AUSTIN, Texas — More than three dozen people from Acts Fellowship Church in Austin have gone to seminary, including 20 who have trained at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) — a testament to the vitality of a Cooperative Program (CP) partnership.
“Part of our CP dollars go to the support of our seminary institutions, and it’s a great way to take part in equipping the next generation of Christian leaders and to partake in the expansion of God’s kingdom,” said Charles Lee, pastor of the predominantly Asian American Acts Fellowship.
“As one of the smaller churches, we can have an even greater reach and impact for God’s kingdom as we take part in the Cooperative Program,” Lee said of Southern Baptists’ unified giving plan for national and international missions and ministry, which marks 100 years of effectiveness this year.
Acts Fellowship, with a Sunday attendance around 250, began as a church plant 20 years ago and ministers largely to the University of Texas at Austin. The church’s demographics are about 25% college students, roughly 25% single adults, 25% married and 25% under the age of 18, Lee said.
“I really do believe that through the Cooperative Program we can do more together,” Lee, a Southwestern graduate, said. “I don’t think [churches] should function in isolation, but especially with a like minded network of churches, unite for things greater than ourselves.
“It’s been a blessing to us to be able to participate in the Cooperative Program and also to take advantage of various gatherings that we have here in the state of Texas and to benefit from conferences and other opportunities that are made available to us.”
Acts Fellowship supports some missionaries directly but also prioritizes CP giving to partner with the International Mission Board (IMB) and North American Mission Board (NAMB) “to take part even in areas that we may not be aware of,” Lee said.
“For us, I don’t think it’s one or the other. We can do both. We can take part in supporting specific individuals that we might know very well and believe in, and at the same time not neglect the greater kingdom work that we can also participate in through the institutions that we have set up,” he said.
The congregation offers several mission trip opportunities each year and subsidizes about 60% of the total cost. Each summer, they travel to Puerto Rico for a week to minister on a college campus and in some communities there. They travel to New Mexico to lead Vacation Bible School and door to door evangelism among Navajo Indians, and they send volunteers to Camp Blessing, a special needs ministry in Texas. So far, 20 people have signed up for summer mission trips this year, and the number is expected to double.
One of two associate pastors at Acts Fellowship is devoted to the college ministry, and the church offers small groups for college students in various locations, Lee said. They also take part in on-campus evangelism regularly.
Acts Fellowship provides evangelism training, and people go out on a biweekly basis to share the gospel while supported by a prayer ministry.
Two ministry interns at the church were college students who sensed a call to the ministry and are enrolled at Southwestern, and another church member started at the seminary this semester, Lee said.
“It is our duty as a church to train up young people to serve in God’s kingdom, whether that be as volunteers or those who will eventually be called to the gospel ministry and be equipped in seminary and be able to lead churches. We need all of them,” he said.
“When you think about it, even Jesus—the way that I understand Scripture is that many of the disciples were around college-aged people. They were relatively young, and Jesus discipled them to be movers and shakers for the movement called Christianity.”
Churches must invest in the next generation starting in the children’s ministry to make a difference for the kingdom, Lee said.
“It’s a lot of work. Sometimes it’s a lot more investing than counting returns because they are young, but nevertheless it is our mandate and duty to tell the good news to our children so they will tell it to their children and their children.”
The steady partnership available through the Cooperative Program undergirds the work of the local church visible at Acts Fellowship.
“We are definitely accountable to God in what we do as an individual church, but at the same time, I believe there is also another responsibility [to] work in cooperation with like minded churches to be involved in greater things for the kingdom of God,” Lee said.
“I don’t think it’s ever a good idea to work in isolation. That’s true for individuals. No one should be a lone ranger Christian. They need the body of Christ. Even churches should never seek to be isolated by themselves.
“ … Hopefully, that vision [of CP] will not diminish but escalate as we see our society drifting further away from God, that in those moments we realize that we need each other.”
