“We are a small band of Baptists struggling to complete our little church and to build up our Baptist cause in this community. We are now painting our church and giving it the finishing requirements as far as we can. But we are badly in need of funds to do this work and to get out of debt.
“I am writing to ask if you would some time in the near future come to us and deliver a lecture on some popular subject — having an admission fee for the benefit of our church. I think in this way we might raise a goodly little sum to help us along.”
Fred Anderson
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In 1920 C.C. Michael, one of the founders of Sanford Memorial Baptist Church in Broadnax, Va., wrote that appeal to a leading Virginia Baptist preacher of the time. It was one of the typical methods employed for fundraising. Some churches resorted to bake sales, oyster dinners and entertainments. Money was scarce and Baptist churches had to be imaginative and resourceful. In time, churches learned better ways through stewardship education and capital campaigns.
Churches had numerous appeals for causes beyond their four walls. There were the various mission boards — the Virginia Baptist State Mission Board; the “Home Board,” meaning work in the United States; and the Foreign Board. There were other good causes, including “the Orphanage” (now HopeTree, a full social services agency) and “the Home” (the Virginia Baptist Homes, which grew from just the one at Culpeper, Va., to several world-class retirement communities). There were “Baptist schools and colleges” including Richmond and Westhampton (now the University of Richmond), Averett, Intermont, Bluefield, Fork Union, Hargrave and Oak Hill. For a while there even were mountain mission schools which provided education in the hills and hollows.
There also was a society method in which those who wanted to print and distribute Bibles formed a Bible society and those who wanted to send missionaries created a missionary society. Usually the same people cared about each of those causes and were members of each society; and in time, it became more efficient to consider those good works as part of the larger denomination’s program.
At a Baptist meeting every good cause had agents making appeals. If you attended an association meeting you knew to come with your pockets full of currency because the offering plate would pass several times. Fundraising was the only way these good causes survived.
William E. Hatcher, a long-time Virginia Baptist pastor, was chief among fundraisers. He could make dramatic appeals with good results. At one church he arrived to preach the dedicatory sermon for the new building only to discover that the building belonged to the bank. He proposed to remove the debt that very Sunday and he delivered appeals and passed the plates three times before there was enough money to pay the bank.
Hatcher did fundraising for many a church, as well as for new church starts and all the various causes. When the Foreign Mission Board retrenched after the Civil War, Hatcher went across Southside Virginia raising funds and famously managed to get $3 — a worthy sum for the times — out of “a hardshell,” or anti-missions, Baptist. When Richmond College needed money for ministerial students or for buildings, he even won over those who were anti-education. When the Orphanage was in its beginning, Hatcher emoted about orphans and nobody could resist giving.
Hatcher was successful, but he preferred other ways to use his time than begging Christians to give to the very causes which already they should have been supporting. “I would rather be saving souls than looking for money,” Hatcher once admitted.
In 1925 a better way was found, at least for the boards, agencies and other ministries of Baptists in the South. It was a sheer stroke of pure genius. It caught the imagination of a denomination. It became a catchword that almost ranked with the Trinity! It was the Cooperative Program.
Through a unified budget all of the various causes could anticipate a certain amount of funding for operations. It removed the need for a parade of agents at every Baptist meeting and the numerous passing of offering plates. It took the boards and agencies from being glorified beggars to ministers performing critical ministries.To a degree it removed a competitive spirit and replaced it with a cooperative and collegial attitude.
A gentlemen’s agreement became understood. If a cause appeared in the Cooperative Program budget, the various boards and agencies would not make separate appeals. There were provisions for special mission offerings — “Lottie” and “Annie” (and “Alma” in Virginia) — and on rare occasion special permission was extended for appeals in the churches, such as saving the Virginia Baptist Homes. In the Depression another appeal was allowed for the “Quarter-a-Week” plan which removed a crippling debt on the Foreign Mission Board. When the University of Richmond needed a new library building, several ministers were released from their pastoral charges long enough to canvass Virginia Baptists for the money and the Boatwright Memorial Library was the result.
The Cooperative Program worked. Everybody who was “in the family” or “on the team” had a way in which to expect a certain amount for operations. Of course some got more than others. Their needs were different. There is no doubt that there was behind-the-scenes bargaining and arm-pulling going on to increase the amounts for various causes. But the Cooperative Program worked.
With all the changes in the Baptist landscape, the Cooperative Program concept experienced challenges. Causes multiplied. Needs increased. Dollars were coming from different directions and in uncertain amounts. The CP was groaning. In Virginia it was tweaked in its name to Cooperative Missions.
But by whatever name or approach, it remains more than mere fundraising. It is the lifeblood for missions and ministries performed in Christ’s name. Stop the flow and ministries either die outright or are forced to seek life support directly from the churches; and history takes a turn backwards.
Fred Anderson ([email protected]) is executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies.