Seventy-three of the more than 175 Baptist leaders sitting in the meeting hall the afternoon of May 13 made the ceremonial walk to the historic podium.
Their signatures on the Declaration of Cooperation document (see full text below) plus the group picture veteran photographer Jim Veneman took of all who attended will forever be memorialized in the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives.
But even though a specific group of Baptists serving in leadership roles were selected to sign the declaration, “the hope is that every Southern Baptist can see themselves in a name on that sheet,” event organizer Tony Wolfe shared with The Baptist Paper following the event.
‘Prayer is for unity’
Held at the Renasant Convention Center in Memphis exactly 100 years to the date, time and nearby location of the launch of the Cooperative Program, the Centennial Celebration Gathering has been more than two years in the making.
A sense of unity, cooperation and fellowship swept across the room as the event unfolded, said Wolfe, executive director of the South Carolina Baptist Convention.
Every SBC entity and every state convention were represented by at least one staff member, he said. Also represented were the various ethnic groups, pastors, pastors’ wives and other women serving in ministry positions as well as the current SBC officers.
“It’s one thing to say we work together … but it’s something else when something like this brings you together,” Wolfe said. “You are reminded of the friendships. We really do want the same things and work for the same things. We also have a deep affection for one another across every divide you can name in the SBC.
“Moments like this really bring this out,” he noted, adding that “the hope and prayer is for unity.”
‘Beauty of Baptist life’
“One moment is not going to change the entire trajectory of what we do, but it can remind us of some very important things,” Wolfe said. “The beauty of Baptist life and cooperation is that everybody is autonomous, every church, every entity is autonomous.
“We don’t work together because we have to, we work together because we want to,” he said. “The CP is a tool in our hands for exactly that — to look back on 100 years and $20 billion.
“It’s not a mechanism but a series of moments that God in His grace has chosen to bless and multiply His favor upon us so the gospel literally can reach the nations.”
‘Consecration [and] purpose’
A unity of consecration is how Wolfe described it.
“We are consecrated to the gospel and to our core doctrinal convictions … that’s what brings us together,” he said. “But it’s also a unity of purpose.
“We have had a singular purpose since (the SBC’s founding in) 1845 — to elicit, combine and direct the energies of our Baptist people in one sacred effort. That one sacred effort … pulls us together through the generations, and here we are declaring that, confessing it and resolving it again.”
Ceremony included message and time of prayer
Jeff Iorg, president and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee, delivered the keynote address at the event prior to a time of prayer led by six different leaders including Carolyn Fountain of Louisiana, who serves on the EC board of trustees, and Hoon Im, who serves with GuideStone Financial Resources.
The podium used in the ceremony is the one M.E. Dodd used while serving as pastor of First Baptist Church Shreveport, Louisiana, from 1912 until 1950, when he retired.
Dodd is credited with bringing the idea of the CP to messengers in 1925.
Iorg calls for recommitment
Iorg challenged Baptists of 2025 to recommit to high levels of giving through the CP and called out churches, state conventions and national entities alike — but it starts “with increased giving by churches.”
“We are asking a rising generation of leaders to take up the mantle of this historic resolution,” he said. “My confidence is high as this generation stands shoulder to shoulder to advance God’s mission.
“The Cooperative Program works,” Iorg said. “We must become even more dependent on it, not less.
“These gifts are sacrificial gifts. They are blood money, earned and given by hardworking Southern Baptists, and they must be managed carefully, accounted for fully and spent frugally.
“We are entrusted annually with millions of dollars, and we must steward God’s money wisely,” he said as a possible nod, along with
other comments made in the address, toward some of the current debates stirring in Baptist life over expanded fundraising efforts and
more financial transparency.
“May God grace us with His power as we endeavor to do more together than we can ever do on our own,” Iorg said. “And may God bless us as we give generously through the Cooperative Program.”
Next steps for the declaration
Two versions of the document were signed during the ceremony. While one will be archived, the other will be displayed in the exhibit hall at the SBC Annual Meeting in Dallas in June.
The document is written in the form of a resolution acknowledging the purpose, history and success of the CP as well as calling for renewed support and affirmation of it.
The resolution will be submitted to the 2025 SBC Resolutions Committee for review. If the committee reports it out and the messengers to the annual meeting adopt it, then it will be posted online for others who are interested to sign.
Declaration of Cooperation
WHEREAS, Upon the semicentennial anniversary of the Cooperative Program 32 influential Southern Baptist leaders signed a “Declaration of Cooperation”* which expressed their affirmation of Southern Baptist Great Commission cooperation, their appreciation for the Cooperative Program, and their solidarity in continuing the work; and
WHEREAS, Jesus has given us, His followers, the Great Commission and empowered us by His Holy Spirit to accomplish its end (Matthew 28:18–20, Acts 1:8); and
WHEREAS, The biblical doctrine of cooperation compels us to work together and thereby effect a greater reward for our efforts (Ecclesiastes 4:9–12); and
WHEREAS, Upon the adoption of the Cooperative Program at the 1925 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Memphis, Tennessee, the Executive Committee declared that “the successes of the future depend upon the heroic spirit shown by our people at this time,” then urged the pledging of Southern Baptists “in the fullest support to the Cooperative Program as the best and most practical way of meeting our obligations and providing for the ongoing of all our enterprises”; and
WHEREAS, Since 1925 the Cooperative Program has provided a comprehensive funding mechanism for like-minded Baptist churches to support missions in all the world, all the time, at the same time; and
WHEREAS, As a result of Cooperative Program commitment and by the grace of God, our Baptist life has prospered in terms of unity, missions, and ministry throughout Baptist state conventions and Cooperative Program-funded national and international enterprises; and
WHEREAS, During these past 100 years Southern Baptists have deployed more than $20 billion through the Cooperative Program, demonstrating both the vast wealth God has entrusted to their stewardship and their willingness to sacrificially invest that wealth into Great Commission cooperation through Southern Baptist enterprises; and
WHEREAS, We have made a great commitment to our Southern Baptist missionaries, both at home and abroad, and to the ongoing work of our Southern Baptist entities and state conventions, all whose Great Commission efforts are supported and sustained through Cooperative Program giving; therefore be it
RESOLVED, That we, the undersigned, affirm the Cooperative Program as a missions-funding strategy God has blessed to support and strengthen Southern Baptist efforts to share the Gospel throughout the world; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we are grateful for Southern Baptist churches and individuals that give faithfully and sacrificially through the Cooperative Program; and be it finally
RESOLVED, That we commend all who promote, support, and renew their commitment to the Cooperative Program among our family of churches, mission boards, seminaries, entities, local Baptist associations, and state conventions.
*1975 Declaration of Cooperation: “Because we as Southern Baptists recognize That Christ established the church to carry out his divine purpose in the world, and That the genius of our life as autonomous New Testament churches is our freedom to cooperate in order to make evident our unity in Christ and to give substance to our common purpose to proclaim the gospel, and That our life as a denomination emerged historically in 1845 in an effort to elicit, combine, and direct those resources over which God has placed us as stewards, and That in 1925 our forebears committed themselves to a new level of interdependence in a relationship of stewardship called the Cooperative Program, and That as a result of that commitment our denominational life has by the grace of God prospered in terms of unity, missions, and ministry, We Hereby Declare this program of cooperation to be self-evident of our denominational unity and a manifestation of our vision for the future under the Lordship of Christ, and We Therefore recommit ourselves in prayer to that trust, sacrifice, and resolve necessary for the responsible expression of our life together in Christ through our Cooperative Program.”
