I received a letter recently regarding the IMB and the 2008 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering (LMCO), which supports the International Missions Board missionaries. The goal for 2008 was $170 million. As you may already know, the total receipts from Southern Baptist churches fell approximately $29 million short of that goal. That represents the single biggest drop from one year to the next in the history of the offering.
As incredible as that shortfall is and as impacting as our economic situation is, the shortfall could be made up by each member of SBC churches giving only about $2. Our missionary personnel, the missionaries that we support, is being reduced by almost 700 personnel. There are 11,626 people groups worldwide and 6,510 unreached people groups and among those 3,431 are unengaged unreached and 2,650 have no known evangelical witness. The harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few. This is not a time to send less.
SSBC has done a tremendous job in giving in the past years. In 2007 our church gave $15,000 to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering and in 2008 we gave $22,422 surpassing our $18,000 goal. Even in our generosity as a church, I hope we might all consider how we to excel even more in generosity, particularly when it comes to supporting missions. The Lottie Moon offering, received in December, supports our missionaries and 100% of the offering goes straight to the field. Make plans now for a generous gift for the cause of Christ. Be generous. Be a worker in the harvest.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
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3 comments:
We have friends that are in the process of going overseas with the IMB, therefore we've been somewhat in tune with the IMB's current funding situation. Because of the funding shortfall, there are several families that will have to wait to go overseas (if they ever will be able to go). The workers are there; the money to send them is not. But at $2 per Southern Baptist, we have no excuse. May the LORD stir our hearts to allocate our money to the things that really matter.
On a side note: Kevin, you should start a movement to revise the cooperative program formula to give more to the IMB...or maybe we could have an interim offering this year to make up the shortfall.
I was just part of a vote by the executive board of the SBTC to send an additional $100,000 grant to the IMB. It is not the solution but it certainly is part of it. The grant was presented to the SBC at the annual convention last week. Thanks for the comment.
We're a family likely to be side-lined because of the shortfall. It's an opportunity to trust the Lord for His timing, but it's certainly discouraging after waiting years to get back to the field and have money be the determining factor. Thanks for being a part of our leadership working toward a solution!
Hope the family is well. We're enjoying our 2 month old son, Luke.
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