INDIANAPOLIS (BP) – The “vast and diverse spirit of cooperation” fueling the Southern Baptist Convention Cooperative Program is the meat of the CP Stage topics on tap for the 2024 SBC Annual Meeting, stage organizer Charles Grant told Baptist Press.
Grant, the SBC Executive Committee’s associate vice president for convention advancement and relations, has designed a stage schedule June 9-12 addressing trending topics, showcasing SBC ministries and entities and featuring the diversity of the SBC family.
“I would like the Southern Baptist family to encounter the vast and diverse spirit of cooperation we have in Cooperative Program partnership,” Grant said. “Our Convention is blessed to have a variety of cooperative partners working together to uplift and expand the Kingdom of God through the Cooperative Program.”
Pointing out the value of giving to the CP; communicating how the CP supports local, national and international ministries that transform lives; and stressing the importance of prayer in advancing the Kingdom and undergirding the CP are top goals of this year’s lineup.
Approaching the CP’s centennial celebration in 2025, the stage will also increase awareness of events and resources planned for the celebration and encourage participation, Grant said.
“What excites me most about the stage is the opportunity to communicate how lives have been transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ because of CP giving,” Grant said. “If the future of CP giving is to be vibrant and relevant to the younger generations in our churches, they must hear how CP is directly connected to positive physical and spiritual renewal in individuals and local communities through local churches and our state conventions and 11 ministry entities that serve them.”
Abuse reform, the collegiate prayer and revival movement, the Unify project for racial reconciliation, and women in ministry are among topics a variety of panel discussions will address, with the lineup kicking off at 4 p.m. Sunday, June 9.
Student evangelism, church planting, special needs ministry, cooperative missions with the Woman’s Missionary Union, international missions, seminary education, and prayer and fasting are among ministry areas the stage will explore while engaging ethnic groups contributing to the convention’s diversity.
The final schedule will be available on the SBC Annual Meeting app and at sbcannualmeeting.net closer to the event.
Grant encourages Southern Baptists to embrace the CP, the cooperative program of giving established in 1925 to financially support Southern Baptist work and ministry.
“Southern Baptists should be excited about the CP because it instills and reinforces the reality that every church member is to be a missionary,” Grant said. “While the Lord hasn’t called every church member overseas, he has called all of us to pray for and financially support those who are full time missionaries.
“As Southern Baptists give out of our identity in Christ, CP can continue to be the financial fuel for reaching every person for Jesus Christ in every town, every city, every state, and every nation.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE – Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.)
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