Missouri Missions Offering helps us fulfill Acts 1:8
August 3, 2004
Jesus gave us very clear instruction in some of the last words he physically spoke on the earth. To all His followers, he gave this instruction:
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8
The annual Missouri Missions Offering (MMO) gives us a unique opportunity to specifically target the mission work in our very own Judea, called Missouri.
The MMO is the only offering taken every year that specifically and strategically targets ministry activities inside Missouri. Our goal for new church starts is $215,000. This is our future. If we fail here…well, we just can’t!
Every year we lose churches. For example, we have discovered a church that has in it only seven (7) very faithful senior adult widow ladies. There are no men and no pastor. Its future is not bright. I visited another inner city church that once baptized 140 souls per year for over a decade. Today, it has only 12 active attendees. Its future is also tenuous…not impossible, but tenuous. Others simply close the doors. We must not only replace the losses, but add many new churches and train new pastors to impact our state.
If every church in our convention added 1,000 new worshippers next Sunday, we still would not have reached even one-half of our state’s population! We need more churches. Our goal is to see 100 new churches started every year for the next 10 years. The MMO is essential. We cannot reach the church planting goals without it.
As you study forthcoming MMO promotional materials being sent to every MBC church, you will see the largest portions of the MMO designated to Evangelism ($42K), Church Planting ($215K), the Missouri Baptist Children’s Home ($127K) and Collegiate Summer Missionaries ($120K) who serve in our Missouri churches, camps and associations. The priorities of your Missouri Baptist Convention are evangelism (which grows our existing churches and reaches children) and church planting.
In light of the culture war we find ourselves fighting, there is an increased need this year for the services provided by our Christian Life Commission (CLC). We hope to continue to increase their contribution to Baptist life year-by-year as we attempt to be the salt and light that Jesus commanded us to be in Matthew 5:13-16. The need for the CLC’s ministry in the days ahead is only going to grow.
Let me encourage you to invest generously in this offering, just as Suzanna and I have done. The best way to have a God-honoring offering is for each and every person to do something! I believe our gifts will make a huge difference in Missouri for the Kingdom of Christ and throughout eternity.