Related Topics
Boxes Tell CP Story
07/27/2010
MURRAY—Like so many antiques, the hardwood boxes had been stowed away and forgotten in a back room.
And also like so many antiques, these boxes held a compelling story, one Southern Baptists today are taking to ends of the earth.
In front of First Baptist Church of Murray stands a historical marker detailing the church’s connection to the Cooperative Program, Southern Baptists’ unified plan of giving to missions and ministries. Part of it reads:
"The church adopted what was known as the ‘box plan of giving’ for the financial support of the church. The placement of offering boxes at each door encouraged God’s people to ‘walk by faith’ depending upon Him."
That was in 1900.
Today, the boxes have reoccupied their rightful place in the church foyer, beckoning members to "walk by faith" in giving to the Cooperative Program.
"It’s a great opportunity to, once again, tell the story of what we do as Southern Baptists," Pastor Sam Rainer said.
After arriving at the church nearly a year ago, Rainer learned of the boxes, as well as their rich history and First Baptist, Murray’s link to the formation of the Cooperative Program.
Before coming to the church, "If you were to ask me where the Cooperative Program began, I would have given you a very vague history of it dating back to 1925," Rainer said.
That, of course, was the year the Southern Baptist Convention adopted the unified budget plan that came to be known as the Cooperative Program.
"But I didn’t know the birthplace (or) where the ideas originated," Rainer added.
The genesis of CP came from two boxes placed just inside the doors of First Baptist, Murray in 1900, the brainchild of then-pastor Harvey Boyce Taylor.
According to numerous accounts, churches operated on what often is referred to a "societal approach" to giving. Committees were appointed to solicit gifts for everything from missions causes to the pastor’s salary to general maintenance needs.
Beyond the local-church level, most Southern Baptist entities—mission boards, schools, children’s homes, etc.—would visit churches to make special appeals on their own behalves.
"The one that had the most emotional, heart-tugging story usually got most of the money, and a lot of worthy causes got left out. There wasn’t a bigger picture," noted Billy Compton, executive associate for Cooperative Program and resources for the Kentucky Baptist Convention.
In 1900, after coming up short on its budget for three years, Pastor Taylor presented to the Murray church a unified budget—the "box plan of giving."
The boxes were stationed at the front of the church where members would place "volunteer gifts of His people for the support of the church," according to an account by Taylor.
An excerpt from the book "A Heart for Missions" by Ira Birdwhistell further details Taylor’s description of the box plan:
"A box was put at each church door; all subscriptions and solicitations of funds were done away with; all running expenses of the church were paid and the pastor got what was left."
After one year of the box plan, church deacons wanted to return to the "old plan," Taylor said. But after preaching a message which "the Holy Spirit set His approval on," a near-unanimous vote was taken to keep the box plan.
"The plan stuck and it has worked gloriously as all God’s plans will if tried in faith and dependence upon Him," Taylor later wrote.
"What happened there at First Baptist, Murray, they created an orderly way to support ministries together," Compton said. "They also … assisted the church in seeing missions causes as a whole."
The box plan allowed members’ gifts to be collected and distributed by the church to various needs on a percentage basis.
An example of First Baptist, Murray’s 1914 budget distribution, noted on the KBC’s website, was: missions, 50 percent; pastor’s salary, 25 percent; assistant pastor’s salary, 5 percent; Sunday school: 10 percent; miscellaneous, 5 percent; the poor, 5 percent.
The box plan created "an orderly and balanced method of supporting ministry together, so they can give some intentional thought and prayer to what is the bigger picture here," Compton said.
Five years later, Taylor began a 20-year stint on the Executive Board of the General Association of Baptists in Kentucky (now known as the KBC). He used his position to promote his church’s unified budget plan to fellow congregations and the convention as a whole.
In 1914-15, Taylor and F.B. Perkins, a layman serving on the Executive Board, toured the state promoting the unifed budget plan. Their efforts led to its adoption by the Kentucky General Association at its 1915 meeting in Jellico, Tenn.
And as the marker outside First Baptist, Murray reads, Kentucky’s unified budget plan "became the model for the Southern Baptist Convention Cooperative Program."
Fast forward 85 years: The boxes are back. First Baptist’s building certainly is different, but the boxes and their mission remains the same. "It’s just a neat way to keep everything at the forefront of people’s minds of why we do what we do," Rainer said of the boxes.
Earlier this month, Rainer brought the boxes before the congregation, recalling their history and importance. He used a term he attributed to the church’s children’s minister: texture—"visible, prominent things that we can use to tell a story."
"It’s a way of just being a constant reminder of what we’re doing, which ultimately is what the Cooperative Program is about," Rainer explained.
The young pastor credited Henry Webb, an interim pastor who preceded Rainer, with discovering the tucked-away boxes. Webb put them on display and had plaques made up to let church members and others know of their significance.
Rainer said he wanted to take that a step further.
"Rather than making them part of a museum, let’s use them, let’s make them operational," he said. "And in doing that, let’s let the people know, particularly the younger generation … what it means to be a Southern Baptist and what it also means to support the Cooperative Program."
First Baptist members now have the option of putting their gifts in the offering plates during worship services, or dropping them in the boxes in the foyer.
"I’m intentionally using (the boxes) to tell the story" of the Cooperative Program, Rainer said. It’s a story he said he hopes the younger generation and those less familiar with Southern Baptist missions and ministries will take to heart.
"I think we could use a fresh telling of the story," he said. "It’s the same story, … but I think the next generation can champion that and tell it anew and get people excited about what we all should be excited about—winning people for Jesus."
Rainer, who is well known as a speaker on the Southern Baptist circuit and the author of "Essential Church?: Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts" (which he co-authored with his father, LifeWay President Thom Rainer), said the history of First Baptist, Murray certainly was a draw to accept the call to lead the church last August.
But the radical ideas that were born in the church with Harvey Boyce Taylor more than 100 years ago still are part of the congregation even today, he pointed out.
"They’re still wanting more radical things. They’re still desiring to keep putting out new ideas and new ways of reaching people for Jesus," Rainer said.
"You don’t have to sell missions at First, Murray," he added. "And a lot of that comes from and is derived from the history of the church. … That has been the culture of the church for quite some time."
Western Recorder issue date: July 27, 2010
The Kentucky Baptist Convention is a cooperative missions and ministry organization made up of nearly 2.400 autonomous Baptist churches in Kentucky. A variety of state and worldwide ministries are coordinated through its administrative offices in Louisville, including: missions work, disaster relief, ministry training and support, church development, evangelism and more. For more, find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
