MMO giving finishes about $80,000 short of $750,000 goal for 2005
By Staff
January 24, 2006
JEFFERSON CITY – Total receipts for the 2005 Rheubin L. South Missouri Missions Offering (MMO) were $671,808, which fell short of the $750,000 goal.
“When (Hurricane) Katrina hit, and we began to collect money for Katrina, I immediately thought to myself that this is going to affect MMO,” said Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) Associate Executive Director David Tolliver. “Even in the church where I was interim pastor, we gave less than the goal that we’d set, but when you count what we gave toward Katrina, we gave substantially more. Missouri Baptists have given more to missions this fall than before, but less than our goal.”
MMO giving for 2004 was $723,687. Money was shifted from reserves to build that total to $750,000. The decision was made this year not to do that, according to MBC Executive Director David Clippard. Most of the MMO money that was raised will go toward missions, church planting, compassion ministries and evangelism in the 2006 MBC budget.
“It’s only going to drop each of the line items about 10 percent, so it’s not one of those earth-shaking things that are going to really hurt ministry,” he said. “You need reserves where there are catastrophic events, and this is not a huge one.”
The MMO goal for 2006 is $800,000.
“I believe the offering will be right back in line this year, assuming there are no hurricanes or disasters,” Tolliver said. “It’s not indicative of Missouri Baptists not being willing to give. In fact, they’ve been very willing to give.”