Alan said something that got me thinking in a recent post (please read before continuing).

I have to ask the question here, in fairness, regarding this statement.  Is this true?  Can we just say that this is the new reality?  Is this true for all churches?  All SBC churches?  All Evangelical churches?  I would have to say that this statement is not true, universally and thereby should not be accepted without qualification.

With that said I want to interact with the trajectory of the statement in the context of a great offering taken up for the sake of gospel in the lives of the poor.  Alan is right.  People give to what they believe in.  But Alan is wrong, people still give to institutions.  Alan is right and wrong. And maybe more right than I can know.  The problem is not that we as Southern Baptists don’t give to institutions, the problem lies in the fact that we give to those things we believe in, trust, have confidence in and support as an extension of our own understanding of calling and vocation before the Lord Jesus.  I don’t think that this is as simple as people giving only to those things that they can personally have contact with.  Rather I believe that people will support, sacrificially support, only those things that are a part of the ministry that God has called them to in obedience to Jesus.

Recently I read that the Church at Brook Hills is immediatley designating over half a million dollars to Compassion International for relief around the world.  We must ask ourselves a question, “Why?”  Why give a gift “here” and not “there”?  Why designate monies to this relief group and not some other?  Why partner with a parachurch effort and not attempt to do this work directly?  Why give to this effort and not simply contribute to the CP?

My only answer is this; they as a church choose to give money in this way because they believed in it sufficiently to NOT give to every other thing with those same dollars.  Same thing as what happened at Alan’s church with their large offering.

So what does that mean for the CP and our cooperative efforts?  Not sure.  I am sure that we will miss the point if the discussion becomes “CP or Not CP”, or if we argue “Societal or Not Societal” or “Cooperative or Not Cooperative.  This is not about funding mechanisms.  No. This is about sacrifically giving to those things that we believe in as followers of our Lord Jesus.  We must elevate our discussions to a place where the focus is on the work, not the mechanism to fund the work.

I find that many churches I interact with are not clear as to what their task is in the earth.  They know that God gave Paul the ministry of reconciliation, but they seem unsure whether that extends to them.  Personally accepting responsibility for taking the gospel to the world and participating in the reconciliation of all things in Christ seems a far horizon at best.  This is not to say that they are not concerned with the things of God and his Word, but they are not sure that it is their responsibility to see to it that their neighbor is loved and that all those whom God has deemed our neighbors are recognized as such.

Alan’s church is taking responsibility for the gospel in their community and in the world through direct missions and through cooperative efforts.  The Church at Brook Hills is doing the same.  Why?  Because they believe in it.  Plain and simple.  We are all doing what we think is best and therein lies our greatest strength and greatest problem.

And while you are reading this I am confident that someone, somewhere sacrificially gave money to their church which gave money to the CP to fund missions/church planting around the world.  And they gave because they believed in it.