When Bob Boone stepped up to the pulpit at Twin Cities Baptist Church in May of 2023, there were 10 individuals in attendance.

“I came to fill in for one Sunday because they were without a pastor, and I’ve been here ever since,” Boone said. In the meantime, Boone is attempting to help the church as an interim pastor until they are ready to call a pastor to the position.

For Boone, giving to the Cooperative Program is essential to the health of a church. “I’m a big supporter of missions,” he said. “Our Cooperative Program takes care of our missionaries and sees to it that they have what they need.”

After first receiving the church’s quarterly financial statement, he noticed that the church was not giving to the Cooperative Program and had not been giving for several years. He also noticed a trend in giving. “I started to compare giving with attendance, and I found that as the giving to missions went down, so did attendance,” he said.

Giving in Hard Times

Boone also believes that giving shouldn’t be limited to times of economic success. “Every church that I’ve served, anytime finance has started to get a little tight, I’d say we need to give more money to missions,” he said. “Some people didn’t think that made sense, but it works.”

He’s seen firsthand the attendance growth at Twin Cities since his first Sunday in the pulpit, with attendance doubling from around 10 to around 23 attendees on Sundays. Boone feels that the Lord has been blessing their obedience. “I’m glad to be serving this church. They love the Lord, and I think they want to do what’s right,” he said.

Since 1925, the Cooperative Program is how the Southern Baptist Convention has funded missions and ministries. At SCBaptist, we know that the Great Commission isn’t the mission of one church or a single believer. It’s a collective mission that we fund collectively through the Cooperative Program. See where your money goes when you give.