Cooperation Makes a Difference

First Baptist Church of Southlake is a Southern Baptist Church. That simply means that we have aligned in basic agreement with thousands of other like minded churches to pool our resources to advance the cause of Christ via the Great Commission.

As a part of that cooperation we are also aligned with the smaller Southern Baptist of Texas Convention. This is a cooperative of churches in Texas that have joined together to support the Southern Baptist Convention.

If you are new to this, here is how it looks. The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is the overarching international group. It is the large umbrella. The Southern Bapist of Texas (SBTC) is a smaller umbrella to support the SBC. BUT,(this is important), it is an inverted hierarchical structure. The power of the convention does not sit at the top, but the bottom. The convention exists at the behest and direction of each local church. That means, small, little FBC Southlake is part boss of the SBC and SBTC. They don't give us orders, we give them orders.

Each state has at least one, sometimes more, state conventions that cooperate with the SBC in many ways. In my biased (but accurate) opinion, the SBTC is the best state convention. We belong to this great organization. When the economic crisis hit last year one of the negative impact was on missions of the SBC. The board did not have to lay off any missionaries, but it did have to halt processing and sending out more. This week at the Southern Baptist Convention in Louisville, Kentucky the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention gave a check to the mission board for $100,000. This is to fund the sending out of new missionaries. That is an amazing act of faith and commitment to the Great Commission. My church was a part of that. Through our giving we helped fund missionaries who would not have been able to go to the mission field otherwise.

That's not all. The way the dollar moves from church to missionaries happens differently in each state. When someone gives money to our church, a portion of that is forward onto our state convention, the SBTC. The SBTC gathers our money, and every other church that chooses to participate. Then the SBTC forwards an amazing 54% of all that money to the international SBC. The SBC then allocates those funds mainly for missions at home and abroad. That 54% is what is remarkable. There is another state convention in Texas. The Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT) it only forwards about %20 (last I heard) to the SBC. The rest it keeps because it has to pay for its bloated, beaurocratic entities. That is pitiful! The SBTC has been committed to minimal beaurocratic expenses to keep missions at the forefront. I am thankful to be a part of the SBTC.

Click to go to the Southern Baptist of Texas website.

Click to go to the Southern Baptist website.