LOUISVILLE—Kentucky Baptist churches gave nearly $2 million through the Cooperative Program in June, bringing the total for the first 10 months of the fiscal year to $18.5 million.

That’s an increase of nearly $300,000 over the same period last year.

The latest financial report from the Kentucky Baptist Convention showed the strongest June for the Cooperative Program in 5 years.

“Kentucky Baptists know the effectiveness of the Cooperative Program in reaching the world with the gospel,” said KBC Executive Director Paul Chitwood. “By working together through the Cooperative Program, our churches are helping to spread the gospel around the world, and people are being reached who could never have been reached by a single church working by itself.”

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 CP receipts from Sept. 1 – June 30 are more than $800,000 ahead of budget projections.

“We will need a little over $2.7 million in contributions over the next two months to meet our $21,250,000 CP budget,” said said Lowell Ashby, head of the KBC’s Finance and Business Services Team. “It appears at this point that we’ll meet and exceed that amount.” (KBC)