ways to add value to their customers. But at the end of the day, it was their customers who made the difference. The town locals decided that the Capital Theatre was worth hanging on to.
The Cooperative Program also turned 100 years old this year and remains the most effective way to fund the Great Commission. Here is why:
1. Because the Cooperative Program is the gold standard in comprehensive missions’ support: When I tithe to my local church, which in turn sends 10% of its undesignated receipts to fund missions through the CP, then I am funding a comprehensive global gospel-advancing strategy. You are caring for children in orphan care, responding to natural disasters, training men and women who are preparing for ministry, sending missionaries, planting churches, caring for pastors, helping local churches thrive and so much more.
2. Because the Cooperative Program has grass roots accountability: All the agencies, institutions and national entities we support through the CP are governed by board members and trustees from local Baptist churches. These fellow Baptists believers represent the well-being of the organization they serve as well as the interests of those who support those organizations. When you have questions or concerns about any of our CP supported work, you can reach out to these brothers and sisters for answers. The Kentucky Baptist Convention website list all Kentucky Baptists who serve as trustees and board members for our state and national entities.
3. Because the Cooperative Program funds Baptists’ work: When you give through the Cooperative Program, then you are funding work that is consistent with the Baptist Faith and Message. That matters because to those who are Baptist by conviction. If you are Baptist by conviction, then you want to support gospel mission work that represents those convictions and giving to the Cooperative Program allows you to do that.
4. Because the Cooperative Program funds the work that your people started: Your Baptist forerunners started the work you fund today. That work includes six world class seminaries, the largest missionary sending agency in the US, a vibrant church planting network and much more. Through the CP you are funding work that may have begun many decades ago but is impacting the world with the gospel in ways those early Baptist believers never could have dreamed of.
5. Because the Cooperative Program continues to answer a problem that existed 100 years ago: When the Cooperative Program came into existence, modeled after the unified giving plan first developed by Boyce Taylor of First Baptist Church of Murray, Ky., it was addressing the problem of an ever-increasing number of mission and ministry agencies approaching churches directly asking for financial support. That same problem exists today. Churches and church members as well are overwhelmed by the number of groups looking to them to fund their work. The CP allows you to collectively support the work you care about the most.
6. Because the Cooperative Program helps you work together relationally with other believers: President Harry S. Truman is attributed for saying, “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” The Cooperative Program helps you as Baptist believers to work together relationally for the things you care most about and to stay together for the sake of gospel advancement here at home and globally. Lives are being changed, and God is glorified through your gospel-advancing support.
7. Because the Cooperative Program remains effective after 100 years: When your church makes a decision to send a percentage of their undesignated receipts to advance the gospel through the entities that receive support through the CP you can do so with confidence that your giving is making a gospel difference.
If you would like to learn more about the Cooperative Program and the missionaries and ministries it supports, please reach out to me directly at todd.gray@kybaptist.org. May the Lord be pleased to use us as we work together to get the gospel to all people everywhere.
Dr. Todd Gray 