JACKSON, Tenn. — March 8, 2004 — As a child, Gene Fant shared his family home with a mission church in Fredonia, N.Y. His Sunday School class met in his bedroom, professions of faith were made in the living room and baptisms took place in the baptistry in the garage. Why was there a baptistry in the garage?
鈥淏ecause my parents answered the call to missions and moved us from Mississippi to New York,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey believed the people of Western New York needed to hear the good news of Christ. Southern Baptists funneled a part of their tithes and offerings into a massive pool of resources called the Cooperative Program. The Cooperative Program put that baptistry in our garage, which means the Father of the Cooperative Program, M.E. Dodd, helped to put it there.鈥�
Fant, who is associate professor of English and chair of the department, spoke to a homecoming audience at 51社区 during a Founders鈥� Day program Feb. 20 on the topic 鈥淢issions, Education and the Cooperative Program, or How M. E. Dodd helped to put a baptistry in my family鈥檚 garage and helped to pay your Union tuition.鈥�
Fant said the idea behind Union鈥檚 annual Founder鈥檚 Day emphasis is to 鈥渟tudy the great persons who have been our forerunners in order to lift up our eyes and to see the potential toward which we ourselves can strive.鈥� M. E. Dodd and his wife Emma were both graduates of Union.
Dodd would have been content to be a farmer, Fant said, if it were not for a Union student, Forest Smith, who spoke at Poplar Grove Baptist Church one Sunday. Dodd went forward to give his life to Jesus and soon felt called into the ministry. That calling led him to Union, where he met his wife, the daughter of former Union President George Savage. After graduation, the couple began a life of ministry, serving in churches in Fulton, Paducah and Louisville, Ky. and then at First Baptist Church, Shreveport, La.
As the church grew in prominence, Dodd served in Southern Baptist Convention leadership positions. At that time, the SBC was 鈥渓oosely knit, poorly financed and enduring theological crises,鈥� said Fant.
鈥淒odd understood something valuable,鈥� he pointed out. 鈥淭he solution to a convention-wide theological crisis could be found in a renewed, sacrificial focus on missions. In 1925, Dodd鈥檚 vision for a passionate support of missions, education and benevolence articulated itself in what we now call the Cooperative Program.鈥�
Since that time, Southern Baptists have given more than $10 billion to Cooperative Program causes and now support more than 10,000 missionaries at home and overseas, assist 15,000 seminary students, operate disaster relief ministries that are second only to the Red Cross, aid needy children through SBC children鈥檚 villages and operate a ministerial annuity program almost without peer, according to Fant.
鈥淭he beauty of the Cooperative Program in Southen Baptist life has been the way that it has compelled us to fulfill the Great Commandment,鈥� he said. 鈥淏y participating sacrificially in Cooperative Program giving, we work together to changes lives through Christ鈥檚 redeeming power.鈥�
Fant said Dodd knew that our resources should flow in the praise of God and in the service of others.
鈥淥ur stewardship of resources is an overflow of our spiritual state,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not about financial responsibility; it鈥檚 about spiritual discipline.鈥�
President David S. Dockery, who praised Fant鈥檚 address, said 鈥渋t is vital for us to re-educate a new generation regarding the importance of the Cooperative Program for supporting Baptist higher education and missions.鈥�