Celebrating a Century of Cooperation: Reflection from Memphis

Celebrating a Century of Cooperation: Reflection from Memphis

by Craig Webb

Southern Baptist leaders gathered in Memphis, Tennessee, on May 13, 2025, for a significant milestone— the 100th anniversary of the Cooperative Program. This historic celebration took place just 100 yards from where messengers first approved this revolutionary funding strategy in 1925, exactly 100 years to the day.

The Cooperative Program represents Southern Baptists' unified plan of giving, through which cooperating churches contribute a percentage of their undesignated receipts to support state conventions and the SBC's global missions and ministries.

Craig Webb, executive director-treasurer of the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention, signs the Declaration of Cooperation during the Cooperative Program Centennial Celebration in Memphis on May 13, 2025, joining 73 other Southern Baptist leaders in reaffirming commitment to unified missions giving.

Led by Dr. Tony Wolfe of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, this Centennial Celebration brought together 73 Southern Baptist leaders from across the nation, including Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention Executive Director-Treasurer Craig Webb. These leaders signed a Declaration of Cooperation, reaffirming their commitment to this vital strategy for funding global missions and ministry.

Dr. Jeff Iorg, president of the SBC Executive Committee, delivered the keynote address, emphasizing that the Cooperative Program was born in adversity as a "never-before-attempted method of funding shared ministry." Through this cooperative approach, Southern Baptists have sent missionaries, started churches, strengthened congregations, trained leaders, and built hospitals, children's homes, and colleges worldwide.

For Hawaii Pacific Baptists—spread across multiple islands and countries—cooperation remains essential, not optional. This centennial celebration reinforces the commitment to continue sending, starting, strengthening, training, and building for God's glory across the Pacific and beyond.

Southern Baptist leaders gather in Memphis on May 13, 2025, for the Cooperative Program Centennial Celebration, marking 100 years of unified giving for missions and ministry. Seventythree leaders signed a Declaration of Cooperation at this historic gathering, held just 100 yards from where the Cooperative Program was first approved in 1925.

Photo by Jim Veneman

Read more about this historic gathering at: tinyurl.com/century-of-cooperation