The Cooperative Program (CP) is how Kentucky Baptists and Southern Baptists work together to fund missions, ministries, and leadership development—across our state, the nation, and around the world.
When your church gives through CP, you’re supporting: Church planting and revitalization, disaster relief and compassion ministries, leadership development and theological training, global missions and evangelism.
1. Churches give a portion of their budget to the Cooperative Program.
2. The KBC distributes a percentage to state ministries and sends the rest to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
3. Together, these funds fuel mission efforts locally and globally.
To see how Cooperative Program funds are allocated, use the interactive calculator below.
How your money is distributed
Southern Baptist Convention Distribution
Kentucky Baptist Convention Distribution
Southern Baptist Convention Distribution - 45%
International Mission Board
22.68
North American Mission Board
10.26
Baptist Seminaries
9.86
SBC agencies and operations
2.20
Kentucky Baptist Convention Distribution - 55%
Church Consulting & Revitalization Team
11.67
Evangelism Team
9.93
Executive Office Team
13.54
General Items
1.93
Missions Mobilization Team
3.94
Clear Creek Baptist Bible College
3.47
Crossings/KY Baptist Assemblies
1.93
Kentucky Baptist Foundation
1.35
Oneida Baptist Institute
2.65
Sunrise Children’s Services
2.16
Woman’s Missionary Union
2.43
Or mail your church’s gifts (or other missions offerings) to: Kentucky Baptist Convention, P.O. Box 950295 Louisville, KY 40295-9900
Or contact your bank to set up automatic online bank payments to the Kentucky Baptist Convention for your church’s Cooperative Program gifts and/or other missions offerings. All contributions from churches should be accompanied by a contribution form.
For more information, email cp@kybaptist.org, or call (502) 489-3577 or (866) 489-3577 (toll free in Kentucky only).
Click here to learn more about Legacy Giving options at the Kentucky Baptist Foundation.
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%.
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.
