With year-to-date contributions through the Southern Baptist Convention’s Cooperative Program now 6.05 percent ahead of the same time frame in 2006, SBC Executive Committee president and chief executive officer Morris Chapman noted, “This surge in giving through the Cooperative Program can be seen as nothing less than God’s extended blessing upon the work of Southern Baptists to extend the gospel to the world.
“Are you willing to trust God to do something bigger than we are, in and through us, and for the cause of Christ in the convention?” asked Morris Chapman, president and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee. Chapman offered the challenge to Southern Baptists while speaking during an EC plenary meeting Feb. 19 in Nashville.“I think what we are seeing from Southern Baptists is a resurgence of attention to cooperation among us,” Chapman said. “It is too early to tell, and the Cooperative Program is just one indicator of the health of our convention, but an important one.
“We need to see continued focus on cooperation if the convention is to grow spiritually, and I believe that revival among Southern Baptists is essential if we are to see revival in America,” Chapman said.
As of Feb. 28, the year-to-date total of $87,085,551 for Cooperative Program missions is $4,969,398 ahead of the $82,116,153 received at the same point in 2006. For the month, receipts of $19,736,793 were 21.50 percent, or $3,493,131, above the $16,243,662 received in February 2006.
Designated giving of $93,466,830 for the same year-to-date period is 17.22 percent, or $13,732,516, above gifts of $79,734,314 received at this point last year. The $56,430,564 in designated gifts received last month is $15,238,554 above the $41,192,010 received in February 2006, an increase of 36.99 percent.
For the SBC Cooperative Program allocation budget, the year-to-date total of $87,085,551 is 106.66 percent of the $81,645,176 budgeted to support Southern Baptist ministries globally and across North America. The SBC operates on an Oct. 1-Sept. 30 fiscal year.
Bob Rodgers, vice president for Cooperative Program and stewardship with the Executive Committee, said the CP report reflects “SBC churches and state conventions committing themselves afresh to reaching the lost on a global scale.”
“This is evidence of the power of cooperative and sacrificial giving,” Rodgers said. “The Holy Spirit multiplies these gifts to accomplish his purpose on a scale much greater than what we can do individually.”
During the Southern Baptist Convention’s last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, Cooperative Program gifts topped the $200-million mark for the first time, with the 2005-2006 fiscal year’s total of $200,601,536 marking a 2.37 percent increase over the previous fiscal year.
The Cooperative Program is Southern Baptists’ method of supporting missions and ministry efforts of state conventions and the Southern Baptist Convention.