by Gary & Carolyn Miller
EDITOR’S NOTE: Gary and Carolyn Miller are Missouri Baptists who minister to European Peoples through the International Mission Board (IMB).
Many people ask me (Gary) and my wife, Carolyn, why we support the Cooperative Program (CP) as well as the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering when we speak at churches. We always explain that the CP funds our support network, functioning behind the scenes and undergirding all of the ministry activity.
Gary & Carolyn Miller
Our appreciation for the CP goes back many years before we were sent out as IMB missionaries, and has had a great impact on us personally. Both of us were raised in strong Christian families and spent our formative years in SBC churches that were active in local associational missions as well as state and national work. We enjoyed taking part in children’s and youth mission activities and got to meet missionaries at church camps. All these things, as well as the Southern Baptist schools from which we received our degrees, receive support from Cooperative Program funds. Together, all these opportunities have impacted who we are today as we serve from our home base in Debrecen, Hungary.
As IMB missionaries, we are proud to say that the Cooperative Program covers the administrative expenses of our mission board, so that all of the annual missions offerings can go directly to overseas support of missionaries and their work. How many other mission organizations can say that?
Most missionaries need to raise their own personal support as well as funds for the administration needed to keep them on the field. What a blessing it is when we speak in churches to be able to share about God at work around the world, and how we as workers in the field are supported by the unified giving programs of the SBC. Through the loving cooperation of the churches, large and small, we are allowed to stay focused on the main task of sharing the gospel with the nations.
It is the goal of sharing Christ with every person on the planet that keeps the Cooperative Program as relevant today as it was when it started a century ago. We’re thankful that Southern Baptist churches have unified their national giving program to make sure that needs are addressed everywhere, including local U.S. towns, counties, and associations, as well as national and international missions. It is through this combining of individual efforts that each person in our churches can have local, national, and international impact.
Isn’t it amazing? Every Southern Baptist’s giving can touch others with the gospel, starting at their own door, and, through the Cooperative Program, extending around the world. Working together, we can continue being a witness for Christ in our cities, counties, states, nation, and to the ends of the earth.