Cooperative Program

The Cooperative Program is an agreement among Southern Baptists churches, Baptist state conventions and fellowships, and the Southern Baptist Convention to work together in Great Commission ministries.

It is a way of working together and a financial channel of cooperation through which mission dollars are combined into a unified budget supporting the Southern Baptist missionary, education, and benevolent ministries in each state, the nation, and throughout the world.

Through the Cooperative Program, the mission of a single church is extended to ministries for the needy, the sick, the aged, and the lost, as well as the support of about 10,000 North American and International missionaries.

The Cooperative Program is the funding mechanism that Southern Baptists use to support collective missions and evangelism work.

• Free CP Promotional Materials

  We are pleased to offer free promotional materials to Kentucky Baptist Convention churches. Browse the list of free tools below, and click here to place your order.

  CP Missions Goals: Powering Missions and Ministries Through the Cooperative Program

  The needs of a lost and dying world are great, and far greater than any single Christian or church can even begin to address. By working together, Kentucky Baptists honor God and meet those needs. This helpful brochure brings those needs home to the reader in a powerful way, suggests concrete actions Kentucky Baptists can take to meet the needs, and demonstrates how Kentucky Baptists partner with Southern Baptists to expand the Kingdom of God. Available in bundles of 50.

  Click here to place your order.

  Missionary Moments 2013

  

  With the 2013 Missionary Moments Prayer Guide, you will have opportunity to get a glimpse into the lives and ministries of missionaries who serve Southern Baptists as either North American Mission Board (NAMB) or International Mission Board (IMB) servants of the Lord.

  The power of prayer and gifts through the Cooperative Program, the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering®, and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering® help sustain more than 10,000 missionaries as they take the good news of Jesus Christ to the lost worldwide.

  Present Missionary Moments weekly during a worship service, in Sunday School class or small group, at the midweek prayer service, at missions meetings, or as sermon illustrations. Join thousands of Southern Baptists in prayer as we lift each featured servant to the Father.

  Click here to place your order.

  You can request a beautiful, full-color booklet from us, or download your Missionary Moments prayer guide for 2013 here.

  Children Changing the World

  Lessons and games for Sunday school and missions groups. Tell us how many groups you need materials for.

  Click here to place your order.

  Cooperative Program Cram Course

  This CP Cram course is for newcomers, long-timers and those who need reasons to renew their passion for the Cooperative Program. Designed to cover the basics of this missional infrastructure, the CP Cram Course will show you how the Acts 1:8 mandate can be fulfilled in every church through CP.

  Click here to place your order.

   

  Love in Action Poster

  This dramatic, full-color 24″ x 18″ poster is designed to provide year-round promotion of the CP Missions vision in Kentucky.

  Click here to place your order.

   

   

  The Gift Brochure

  

  This new resource answers the basic questions every church member needs to know when their church participates in the Cooperative Program: 1. Where do my gifts go? 2. Who do they impact?

  Great for new members classes, members education, yearly missions emphasis, missions trip training and bulletin inserts.

  Click here to place your order.

   

• CP Budget Goal and Allocations 2012-2013

   

  	CP Funded Shared Expenses	Cooperative Program	Total Shared/CP	CP %
  Southern Baptist Convention Causes		$9,578,656	$9,578,656	43.54%
  International Mission Board		$4,808,440	$4,808,440	21.86%
  North American Mission Board		$2,182,955	$2,182,955	9.92%
  Southern Baptist Seminaries		$2,099,621	$2,099,621	9.54%
  SBC Operating Budget		$306,514	$306,514	1.39%
  Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission		$158,046	$158,046	0.72%
  Historical Library and Archives		$22,989	$22,989	0.10%
  KBC Mission Board	$880,000	$6,359,523	$7,239,523	32.91%
  Missions Mobilization		$589,622	$589,622	2.68%
  Church Consultation and Revitalization	$93,617	$2,024,756	$2,118,373	9.63%
  Evangelism and Church Planting		$1,680,502	$1,680,502	7.64%
  Executive Office	$430,638	$870,827	$1,301,465	5.92%
  Business Services	$312,681	$606,846	$919,527	4.18%
  Convention Operation	$43,064	$577,130	$620,194	2.82%
  Other General		$9,842	$9,842	0.04%
  Christian Education		$3,440,059	$3,440,059	15.64%
  Campbellsville University		$1,269,760	$1,269,760	5.77%
  University of the Cumberlands		$1,269,760	$1,269,760	5.77%
  Clear Creek Baptist Bible College		$540,323	$540,323	2.46%
  Oneida Baptist Institute		$360,215	$360,215	1.64%
  KBC Agencies		$1,741,853	$1,741,853	7.92%
  Baptist Hospital System		$5,617	$5,617	0.03%
  Sunrise Children’s Services		$311,708	$311,708	1.42%
  Crossings Ministries		$339,752	$339,752	1.54%
  Western Recorder		$341,079	$341,079	1.55%
  Kentucky Baptist Foundation		$296,146	$296,146	1.35%
  Kentucky Woman’s Missionary Union		$447,551	$447,551	2.03%
  GRAND TOTAL	$880,000	$21,120,000	$22,000,000	100%

• Submitting Cooperative Program Gifts

  In Kentucky, CP gifts other mission offerings may be sent to the following address:

  Kentucky Baptist Convention
  P O Box 950295
  Louisville, KY 40295-0295

  All contributions from churches should be accompanied by a contribution form. Click here to download the form:

  Cooperative Program Contribution Form

• Legacy Giving

  Kentucky Baptists and others who wish to ensure the future Southern Baptist work close to home and around the world can make a legacy gift specifically for the Cooperative Program. Discover the many giving options available by contacting the Kentucky Baptist Foundation at (502) 489-3533 or (866) 489-3533 (toll-free in Kentucky).

• History

  The idea of the Cooperative Program originated in Kentucky. On Nov. 16, 1915, the General Association of Baptists in Kentucky (now the Kentucky Baptist Convention) met at Jellico, Tennessee, near the Kentucky state line, and adopted a budget plan for the support of all denominational projects throughout the state and convention.

  A leader in this plan was Harvey Boyce Taylor who developed the idea as “the box plan” at the First Baptist Church of Murray beginning about 1900. Prior to the “box plan,” the Murray congregation operated as other churches. Committees would be appointed to seek gifts for missions and subscriptions for the pastor’s salary and other needs.

  Work beyond the local level was supported through special appeals. Most of the schools and mission boards sent field workers to the churches for special offerings. This was not only costly and inefficient, but many worthy mission causes were neglected.

  With the “box plan,” boxes were placed at each door and the church would “walk by faith” — depending upon God to put in the hearts of the people to contribute in the amount in which they felt led to meet all of the needs of the church. The funds would then be budgeted to the various needs on a percentage basis. For example, the 1914 budget for Murray Baptist Church showed the following percentages: Missions, 50%; Pastor’s salary, 25%; Assistant Pastor’s salary, 5%; Sunday School, 10%; Miscellaneous, 5%; Poor, 5%.

  

  Harvey Boyce Taylor

  In 1905, Taylor started serving on the Executive Board of the General Association of Baptists in Kentucky — a position he would hold for the next 20 years. This provided an opportunity to give wider exposure to the stewardship work of the Murray congregation and in 1913, he was named chairman of a committee to consider the question of unifying Baptist work across the state. In 1914-15, he and another member of the committee toured the state to promote the unification plan and the unified offering approach, leading to its adoption at the meeting in Jellico.

  Kentucky’s adoption of the unified budget plan directly influenced the 1925 inauguration of the Cooperative Program, the national channel for mission giving of Southern Baptist churches.