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“Some of the concerns were valid,” said Gregory Wills, professor of church history at Southern Baptist Theologi- cal Seminary. “But for the most part, the modernists who were teaching at our institutions were keeping their views secret.” When it “became clear they were teaching mod - ernism, they were fired.” Amid the multiplied challenges, Southern Baptists’ gifts to missions, educational and benevolent causes declined for 14 consecutive years beginning in 1920, according to “The Southern Baptist Handbook,” an annual record of statistics published by the Baptist Sunday School Board in the 20th century. Gifts did not eclipse 1921 levels until 1943, the year the SBC finally retired its debt – a victory celebrated under the slogan “debt free in ’43.” A bright future Can that period of trial a century ago help the SBC nav- igate today’s challenges? Absolutely, say Harsch and Wills. The first lesson is patience in hard economic times. Total CP receipts for SBC causes have yet to reattain their highwater mark of nearly $206 million in 2007, be- fore the economic downturn of 2008. But the mid-cen- tury CP recovery recalls “the lesson of patience,” Wills said. “The Cooperative Program was still effective in the 1920s and 1930s even as offerings were declining,” he said. Southern Baptists “are not in this for the short term. We are in it for the long term for as long as our blessed Savior tarries.” Another lesson is to address problems head-on. The 1925 Baptist Faith and Message was an attempt to do
just that, Harsch said. It offered a clear response to theo - logical disputes amid the Modernist-Fundamentalist Controversy. Perhaps the greatest challenge though is guarding against complacency and ceasing to marvel at CP. Even in lean years, per capita giving to missions increased in many instances, suggesting to Harsch that cooperative giving remains the way forward. “I have traveled through many parts of the world, and I have talked with [believers] who are in awe of what we as Southern Baptists can do through the Cooperative Pro- gram: our overseas missionaries, our church planters at home, our theological education. We are able to engage in the ministries to which God has called us and not have to worry if two months down the road the economy has changed,” Harsch said. “When we work together, we can expand our ability to influence the world with the Gospel of Christ.”
Article courtesy of Baptist Press
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