It was about a year ago that us Southern Baptists learned a somber truth: our International Mission Board had been deficit spending for several years and selling property to try to make ends meet to support the almost 5000 foreign missionaries on the field. This was not sustainable and to break even the IMB would need to find a way to bring hundreds of missionaries back home.
The shock rippled throughout our churches and challenges were issued. If we did not find a way to increase support to our missions organizations then we were going to lose many seasoned frontline troops in the war to push back spiritual darkness. Here, as one small voice among many, I published an article called About Those Red Cups. I wrote it during a time that a few loud people were making a big deal about Starbucks using plain red cups at Christmas time, as if such were a great offense to the gospel (it’s not).
In my article, I said that if 8 million Southern Baptists would commit to give just an additional $5 each (or about the price of a cup of coffee or two in a fancy red cup) to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, then we could instantly increase the IMB’s funds by $40 million, covering and surpassing the projected $25 million shortfall.
Many others urged similar things. In 2015, Lottie Moon brought in a record high $165.8 million, surpassing the old record by almost $10 million dollars. That is a thing to be praised, but it can only begin to lay the foundation for the future. The year was already too far gone. About 1000 of our missionaries had to come home. And if our uptick in giving was only for a year then it still leaves a precarious road ahead for our foreign mission teams.
As Southern Baptists we claim to be all about the gospel and missions. We need to put feet and dollars to our words.
As followers of Jesus we are each tasked to be disciple-making disciples where we live, work, and play. God has placed each of us in the here and now to make his glory known through the message of Jesus. For most of us, our personal mission field will rarely extend beyond our communities.
But then there are those who he leads to uproot from their homes and go to different cities, states, and countries to take his gospel and make disciples. It is the responsibility of those of us who stay behind to do all we can to support through prayer and giving those who go to the far reaches of the globe.
Paul lauded the Philippians church for their partnership with him in the gospel. Amazingly, he was able to say, “You have given me enough. I am well provided for; you don’t have to keep sending me money for this trip” (Philippians 4:10-20). What a glorious thing that would be if we could have missionaries taking the gospel to every unreached people group throughout our world and the word come back to us, “Thank you for your gift! We are well supplied.” This can only happen if missions giving is in our blood.
We can talk the talk all we want, but do we live “worthy of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27), which would include supporting those who spread the gospel far and wide? Are we willing to make sacrifices as individuals, families, and churches to see more and more people come to know Jesus?
Of course, the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering are just two of many ways we can support foreign missions work, but they are the two ways, along with the North American Mission Board, we have banded together as Southern Baptists for years to support the spread of the gospel throughout the world.
At the moment, we have a little more than five months before we celebrate Christmas. The 2016 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering campaign will be here before we know it. So I want to issue to you a challenge to give more to missions in three ways: First, as an individual commit to give an additional $5 to the LMCO this year. This is the same “red cup” challenge from last year. Forgo a cup of coffee or two. Forgo a soda or two. If you were planning on giving $0 to Lottie Moon, then give $5. If you were planning on giving $5, then make it $10; $100 then $105; $1000 then $1005. The math still works: 6 to 8 million Southern Baptists each giving an additional $5 adds up to $30-$40 million additional dollars for the IMB.
Second, as a family eat at home one night that you planned on eating out and give that as an additional offering to the LMCO this year. If you go to Pizza Hut and buy two large pizzas, it will run you at least $20-$30, not even counting the drinks. If you go to WalMart for a loaf of bread, jar of peanut butter, and bag of apples, you can feed the same number of people for under $10. I like eating out just as much as the next guy. I’m not asking you to change your lifestyle here (unless you feel convicted about that), but to change just one meal. Take that $10+ you save and give it as a little extra gift to Lottie Moon.
Third, as a church commit to give an extra 1% to the Cooperative Program. The 1% Challenge has been around for a while. When it was first issued, we raised our CP giving and associational giving by 1% each. Many churches have done that; some churches have given more. If that’s your church, then great. If not, then commit as a church to examine your finances and give an extra 1% as able.
Each of these challenges are small sacrifices in and of themselves, but thousands of churches and millions of people together making small sacrifices add up to large gains. That is why we cooperate as a convention of churches—we can do more together than we can do apart. However you choose to respond, let us band together and show that missions and the gospel is what we are about in both our going and giving, and let our record numbers of 2015 be eclipsed in 2016 and beyond.
This is the kind of practical solution I wish we had implemented starting six years ago in order to avoid the devastating downsizing.
It’s still good advice today, but man, we might have saved 20% of our missionary force. I grieve that we did not recognize and address the problem more clearly and directly sooner.
True. If I understand right how everything went down, the problem wasn’t hidden but it wasn’t advertised either. If you’re in one room of the house, you might not know there is trouble until someone in another room yells, “Fire.” Last year was basically that yell. We should have moved the candle back from teetering on the cabinet edge before it fell, but we didn’t. So instead we have to acknowledge the fact of the problem and move forward with solutions. We weren’t proactive then so we have to be reactive now; but maybe, just maybe, we can turn our… Read more »
I join you in working towards a permanently elevated LMCO on the $165+ range but I predict the offering will settle back to $155 now that the crisis is past. Looks like CP will show a very slight increase for the fiscal year.
Not letting the downsized figures from the crisis past become the new norm is exactly why we need to keep missions giving front and center.
In 2015 our church established what we call a 2016 Challenge Budget to encourage our church to give more to Lottie Moon, NAMB and our local association. Any money given that exceeds our regular budget will go to these three mission agencies. We have struggled in giving to NAMB with our Easter Offering and wanted to try to double our IMB offering. All money given over our regular budget will be allocated in this way: 60 % to IMB, 30 % to NAMB, and 10 % to Local Association. We are trying to reach a goal of $100,000 to IMB… Read more »
Jerry, that’s awesome! Thanks for the share.
That’s a great plan and stellar results. Thank God for pastors like you and churches like yours.
Great, positive, practical article. Our church gives a healthy gift (for us) to the LM offering, and we have always given a healthy percentage of our gifts directly to the Executive Committee, rather than through the state convention, so we have bigger impact on the amount of money that gets to missions. I know that is not the point of this article, so I am not advocating that other churches who given in other ways do that. It’s just the way we have been giving since our founding 24 years ago.
To follow, one must be properly led. Jesus Christ is the highest proof of that. I suggest this. EACH PERSON, from the lowest paid to the highest paid (probably Dr. Frank Page), who serves the SBC as a staff member or as an SBC church staff member or who serves a state convention, contribute ONE DAY’S SALARY to missions. However, if the offerings are given to Lottie Moon, only some 20¢ of each dollar will actually make it to the mission field. That’s 80% off the top by the SBC “business.” That is pilfering of the worst sort. I give… Read more »
Cheap shot. Give as you feel led. I doubt God leads you to inform others what to give.
As an IMB M on the field I am so encouraged to hear of people taking up the mantle to continue raising support for your IMB missionaries. Thank you!!! I would also encourage all of you to find ways to educate our Southern Baptist churches about the IMB, the other agencies of the SBC, Cooperative Program, and Lottie Moon. Every year we are flooded with volunteers in the summer for camps and various mission trips. It is startling how many volunteers don’t know why we thank them for giving. I honestly would estimate that 75% of the volunteers that we… Read more »
…and thank you! I never understood why any SBC pastor wouldn’t take opportunities to explain the CP and mission offerings to his own church.