The New Testament also indicates that issues which threatened to divide the early Christian movement were dealt with through voluntarycooperationaspersons freely discussed the issues (Acts 15). Another example of voluntarycooperationin the New Testament was the agreement that certain evangelists and missionaries would major on different people groups (Galatians 2:1-10). The New Testament churches in the same geographical region had some sortof cooperationwith one another (Galatians 1:2; Revelation 1–3). The Nature of VOLUNTARY COOPERATION How can cooperation be achieved without sacrificing voluntarism and autonomy? Baptists have answered that question by churches voluntarily cooperating through informal networks of churches and through organizations such as associations, societies, and conventions. A number of Baptists were slow to accept such organizations because they feared that they would try to exert authority over the churches, violating church autonomy. The autonomy obstacle was cleared by stressing that a church’s relationship to any organization beyond the local church would be purely voluntary. With this guarantee, numerous Baptist individuals and churches were willing to establish organizations for various causes. None of these organizations has any authority over churches. The first step in voluntary cooperation was the formation of associations of churches for the purpose of fellowship and discussion of issues. These associations, sometimes termed networks, often assist in multiple ministries. A second approach involved establishing organizations termed societiesthat have a single focus, such as foreign missions, home missions, or publications. Individuals or groups become members by voluntarily making financial contributions to the society. A third approach to cooperation was the development of conventions, sometimes termed unions or fellowships. A convention differs from a society in that a convention solicits and combines support for various efforts of the denomination, such as missions, education, benevolence, and publications, rather than for a single issue. The above approaches to voluntary cooperation are designed to function in essentially an ongoing, permanent basis. In addition tothese, Baptists have developed other methods of cooperation, often less formally organized and based on such things as common interests, positions, culture, or causes. Some of these are primarily for fellowship and mutual encouragement, others for sharing information, and still others for action projects. For example, Baptist organizations have been developed by Baptists of comparable size churches; by Baptists who have similar positions in the denomination; by Baptists from the same cultural or language group; by Baptists especially devoted to actions for a common cause. “One basic opera voluntariness….Th held together by fr ties, but the comm beliefs, and purp them are strong Rope of Sand with James L.
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