(Editor’s note: October is Cooperative Program Month. October 6 is a great Sunday to celebrate the remarkable effectiveness of Southern Baptists’ regular, systematic, unified funding stream for missions. Illinois’ own Sandy Wisdom-Martin has a wonderfully crafty idea for helping kids learn about CP on the first Sunday of the month, or any Sunday.)
The WMU has invited children across the SBC to make a platform out of craft sticks. The platforms will be used to build a houseboat as a missions object lesson.
I don’t know how the topic came up, but I told someone at the office I had 100,000 craft sticks. When he asked why in the world one would own 100,000 craft sticks, I told him I got them because they were on clearance, and I work with children. I thought at some point attempting a world record might be fun.
At WMU, we always encourage participation in the Cooperative Program, and we wanted to do something fun to promote its value. The Cooperative Program is Southern Baptists’ unified plan of giving through which cooperating Southern Baptist churches give a percentage of their undesignated receipts in support of their respective state convention and Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) missions and ministries.
We started thinking, planning and dreaming. We created a Cooperative Program lesson for leaders to use with children, and we invited children across the United States to help us assemble a houseboat made of nearly 1 million craft sticks. We provided a template to create individual craft stick platforms made of 20 craft sticks each. The plan is to collect 47,000 of these to represent all 47,000 SBC churches.
SBC entities have also been invited to submit platforms.
Why build a houseboat? The International Mission Board missionaries we will feature in November in our coordinated curriculum for all ages live on a houseboat in South America. We thought that would be an engaging connection to gain momentum as we study about the missionaries.
We will assemble the houseboat on a borrowed fireworks pontoon platform and float the craft stick houseboat in November. Why go to all this trouble? We want children (and others) to learn about the Cooperative Program and see what can happen when we work together. The Cooperative Program is bigger than all of us.
Now groups of all ages are making the platforms! We invite you to join the fun. Please tell those working with children in your church about the activity. You can also invite youth and adults to participate as well.
The Cooperative Program lesson, along with the template and instructions, is available at wmu.com/free-cp-lesson/. Send your craft stick platforms by Nov. 1 to WMU, 100 Missionary Ridge, Birmingham, AL 35242. Or if you will be in the Birmingham area on October 3, we invite you to drop them off in person, with options to stay for a tour, meet our children’s team and more. RSVP here by Sept. 27.
Oct. 6 is Cooperative Program Sunday. Start making plans now to promote that day in your church. Helpful resources can be found at sbc.net/cp. We really can do more together.
Father, Thank You for this balanced Acts 1:8 funding mechanism put in place 99 years ago by visionary missions leaders. Help us do our part. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
– Sandy Wisdom-Martin is executive director of National WMU, Woman’s Missionary Union.