Cooperative Program

A unified plan of giving through which cooperating SBC churches give to support missions and ministries.

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“The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the elder by Barnabas and Saul.”
- Acts 11:29-30

How the Cooperative Program Works

Southern Baptists believe that faithful missions giving is an important and fruitful part of a healthy and mature Great Commission church. We know what a joy it is to give collectively to further the Gospel to our Judea, our Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth.

California Southern Baptist Convention churches receive tithes and offerings from church members and commit to give a percentage of undesignated tithes and offerings for missions and ministries beyond their church context going through the Cooperative Program to support missions locally, nationally and globally. Those funds cooperatively do more than any church can do alone and that is the hallmark of the Southern Baptist spirit.

%

Goes to California Southern Baptist Convention (CSBC), and it’s used in CA for evangelism, church planting, crisis response, pastor counseling, training, and more.

%

Goes to the SBC National Cooperative Program and is used for missions and ministries as described below.

SBC National Cooperative Program

.41%

International Mission Board

50.41% goes to the International Mission Board (IMB), helping fund over 3,500 full time field missionaries. The mission of the IMB is to serve Southern Baptist Churches in carrying out the Great Commission to make disciples in all nations.

.79%

North American Mission Board

22.79% goes to the North American Mission Board (NAMB), helping fund Send Network, Send Relief, Evangelism, and more. The Church is God’s plan to reach North America and the nations with the hope of the gospel.

.16%

Theological Education Ministries

22.16% goes to Theological Education Ministries, which helps fund our six SBC Seminaries around the country. .24% is used for Library & Archives. SBC Church members receive a 50% tuition discount at SBC seminaries.

.99%

Executive Committee

2.99% goes to the Executive Committee and SBC Operating Budget. The Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention is comprised of 86 representatives chosen from qualified states and regions, and acts on behalf of the Convention between sessions.

.65%

Executive Committee

1.65% goes to the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission (ERLC). The ERLC is dedicated to engaging the culture with the gospel of Jesus Christ and speaking to issues in the public square for the protection of religious liberty and human flourishing.

Why do we Give to 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 provides 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).

Give to the Cooperative Program

History of the Cooperative Program

Since its inception in 1845, the 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.