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Attendees of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Phoenix quickly realized there were many things new this year. New executive leadership represented the SBC Executive Committee, North American Mission Board, and the International Mission Board. Along with new leadership, the NAMB shared an overview of their new strategy to reach North America for Christ. Even the order of business carried an element of newness by omitting evening sessions. Amid all of these new things, some may have missed that the Cooperative Program presented a new emphasis and complementing resources.
For the last several years the CP emphasis used by the SBC Executive Committee has been “Love in Action.” But in an effort to highlight the great work Southern Baptists do together, a new emphasis has arisen from a partnership between the Executive Committee and SBC Stewardship Development Association, a network primarily consisting of state convention stewardship and cooperative program consultants.
The new emphasis is “Together We Are.” Reflecting on the new emphasis, I was drawn to Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth in the first part of 1 Corinthians 3:9: “For we are laborers together with God.” The more modern translations often use the phrase “God’s fellow workers.” The Greek word that is translated into two words in English as “fellow worker” is actually one word, “synergos.” We derive the word synergy from this word.
Synergy is defined as the potential ability of individual organizations or groups to be more successful or productive as a result of a merger. Over the last several weeks many watched the Dallas Mavericks overcome the Miami Heat to win the NBA championship. Some commentators have suggested that the Heat’s depth of skill and ability was greater than the Mavericks’. However, the Mavericks overcame this inadequacy through perseverance and teamwork, creating an unbeatable synergy. As a team the Mavericks were able to accomplish what they could never do as individual players.
The new Cooperative Program emphasis, when understood in light of 1 Corinthians 3:9, is a marvelous depiction of who we are as Southern Baptists and should continue to be in the days to come. Every believer of every local church is a separate part of the body of Christ. When each part works in unison together, God can and does great things through them.
Together we are the feet that carry the gospel of Christ to a lost and dying world. Together we are the hands of Christ that reach out and minister to those hurting and in need. Together we are the body of Christ, set apart for the work of Christ, all for the glory of Christ. When we work together we create a synergistic momentum that carries the love of God farther, deeper, and wider than we as individuals or our churches could ever do on our own.
That is the message of the new emphasis so beautifully expressed in the video that premiered at the convention entitled “Empty Hands.” It is a wonderful expression of how the gifts of each individual church member become the elements for the ministry we do together as Southern Baptists. Though one individual church cannot do it all, together as a collection of believers functioning as the body of Christ, we can. If you missed seeing the video at the annual meeting, you can view it at sbtexas.com/CP.
I am sure your heart will be moved as you watch like mine was. Once you have viewed the video, would you download a copy and show it to your church family so that their hearts may be challenged and they might commit to serving the Lord together through the Cooperative Program? If you cannot download the video, contact the SBTC office at toll free at 1-877-953-7282 (SBTC) for the DVD version.
My prayer is that the Lord would lay upon our hearts as Southern Baptists a new hunger for righteousness, a new passion for the lost, and a new spirit of unity that joins us together around a supernatural synergistic mission that will advance God’s name farther than we could ever do alone.
—Johnathan W. Gray is executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Foundation.
