COOPERATIVE PROGRAM BUDGET

The Cooperative Program is a missions-funding mechanism involving the deliberate and voluntary cooperation of local Baptist churches, state/regional Baptist conventions, and the Southern Baptist Convention through which every contributing Baptist maximizes the Great Commission impact of every dollar given. 

As SCBaptists, the Cooperative Program is the only thing we do that financially fuels everything we do. Through the Cooperative Program, churches give voluntarily, consistently, and joyfully to advance the Great Commission in South Carolina, the United States, and around the world.

The Cooperative Program maximizes the kingdom impact of every dollar given, funneling financial resources to our shared efforts in theological training, human needs, church planting, international missions, and much more. Other missions organizations focus only on one or two opportunities of mission or ministry. Southern Baptists choose to commit themselves to an entire ecosystem of mission and ministry that reaches the nations now, while preparing future generations for the same. The Cooperative Prograph is built with layers of accountability that preserve local church and organizational autonomy while maximizing the effectiveness of every dollar given and facilitating a missions strategy that advances the Great Commission locally and globally. 

With increasing lostness at home and around the world, the opportunity for strategic Great Commission advancement knocks at the door of our cooperation like never before. Southern Baptists have already built an entire ecosystem that is fit for local and global gospel witness, funded by the sacrificial CP giving of cooperating churches and guided and guarded by the parameters of our theologically conservative confession of faith. The Cooperative Program extends and enlarges your church’s Great Commission impact. 2 Corinthians 9:6 promises that a generous harvest belongs to those who sow generously, and a small harvest to those who ow sparingly. We desire a generous harvest for Christ in this generation. Today, the opportunity is great, the momentum is strong, the vision is clear, and the fields are white. 

Most churches just do not see CP giving as a priority in their budgets. Every church could consume 100% of its own resources; there is always another building to build, staff member to hire, remodel to finance, or ministry to resource. But the missions-focused church will willingly sacrifice its local needs in joyful partnership with other churches for Great Commission advance (see 2 Corinthians 8:1-5). Some churches withhold or redirect CP giving because of methodological disagreement with one of the SBC’s CP-supported entities. What they often fail to realize is that the way our Baptist ecosystem is built, the success of any one entity is dependent upon the success of the others. The thing to do is keep giving, and keep cooperating, while letting your voice be heard and working to refine and sharpen cooperative engagements.