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Animated video spotlights CP’s ‘broad, sweeping reach’


ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP) — The Cooperative Program’s full reach likely won’t be grasped until its supporters reach heaven and see the many nations and individuals who’ve benefitted from Southern Baptists’ giving, Matt Tullos told Baptist Press.

Tullos, associate director of Communications and Stewardship for the Louisiana Baptist Convention, said the LBC’s latest animated video seeks to spotlight CP’s reach, using a child’s dream to tell the story.

“It’s hard for people to wrap their minds around just how practical it is,” Tullos said of CP, “and so we decided we would put it in the voice of a child, just to show how simple the whole concept of the Cooperative Program is as well as kind of show what our work as Southern Baptists would be if it wasn’t there.”

The video, “CP Turns Dreams into Real Life,” features a girl who meets others in her dream who share how CP has helped them.

“We originally intended it to be mainly for our events for children, and for youth, but it played so well with our adults,” Tullos said. “We were really surprised that our adults really resonated with the video and it’s been probably our most popular animation that we’ve done so far, as far as its response from people about it.”

The video gives practical insight into how CP donations are used, viewers have told Tullos, who points to such beneficiaries as a Louisiana children’s home, college ministries, the International Mission Board and the North American Mission Board in showcasing the CP’s “broad, sweeping impact.”

Produced by Tullos and LBC Communications Director John Kyle, the video is the LBC’s fourth animation regarding the CP. While some of the videos have focused specifically on Louisiana, the latest video is appropriate for use by all states, Tullos said.

“I think even the state version we have is pretty applicable to everybody,” Tullos said. “I just hope that God uses it in an amazing way, and that as many people who have an opportunity to use it will use it. That sure makes our job meaningful.”

Described as the CP Kids Rant, the video joins two CP Rant videos the LBC produced to communicate particularly with young pastors. Other LBC videos on the CP are an unanimated video, The Pledge, which encourages pastors to increase CP giving by specified percentages, and the related animated video, The Pledge Rant.

The videos are purposefully multicultural, Tullos said.

“We have such a broad scope of ethnic variety in our state,” Tullos said, “and its actually one of the things that’s a real priority this year for Louisiana Baptists, is that we want to promote churches … looking more like heaven, because we know that’s what heaven’s going to look like, and so many times our churches are not that way.

“I’ve heard one pastor say that the churches are the last bastion of segregation, which is really sad. So we’re really making that a priority too.”

He encourages Southern Baptists to support the CP, using the hypothetical example of a young mother’s impact through the CP.

“Her ability to do ministry is probably limited by her children and by her time of life. But when she gives to the Cooperative Program, she’s actually having an impact in scores of nations all over the world with our missions, our missionaries, and then she’s on every college campus where our [Baptist Collegiate Ministries] are,” Tullos said. “She’s helping orphans in our children’s home. She’s helping plant churches…. Her impact as a young mother who’s giving to the church — and the church giving to the Cooperative Program — is having an impact that she will never fully grasp until she gets to heaven and sees what her giving has done.”

Working together just “makes so much more sense” than working individually, he said.

The latest video is available for free download on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/155009870.

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