Bowling Green—Although Jason Pettus is pastor of a church that is a consistent leader in giving to missions through the Cooperative Program, he said he did not always believe in the giving plan’s effectiveness.

Instead, he said, it was only after he saw how the program enables churches of all sizes to combine resources and fund hundreds of worldwide missions efforts that he became the staunch supporter he is today.

Pettus is pastor of Living Hope Baptist Church in Bowling Green, a church that ranked first in CP giving among all Kentucky Baptist churches last year and has given more than $4 million to support missions through the plan to date.

Pettus said his appreciation of the Cooperative Program grew over time. He was not raised in a Christian home, so he had no exposure to CP until he was saved in a Southern Baptist church at age 15, he recalled. Even then, he thought the Cooperative Program only supported missionaries.

As an adult, Pettus served at an interdenominational church that did not participate in missions giving.

“It was a seeker-sensitive church and most of the resources were put into good things,” he explained. “They were put into ministries and making the worship services and events that the church did very appealing to unchurched people. I was there just over five years and I saw over 1,000 people saved and baptized.” It was a church, though, that operated independently and focused its efforts on their community, neglecting the Acts 1:8 imperative to share the gospel regionally, nationally and globally, Pettus observed.

“We always told ourselves we were a mission so we didn’t have to give to missions,” he added. “I just didn’t feel like that was good or right. It’s not what I saw in the early church, not what I saw in Scripture as what a church did.”

Pettus sensed a desire to return to the Southern Baptist Convention, he said, because of its stalwart giving to missions through the Cooperative Program and its clear doctrinal stances.

“Being a part of a church that was giving to something beyond itself was really important to me,” he explained.

In 2001, Pettus accepted the position at Living Hope. At that time, he said he still believed the Cooperative Program was simply about giving to international missions.

“What I’ve come to realize now is that it’s actually much bigger and better than that,” Pettus explained. “It impacts our state and our nation. It provides educational resources for pastors and church leaders so that they can better equip the church for God’s Kingdom service.”

When he arrived at Living Hope, Pettus did not need to convince the membership that the Cooperative Program was a worthwhile venture. The Kentucky Baptist church has been a missions-minded congregation since its inception in 1976, he noted, and consistently has given at least 10 percent of its undesignated receipts through CP. In 2007, Living Hope led the state in total CP dollars given, exceeding $417,000.

In addition to the 10 percent Living Hope currently gives to CP, the church gives another 7 percent to associational and other missions causes. And Living Hope members are not only giving to missions, they are are going on mission. This year, the church is sponsoring trips to Honduras, Costa Rica, Japan, West Africa, Scotland, and South and East Asia. Living Hope is planning mission trips to Cleveland, New Orleans, Oklahoma and the town of Lynch in Eastern Kentucky. It also undertakes missions projects in its neighborhood.

KBC churches can encourage members to give more through the Cooperative Program, Pettus said, by taking advantage of educational and promotional materials produced by the SBC Executive Committee, the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board and the International Mission Board. A variety of CP literature also is available through the Kentucky Baptist Convention.

He reminds Kentucky Baptists that their Cooperative Program money also helps support six Southern Baptist seminaries around the country.

“By and large, Southern Baptists are blessed and receive biblical preaching from pastors who have been trained at Southern Baptist seminaries,” Pettus noted.

“We are blessed to be a blessing, and if we are not going to be a blessing and to give financially to people around the world that we may never know the name of or never be able to actually give a verbal witness to, then we’re not fulfilling the responsibility to be a blessing,” Pettus said.

At its last annual meeting, the KBC approved a Cooperative Program budget goal of $24 million for the 2008-2009 fiscal year. The budget includes a $1.3 million challenge target for a total CP goal of $25.3 million.

The KBC forwards 36.7 percent of its Cooperative Program receipts to the Southern Baptist Convention. The Kentucky Baptist Mission Board uses another 36.2 percent for missions and to strengthen churches in Kentucky. The remaining 27.1 percent is allocated to Kentucky Baptist entities and Christian education.