5/04/2006 12:42:00 AM What if? Remember those old Shel Silverstein poems where he'd list a bazillion "what if"questions? Well, I am going to ask just one instead of a list, and this is more of a hypothetical situation, and I'd like feedback if you are willing.

What if you were a pastor of a small Southern Baptist church in a county seat town in the middle of Ohio. Recently, you've been sensing that your congregation feels somewhat isolated from the town around them because Southern Baptist generally don't cooperate cross-denominationally. Being in the Mid-West, there aren't that many Baptist churches around. There is one about 20 miles away in the next small town over, but it is an independent Baptist church. Your congregation wants to get involved doing ministry in the community, but they also feel like they'd be compromising there Southern Baptist ties because the churches don't agree with their's on every point of doctrine. Feeling like an odd ball, the congregation starts a movement to cut ties with the SBC in order to cooperate with others that are not SBC churches. As a pastor, you went to an SBC seminary, you started the church with SBC support, and you go to great lengths to ensure that the church supports the Cooperative Program. What would you do? Agree with the congregation, and severe SBC ties, or tow the denominational lines in spite of what the congregation wants to do? Or would you do something else?

ask myself and my congregation, "where do we draw OUR line of cooperation?"