Louisville—Kentucky Baptist churches have given more than $20 million this fiscal year through the Cooperative Program.

The latest financial report from the Kentucky Baptist Convention showed churches contributed an additional $1,597,361 during July.

“It’s a joy to see our churches working cooperatively to get the gospel to people all over the world,” said KBC Executive Director Paul Chitwood. “Money given through the Cooperative Program allows us to keep thousands of missionaries in places that the average congregation would never have an opportunity to reach working alone.”

The Cooperative Program is the primary means through which nearly 750,000 Kentucky Baptists in 2,400 churches support the work of missionaries in the state, across the country and around the world.

Total Cooperative Program receipts from Sept. 1 through July 31 are $625,000 ahead of budget projections with one month to go in the fiscal year, which runs runs from Sept. 1 through Aug. 31.

“We’ve averaged $1,827,833 per month this year,” said Lowell Ashby, head of the KBC’s Finance and Business Services Team. “We’ll need to receive $1,730,938 to exceed last year’s CP total of $21,837,101. I’m praying we’ll actually reach $22M or more with a $1.9 million CP total for August.

“This is a good time to remind our churches that gifts need to be postmarked by Wednesday, Aug. 31, and received by Friday, Sep. 2 to be counted in this fiscal year,” Ashby noted.

Churches have also been generous in their giving to three separate offerings that support missions. They’ve given nearly $5.3 million through the Lottie Moon offering for international missions, $2.3 million through the Annie Armstrong offering for North American missions, and almost $1.2 million for the Eliza Broadus offering for state missions. (KBC)