The Cooperative Program of the SBC – Is it still worth it?

 In 1925, the Southern Baptist Convention launched the Cooperative Program as a tool for Southern Baptist churches to pool their resources in support of missions.  Each SBC church sends some of its undesignated gifts to the Louisiana Baptist Convention (LBC). A percentage of the CP gifts sent in stays in Louisiana to support local missions and ministries. The rest is sent to the Cooperative Program and distributed among Southern Baptist entities. The entities receiving CP funds and the approximate percentages they receive are:

·        International Mission Board (51%)

·        6 Southern Baptist Seminaries (22%)

·        North American Mission Board (12%)

·        The Executive Committee (3%)

·        The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (2%)

LifeWay Christian Resources, Guidestone Financial Resources, and Women’s Missionary Union are also SBC entities, but they do not receive CP funding.

If your church gave to the Cooperative Program last year,  your church helped:

·        Send 83 new missionaries in 2024 to join the almost 4,000 missionaries engaging over 1,600 unique people groups around the globe through the IMB

·        Train over 13,000 men and women for ministry in our six seminaries, with over 1000 graduates in 2024.

·        Plant over 600 new churches, replant 44 existing churches, and fund almost 3000 domestic missionaries in the United States through NAMB.

·        Advocate for religious liberty and Christian ethics in the political arena and courts through the ERLC.

·        Distribute the CP gifts to these entities through the work of the Executive Committee of the SBC.

When we give to our churches and our churches give to the Cooperative Program, our gifts travel around the world with the Gospel in ways that would never be possible otherwise! So if you ask me if it is still worth keeping the Cooperative Program, all I can say is “You better believe it! Name a better way to have a similar impact!” No system is perfect. We have our share of challenges and disagreements. But that’s what makes us Southern Baptists – we are free to disagree and work things out while we cooperate to obey the Great Commission.

Bro. Tom

VBS will be here before you know it! Now is the time to prepare for a great week of ministry to children and their families. BBA will be hosting our 3rd Annual VBS training event with David Anderson. Texas Avenue Baptist Church will be hosting us again this year. We will begin the day with child evangelism training. After a refreshment break, David will provide an overview of LifeWay’s 2025 theme. Churches using other publishers such as Group, Regular Baptist Press, Answers in Genesis, or Cokesbury can use that time to collaborate on creative ideas and organize resource swapping, if desired.

RSVP by Monday, April 7 at office@bbasbc.org or

by calling (337) 202-4043. 

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