Those unfamiliar with the biblical use of the word steward may find it helpful to substitute the word manager. The Bible teaches that God owns everything, and that Christians, God’s people, are temporary managers of all that he entrusts into their lives. Managers are not owners. They are caretakers, with delegated responsibility for the treasures and interests of the master they faithfully serve.
People have often confused the issue of ownership. And Baptists across centuries have debated whether autonomy trumps association. Our denominational statement of faith, the Baptist Faith and Message (2000), lays out in two articles the related issues of responsibility for management of all that belongs to God, and how we will work together to see that management accomplished.
Understanding God as the owner of everything and the source of all life’s blessings, material and spiritual, can be truly transformational in a Christian’s life, especially in a culture often plagued by self-indulgence, consumerism, and greed. There is great freedom in understanding oneself as a manager, freedom from the addiction of materialism and from the stresses, anxieties, and futility of a self-serving life.
A devoted manager finds true purpose and joy in life by embracing the values and purposes of the master. Not just possessions, but time and talent and life itself best honor the master when they are given willingly and generously to advancing the master’s business. Jesus, always about his father’s business, declared in Luke 19:10 that his business is seeking and saving the lost. So, the mission of God through his church to redeem the world is the manager’s top priority.
How a steward manages whatever is entrusted to him reveals his true heart and motivations. The Bible teaches that a grateful and faithful manager gives “cheerfully, regularly, systematically, proportionately, and liberally,” as the BF&M summarizes it. Tithing to one’s church may seem absurd to a selfish person, and living a life of sacrificial service may seem foolish to those with material ambitions. But the faithful manager understands that God, who ultimately owns and gives all things, will one day require an account of each life’s management.
It’s appropriate that the article on stewardship is followed immediately by one on cooperation. Faithful stewards who prioritize the mission and Kingdom of God with their time, talents, and treasure do so primarily through their local church. But no local church can take the gospel to the Acts 1:8 mission fields of the world alone. Christians and New Testament churches are meant to cooperate.
Baptists haven’t always agreed on that point. And some branches of Baptists still believe the autonomy and supremacy of the local congregation prohibits it from forming associations with other local churches. But Southern Baptists answered that question in 1845—for the sake of mission and advancement of the gospel.
At the first Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Augusta, Georgia, messengers established two mission boards for Foreign and Domestic Missions. Today they are called the International Mission Board and the North American Mission Board. Eighty years later, the first statement of faith clarified the theology that undergirds their funding (stewardship) and the teamwork that brings our churches together to support it (cooperation).
2025 marks not only the 100th anniversary of the original Baptist Faith and Message, but also the 100th anniversary of the Cooperative Program, Southern Baptists’ primary and foundational strategy for missional cooperation among churches. Over those one hundred years, Southern Baptists have given more than $20 billion through the Cooperative Program to send missionaries, educate and train church leaders, and respond with Christlike compassion to victims of disasters around the world.
Because our Baptist churches choose to cooperate, last year they helped provide the education and preparation of almost 25,000 seminary students. They sent and supported more than 3,500 international missionaries, and almost 3,300 North American church planters and missionaries. Send Relief served more than 2 million victims of disaster worldwide, while presenting the gospel more than 1 million times. Because of Southern Baptist cooperation, over 102,000 new believers were baptized last year.
Cooperation can be simple, but not always easy. Baptist churches are autonomous, so no central authority can dictate cooperation, which is by its very nature voluntary. Baptist churches can also be diverse theologically and culturally, so they must sometimes set aside uniformity in preferences and non-essential doctrines for the sake of gospel unity. Biblical cooperation is not compromise; it is instead commitment to a shared mission.
Cooperation requires a Kingdom mindset that transcends congregational boundaries to advance the cause of Christ globally. As diverse as Baptist churches can be, what unites our churches year after year is the biblical unity expressed in the Baptist Faith and Message, and the missional cooperation expressed in the Cooperative Program.
—Nate Adams
