Paige Patterson writes on Connectionalism

“Baptists have strongly resisted connectionalism while emphasizing cooperation. Possibly the most controversial observation I will make in this essay is that there is an unhealthy and subtle form of connectionalism in our ecclesiastical structure which must be resisted. Local churches already decide what portion of their missions gifts are given to the association and to the Cooperative Program. Unfortunately, state conventions then decide what percent of the church’s gifts to the Cooperative Program remain in the state and what portion is sent to the national convention. Thus, a local church is not autonomous in deciding about the division of its resources between state and national causes. That this is how we have done it for some years is undebatable. That this is a not-so-subtle form of connectionalism is equally unquestionable. This inconsistency must be reversed with each church “autonomously” deciding about the percentage of mission money its wishes to invest in local, associational, state, and international missions causes. My own conviction is that such an adjustment would enable Baptists of varying theological stripes to find continued cooperative giving much more palatable.”

This excerpt is taken from an article titled “My Vision of the Twenty-First Century SBC” written by Paige Patterson. This article appeared in the Review and Expositor, vol. 88, in 1991.

April 1996