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CP Month

Celebrate Cooperative Program Month

CP Day is October 6

When you give to your church, you provide foster homes for children, rescue women from human trafficking, support survivors of disasters, start new churches, advance Christian education, offer compassionate care to the elderly, keep roughly 9,000 full-time missionaries on the field, train the next generation of Southern Baptist leaders … and that’s just for starters.

Through the Cooperative Program, your tithes and offering extend beyond the reach of your local church. That’s because your church joins hands with more than 1700 other Missouri Baptist churches and 47,000 Southern Baptist churches to accomplish more for God’s kingdom than any one church can accomplish alone.

October is Cooperative Program Month for the churches and church-type missions of the Southern Baptist Convention. It’s a month to celebrate the unique funding process that Southern Baptists have used since 1925 to support missions and evangelism around the world.

And October 6 is set aside as CP Day in Southern Baptist churches all across the nation.

The MBC has produced a number of resources that help Missouri Baptist churches celebrate Cooperative Program Month and CP Day.

All CP materials are available free of charge and may be ordered online or by calling 800.736.6227 ext. 303.

How the Cooperative Program Works

CP begins with you – your tithes and offerings to the local church.

Your church then gives a percentage of its annual budget, or a specific dollar amount, to the Missouri Baptist Convention, whose messengers determine how CP funds are distributed.

Currently, the Southern Baptist Convention receives 38 percent of Missouri’s CP gifts and uses those funds to support thousands of full-time missionaries, six seminaries, ethics and religious liberty, and other causes.

The MBC invests 35 percent of CP gifts in Missouri missions and ministries, which include evangelism and discipleship, church multiplication, leadership development, disaster relief, collegiate ministries on roughly 30 Missouri campuses, and much more.

Missouri Baptist entities – the Children’s Home, Baptist Homes & Healthcare Ministries, Hannibal-LaGrange University, Southwest Baptist University, and Missouri Baptist University – receive 22 percent of Missouri’s CP funding.

Finally, 5 percent goes to GuideStone pastor protection benefits, along with production and distribution of The Pathway.

How to Celebrate

There are many ways local churches can celebrate Cooperative Program Month and raise awareness of its value. Check out Five Simple Ways to Promote CP in October for ideas.

Also consider free CP resources from the Southern Baptist Convention – including dozens of compelling videos.

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