FIRST PERSON: Rethinking cooperation

After sharing a Mother’s Day brunch with two families who are faithfully and sacrificially investing themselves in the life of our church plant, I began to rethink cooperation. As we stuffed ourselves with waffles and crispy bacon, I was reminded of the rich benefits that stem from the “Baptist way” of shared ministry (potluck dinners aside).

Take my Mother’s Day brunch, for instance. Joe and Amy Baumgardner sat on my left. They are members of Pittsburgh Baptist Church (PBC), one of a few established Southern Baptist churches in Pittsburgh.

I say “one of a few” because according to the Baptist Association of Southwestern Pennsylvania, there are only 60 churches to reach a population of 3 million people, of which 2 million are considered unchurched. The association website calculates that there is one SBC church for every 61,225 people in Southwestern Pennsylvania. In Alabama, for example, that number is one church for every 1,452.

The Baumgardners, Pennsylvania natives, have attended PBC for six years. But when North American Mission Board missionaries Ken and Paula Cordray moved to the Steel City to plant Living Faith Community Church (LFCC), the Baumgardners knew God was calling them to cooperate with the new church start in some way.

So, every other Sunday the couple attends the early worship service at PBC, then they drive across town to serve in the LFCC preschool and nursery class. Even though the Baumgardners discovered a new way to participate in cooperative missions without leaving their home church, the sacrifice of such cooperation is high.

Most people don’t enjoy serving in their own church’s nursery, much less driving across town to serve in the nursery of another church. (The difficulty of recruiting and maintaining church nursery workers testifies to that fact).

Also, consider Dave and Kim Lenon, who sat on my right at our brunch.

The Lenons currently serve at two separate Southern Baptist church plants in Pittsburgh. On Sunday mornings the couple welcomes new guests at LFCC and on Sunday evenings they encourage the Doxa Church in a nearby township. They are greeters, leaders, prayer warriors, ministry supporters, small group hosts, and more.

During our meal together, the couple spoke about the joy they’ve experienced cooperating with both churches. Likewise, LFCC cheerfully “shares” the Lenons with Doxa, because their cooperative ministry helps both ministries showcase God’s glory to an unreached city.

But for many Southern Baptists, “cooperation” is a loaded term. Although cooperation is part of the rich fabric of our denominational heritage, it’s also a word that can make younger generations grumble. That’s because when you tell Baptists they need to cooperate more, some mistakenly believe you’re simply asking for more money.

Yet, in Baptist polity, cooperation is truly tied to finances. The SBC’s Cooperative Program is THE premier unified giving mechanism among the denomination’s now 50,000 churches for fueling diverse missions efforts. Evangelism, discipleship, church planting, disaster relief—the Cooperative Program allows small churches to fulfill the Great Commission in big ways.

Personally, the out-workings of shared ministry in church planting has only bolstered my confidence in the SBC’s traditional, shared-ministry mechanisms. But the type of sacrificial cooperation demonstrated by the Baumgardners and Lenons is new to me.

Living in a pioneer area—a North American region not yet saturated with the gospel—has exposed to me to the need for a new kind of cooperative ministry. I’ve discovered a need for cooperation that extends beyond giving money to good—even biblical—causes. I’ve discovered a need for cooperation that encompasses more than establishing partnerships for special events.

The churches that cooperate with LFCC do so out of no personal advancement for their own ministry. They receive no financial benefit and absolutely zero ministry exposure. There are no pats on the back, no new prospective members, and no additional Facebook “likes” or Twitter followers.

In fact, much of our core group was formed when area churches, such as Pittsburgh Baptist Church and Faith Community Church Lakeside, invested in LFCC by willingly sharing with us some of their active and vibrant members. By market standards, this means these churches lost more than they gained.

Do those churches—which are small-to-medium sized churches—miss those members serving each week within their own church walls? Undoubtedly so. Do those churches already cooperate with other Baptist churches in missions by giving to the Cooperative Program? Of course. This very important cooperative measure must continue to be one of the unique mainstays our shared denominational identity.

But if Baptists are going to make any measurable gains in the Great Commission in this generation, it will take a new vision for cooperation that extends beyond financials and church growth strategies.

It will take Southern Baptist churches—and the individuals comprising them—sharing and investing their lives in other Southern Baptist churches around them. This type of selfless service—that enables another church to flourish instead of our own—sounds counter-intuitive.  But in the end, so does the gospel.

If we continue to refine our perception of cooperation, who knows, maybe one day there will be more Southern Baptist churches in Pittsburgh—and more Christ-followers cooperating to build out the Great Commission.

—Melissa Deming is a former TEXAN managing editor, a wife and a mother of twins who blogs at melissademing.com, where this column first appeared.