What is the Cooperative Program?
During the 2016-2017 financial year, the Finance Team of South Orlando Baptist Church is encouraging an increase to the Cooperative Program from 8% of our total tithes to 9%. While this matter will be decided by the members of the church in our upcoming business meeting, many others might be wondering, “What exactly is the Cooperative Program?”
What is the Cooperative Program?
The Cooperative Program is Southern Baptists’ unified plan of giving through which cooperating Southern Baptist churches give a percentage of their undesignated receipts in support of their respective state convention and the Southern Baptist Convention missions and ministries. The goal of the Cooperative Program is that churches would cooperate together so that the Gospel of Jesus Christ can be shared with every person on the planet.
What exactly does the money given to the Cooperative Program Fund?
Our church gives to the Cooperative Program through the Florida Baptist Convention. The following video provides a pretty simple overview of the 2016 Cooperative Program Goal for the Florida Baptist Convention.
You can also download this poster to gain a good “big picture” overview of how the funds are dispersed. Click here to see the poster.
How Does The Cooperative Program Work?
It begins with you!
You give yourself first to God (II Cor. 8:5). Next, out of gratitude and obedience to God for what He has done for you, you commit to give back to Him, through your church, a portion of what He provides. This is commonly called a tithe and represents ten percent of your income (Lev. 27:30, Mal. 3:10).
Your Church… decides the next step. Every year your church prayerfully decides how much of its undesignated gifts will be committed to reaching people in your state and around the world through The Cooperative Program. This amount is then forwarded to your State Baptist Convention.
Messengers at the State Convention Annual Meetings… from your church and other churches across the state decide what percentage of Cooperative Program gifts contributed by local congregations stay in your state to support local missions and ministries. The percentage to be forwarded to the SBC for North American and international missions and ministries is also determined at this time.
Messengers at the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting… from across the country decide how the gifts received from the states will be distributed among SBC entities. These gifts are used by SBC entities to send and support missionaries, train pastors, and other ministry leaders; provide relief for retired ministers and widows; and address social, moral, and ethical concerns relating to our faith and families.
The bottom line – people around the world hear the gospel and receive Christ!
Why Southern Baptists Embrace The Cooperative Program
- It presents a unified and comprehensive budget, throwing a funding blanket over statewide, national and international missions and ministries.
- It provides a long‐term sustainability for our entities. When a church makes their missions giving as a percentage of their church budgets, it provide consistency and stability.
- It adheres to our long term Baptist principle that “we can do more together than alone.”
- The Cooperative Program mitigates competition between entities thereby allowing a balanced Acts 1:8 Strategy.
- It levels the playing field, and makes a place at the table for small and ethnic churches. Every church can stand hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder, on level ground, as partners in the gospel (large churches, small churches, new churches, growing churches, graying churches, and ethnic churches).
The History of the Cooperative Program
Since its inception in 1845, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has always had one mission —the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20). To fulfill its assigned part of this divine mandate, each SBC entity made special offering appeals to the churches. This method was referred to as the “societal” approach to missions and resulted in severe financial deficits, competition among entities, overlapping pledge campaigns, and frequent emergency appeals which greatly hampered the expanding ministry opportunities God was giving Southern Baptist. Some entities took out loans to cover operating costs until pledges or special offerings were received.
In 1919, the leaders of the SBC proposed the 75 Million Campaign, a five‐year pledge campaign that, for the first time, included everything – the missions and ministries of all the state conventions as well as that of the Southern Baptist Convention. Though falling short of its goals, a God‐given partnership of missions support was conceived – The Cooperative Program. Since its launch in 1925, the effectiveness of the Cooperative Program has been dependent upon individuals, churches, state conventions, and SBC entities cooperating, working toward a common goal of sharing the gospel with every person on the planet.