Dakota Baptist Convention

October is Cooperative Program month in the Southern Baptist Convention. The Cooperative Program is the method Southern Baptists use to fund work that SBC churches do together as well as take the gospel around the world.

Each church determines a percentage or amount of their undesignated offerings to share for cooperative work in the Dakotas and around the world. This is sent to the Dakota Baptist Convention, where 75% funds the mission work in North and South Dakota. The other 25% is forwarded to the SBC, where it is combined with the giving of tens of thousands of other Southern Baptist churches around the U.S.

Over half of these dollars goes to the International Mission Board to support missionaries serving around the world. Nearly 23% goes to church planting and mission efforts in North America and approximately 22% to the six Southern Baptist seminaries. In other words, more than 95% of CP dollars goes to the mission field supporting gospel work here at home and around the world and to preparing the next generation of preachers and missionaries.

The final 4.6% of CP dollars supports efforts to have an impact on our culture through the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and taking care of the administrative work of the Cooperative Program, which is overseen by the SBC Executive Committee.

The Cooperative Program was established in 1925. In two years, the SBC will celebrate 100 years of cooperative work of Southern Baptist churches. If you would like resources that explain the Cooperative Program and Southern Baptist work, contact Fred MacDonald at [email protected] or www.sbc.net.