SBCV Annie Armstrong Missions Offering Goal

                                                                                                                                                                          Vol. X, No. 3, March 1997

            Each spring Southern Baptists take the Annie Armstrong Home Missions Offering, and in recent years have been setting new records. For example, the 1996 Annie Armstrong Offering received a record $39,508,440. Based upon the many needs for spreading the gospel in the United States, our national 1997 goal is $50,000,000. The goal for SBCV churches’ contributions to the offering is $250,000.

            This year the Southern Baptist theme for the offering is “Start Something New,” a theme especially meaningful to those of us in our new state convention, the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia. Church planting is the SBCV’s highest missions priority. To start to plant the new churches, the SBCV Missions Committee is challenging 100 of our churches to participate in church planting here in Virginia. Will your church be one? (See “Start Something New” and “why Should Churches Start New Churches?” in this Banner.)

            There are four important phases to succeed in the twin goals of raising the money and planting the churches:

1. Get Informed. The January/February issue of Missions USA and current Home Mission Board mailings to pastors and church mission leaders have excellent information. Also, you can call the Home Mission Board prayer hot line, 800-554-PRAY, for current missionary prayer needs.

2. Pray. Pray specifically and intentionally, not just “for the missionaries.” God says, “Ye have not because ye ask not.” Specific requests give Him opportunities to demonstrate His love and power more clearly.

3. Give. What are worthy goals for you personally and for your church corporately? To answer that question we need to squarely face the matter of priorities. Are we more interested in time or eternity? In saving souls or showering “things” on ourselves and our family members? A suggestion: This year give as much to Jesus to use through the Annie Armstrong Offering as the total your family will spend on all birthday gifts throughout the year. That would still not put Jesus first, but at least it would bring Him up even with temporal birthdays.

4. Start Something New. Begin now to ask God to show you where you and your church should start something new to win more souls to Christ. And then follow up with action.