At the end of World War I, Southern Baptist veterans returned from Europe and described the devastating physical and spiritual needs they had left there. Southern Baptists responded at their 1919 convention by launching “The Baptist Seventy-five Million Campaign,” challenging members of every church to sign pledge cards and give sacrificially over a five-year period to meet the pressing spiritual and missional needs of the day.
I still have my great-grandmother’s pledge card for twenty-five dollars, a sacrificial amount in that day for a farm wife whose house had recently burned to the ground, my mother tells me. Written across the pledge card, in in her own hand, are the words “paid in full,” two years early.
Back then $75 million would be the equivalent of over $1.3 billion today. And while economic hard times hit the South in the 1920’s and the total collected through 1924 was “only” about $58 million, that amount given over five years amounted to about 90% of the entire amount Baptists had previously given over their first 74 years of existence since 1845.
You too have countless reasons to celebrate the Cooperative Program and its worldwide, century-long impact.
The Baptist Seventy-Five Million Campaign became a pilot and predecessor for the establishment of the Cooperative Program in 1925, which continues to prepare and place thousands of missionaries, pastors, church planters, and volunteers today. Both demonstrate what everyday Baptists and Baptist churches of all sizes can do when they choose to cooperate for bold missionary causes on a worldwide scale.
It’s time for a big celebration.
I know it may sound a little nerdy to some, or at least denominational. It may even sound self-serving, since the IBSA staff and I are paid through churches’ gifts through the Cooperative Program. But if you are a follower of Jesus who cares at all about his Great Commission, you too have countless reasons to celebrate the Cooperative Program and its worldwide, century-long impact.
Throughout 2024, if it’s not been done already, I anticipate Baptist historians will attempt calculations of how many missionaries have been sent, how many nations and unreached people groups have been engaged, how many baptisms have been reported, how many churches have been planted, how many pastors and church leaders have been trained, how many volunteers have been mobilized, and many more spiritual results that can be tabulated over the past 100 years.
So yes, it’s appropriate for all of us and for our churches to pray and plan how to celebrate what God has done through almost 100 years of cooperative missions. Leaning into this anniversary, let’s continue to boldly lead our churches to prioritize and give more sacrificially than ever. The Cooperative Program is the most effective missionary-sending system in modern history. And with missionaries around the world, with soundly equipped and resourced pastors and church planters leading our churches, and with Baptist volunteers eager to join them, we can continue to take the gospel to the world.
Nate Adams is executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association.