CHC Episode 7
The Southern Baptist Convention's Cooperative Program
with with Dr. Evan Lenow & host Nick Walters
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Throughout the interview, Walters and Lenow trace the theological and historical motivations that led to the creation of the Cooperative Program. They discuss how Southern Baptists believed cooperative giving aligned with New Testament patterns of partnership and stewardship, ensuring that churches of every size could meaningfully contribute to global evangelism, doctrinal education, and ministry development. Lenow explains how the 1925 Baptist Faith and Message, adopted in the same year the Cooperative Program began, served as both a statement of shared belief and a stabilizing framework for the new funding model.
A major portion of the episode examines how the Cooperative Program shaped the denominational ecosystem over the past century. Through unified giving, Southern Baptists expanded theological education, strengthened mission boards, supported relief ministries, and established a national and international presence far beyond what individual churches could have achieved alone. Lenow walks listeners through the logic of cooperation: autonomy at the local church level paired with voluntary partnership for a common mission. This model enabled predictable funding streams, a more strategic use of resources, and a level of denominational coordination rare among Protestant bodies of similar size.
The episode also explores challenges and adaptations across the Cooperative Program’s hundred-year history. Walters asks Lenow to address how cultural shifts, generational changes, economic pressures, and debates over denominational priorities have required recalibration. Lenow provides thoughtful insight into how Cooperative Program percentages have shifted, why unified giving continues to be defended by denominational leaders, and how the program’s strength remains tied to theological unity and trust among churches. He also explains how Mississippi Baptists in particular have been deeply invested in the Cooperative Program’s mission, and how Mississippi College continues to benefit from and contribute to that cooperative heritage by training pastors, missionaries, scholars, and ministry leaders.
In the final segment, the conversation turns toward the future. Lenow offers a forward-looking assessment of what the next century of cooperative ministry might require. He discusses the importance of theological clarity, strong institutional leadership, local church engagement, and meaningful communication about the continuing value of unified mission efforts. This anniversary is not only a milestone but an opportunity for Southern Baptists to reaffirm the principles that made the Cooperative Program successful: shared conviction, shared sacrifice, and shared vision.
This episode provides one of the most comprehensive narrative treatments of the Cooperative Program’s past, present, and future available in an accessible interview format. Listeners will come away with a clearer understanding of how this denominational innovation became a defining feature of Southern Baptist identity and why, a century later, it still anchors the global mission strategy of the SBC.
