The 100th anniversary of the Cooperative Program was celebrated during NOBTS chapel throughout the spring 2025 semester.

A series of videos played during several chapel services featured NOBTS faculty members discussing the history and importance of the Cooperative Program (CP). Faculty participants included Thomas Strong, Greg Wilton and Chris Shaffer.

Special focus was given to the role that M.E. Dodd, an instrumental figure in the founding of NOBTS, played in the formation of the CP. 

“100 years ago, Southern Baptists gathered together at their annual meeting and formed what we know today as the Cooperative Program, and Louisiana pastor M.E. Dodd was the one who chaired the committee that presented the idea of the Cooperative Program,” explained Shaffer, assistant professor of theology. 

“It (the Cooperative Program) is a beautiful way that Southern Baptists come together to support the work that we do to proclaim the good news of the Gospel.” 

Dodd, who pastored First Baptist Church of Shreveport for more than 35 years, served as chairman of the Committee on Future Programs in the early 1920s, which would invent what we know today as the Cooperative Program.  

The committee was formed after the Convention had long been searching for a more consistent and cooperative system for raising funds for missionaries. Southern Baptist calls for a systematic method of giving date all the way back to 1888. 

In 1919, Southern Baptist leaders definitively determined a better way to support missions was needed and subsequently created what was known as the 75 Million Campaign.  

The goal of the campaign was to encourage every SBC church to give consistently for five years to raise 75 million dollars toward international and domestic missions.  

Although the campaign ultimately failed to reach its $75 million goal, the money raised during the campaign was greater than the amount raised for missions over the last several decades combined. This clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of cooperation between Southern Baptists around the country.  

As a result, the Committee on Future Programs developed the idea for the Cooperative Program under the leadership of Dodd and presented it to the Convention.  

The linchpin of the program was that it asked every SBC church to give a percentage of its undesignated receipts to fund missions and other ministries nationally and abroad, rather than simply asking a church for a pledge of money that may or may not ultimately be fulfilled.  

In 1925, one year after the committee’s recommendation, the Cooperative Program was adopted at the SBC Annual Meeting in Memphis, Tenn.   

Dodd is known in Southern Baptist history as one of the greatest promoters of the Cooperative Program in its early years, rallying hundreds of churches to cooperate. 

100 years from this historic moment, the CP still plays an essential role for the SBC. $20 billion has been given by Southern Baptists to the Cooperative Program to date.  

In addition to these videos, NOBTS President Jamie Dew also spoke about the importance of the Cooperative Program during chapel.  

He began by expressing gratitude for the years of Baptist missions work fueled by the CP.  

“You and I ought to be very proud every single day to be a Southern Baptist,” Dew said. “I’m grateful for the family of faithful brothers and sisters that go into the hard places just like you are training to do.  

“Together, we're the biggest missiological force in history, and that only happens because we link arms together and cooperate and work and labor together. The Cooperative Program makes your education at a place like this way more affordable than it would have been otherwise, and the SBC is able to send thousands of missionaries to the nations every year through the CP.”  

On May 13, Dew attended an event commemorating the 100th anniversary of Southern Baptists voting to begin the Cooperative Program in Memphis.  

During the event, Dew, along with many SBC pastors and a representative from every SBC entity and affinity group, signed a “Declaration of Cooperation” as a symbol of their continued support of the CP.  

Dodd’s original pulpit from First Baptist Shreveport, shared by the Northwest Louisiana Baptist Association, was used for the signing of the document. Many opportunities will also available for messengers at the upcoming SBC Annual Meeting in Dallas to celebrate the CP’s anniversary.  

Dew closed out his chapel remarks by charging NOBTS students to carry on the legacy of supporting the Cooperative Program.  

“We’re saying all this not just to celebrate the CP for its 100th anniversary, and we need to do that, but I’m saying these things to you right now because there’s a picture you need to grab a hold of in your head: a baton getting passed from one generation to the next to the next to the next,” he said.  

“You’re in preparation right now for that baton to be passed to you. The stewardship of this wonderful mechanism falls to you now. As you go and lead in our churches, remember this, fight for this, support this, invest in this, and together we’ll continue being that massive missiological force.”