Effort to reach MMO goal of $800,000 takes flight
JEFFERSON CITY – Missouri Baptists are being asked to give $800,000 for the 2006 Rheubin L. South Missouri Missions Offering (MMO).
A “pure missions offering,” 100 percent of the offering goes toward next year’s church planting, compassion ministries (disaster relief, Missouri Baptist Children’s Home and volunteer chaplain training), evangelism and missions.
David Tolliver, associate executive director for Cooperative Program/biblical stewardship for the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC), said that while the goal for 2006 is substantially higher than in 2005 it should be no problem to reach it.
“It’s a larger goal than we’ve ever had, but it’s a completely attainable goal,” he said. “I say that because last year we gave $675,000 toward a $750,000 goal. But at the same time, we were giving $150,000 to victims of Hurricane Katrina.”
While the aftermath of the hurricane may have diverted some funds from the MMO, it illustrates the generosity of Missouri Baptists and their ability to dig deep.
“My statement to the churches as I go out preaching is that the money is still in the pockets of Missouri Baptists,” Tolliver said. “If they will simply give it, we can fund all these ministries.”
Tolliver also said he would like to increase participation until every Baptist church in the state participates.
“If one-fourth of the churches that didn’t participate last year participated this year, we’d easily reach our goal,” he said.
A snapshot of the 2006 offering’s impact: Helped plant 61 new churches in Missouri last year, including 12 Hispanic churches; Sports Crusaders, a sports evangelism ministry which also receives MMO funds, led 141 camps across the state; Associations received $61,075.02 for missions and ministry; helped purchase Bibles, discipleship materials and the Jesus film for Missouri Baptist teams to distribute in Romania and Turkey; and Missouri Baptist disaster relief units served more than a million meals during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
The Missouri Missions Offering is named for Rheubin L. South, executive director of the MBC from 1975 to his death in 1986. South developed a state missions offering and messengers to the 1987 annual meeting voted to name the offering in his honor.