Feature Photo: The Russell Baptist congregation gathers for worship on a Sunday morning in Green Cove Springs. (Photo submitted)

GREEN COVE SPRINGS — For Pastor Chad Weeks, Russell Baptist Church’s renewed commitment to the Cooperative Program isn’t a new direction. It’s a return to where the church began.

Weeks, a fifth-generation member of Russell Baptist Church and a fifth-generation Southern Baptist, recently began digging through the church’s historical records. What he discovered reinforced something he had long suspected: cooperation has always been part of the church’s story.

“My great-great-grandparents were charter members of this church,” Weeks said. “We’ve found that our church was most likely giving since its founding in 1916 toward the Southern Baptist Convention.”

Founded more than a century ago, Russell Baptist was planted through Southern Baptist efforts. Yet over time, the church drifted from active involvement with the broader Southern Baptist family.

“We gave kind of nominally and didn’t really cooperate inside the convention other than just on a surface level,” Weeks explained. “We kind of drifted away and became a little bit more isolated.”

A few years ago, church leaders began reassessing that approach. As they looked back at their history, they realized that cooperation wasn’t simply a program they supported but rather it was part of the church’s DNA.

“We kind of rediscovered the value of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Cooperative Program,” Weeks said. “We were missing out on a big part of our history and our tradition here at our church.”

That realization led Russell Baptist to intentionally strengthen its partnership with the Florida Baptist Convention and increase its Cooperative Program giving. In fact, the church recently increased its CP contributions by approximately five times compared to previous years.

The Cooperative Program, Southern Baptists’ unified method of funding missions and ministry, supports church planting, disaster relief, theological education, international missions, and ministry initiatives across Florida and around the world.

For Weeks, the benefits of cooperation extend far beyond financial giving.

Since reconnecting with fellow Florida Baptist churches, Russell Baptist has developed meaningful relationships with pastors and ministry leaders across the state.

“We’ve noticed our staff and ministries being better resourced and just having people they can call to figure things out,” Weeks said. “Also, we can be people that receive calls and get to help other people with things that they’re trying to figure out.”

Those relationships have encouraged the church to look for additional ways to serve alongside other believers. Russell Baptist recently trained members for Florida Baptist Disaster Relief and is budgeting for equipment and resources to prepare for future response efforts. The church is also exploring partnerships with church plants and other ministry opportunities.

Weeks believes cooperation allows churches to accomplish more together than they could individually.

“As pastors, we all know the struggle of wanting to maintain healthy ministry and keep moving forward,” he said. “In the same way that’s true for our churches, that’s true for our convention. If we want to see a strong SBC and Florida Baptist Convention, that means we’re going to need to invest, we’re going to need to give.”

Like many churches, Russell Baptist faces ongoing ministry needs and opportunities within its own community. The temptation, Weeks admits, is to keep every available dollar close to home.

“There’s this temptation to take every extra dollar and just keep it here because we’ve got a lot to do,” he said. “But what I’ve figured out is when we made that decision to give generously and send those dollars out, God has blessed our church tremendously since we’ve made that decision.”

Weeks sees the church’s increased Cooperative Program support as an investment in future generations of Southern Baptists.

“The way we solve challenges isn’t by fading out, it’s by leaning in,” he said. “As God is giving you more and your local church, be ready to give more and just see that God is going to work and move. We get to hand down a healthy SBC to our kids and our grandkids until Jesus comes for the sake of the gospel and to the glory of God.”

For Russell Baptist Church, cooperation is not a new strategy. It’s a rediscovery of a legacy that has shaped the congregation for more than 100 years.

“We’re really not doing anything new,” Weeks said. “We’re just going back to what we’ve always done.”

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Editor’s Note: A key mission imperative for Florida Baptists includes “giving more generously to support cooperative mission efforts each year.”  You can find out more information about the mission imperatives here: https://flbaptist.org/about/