SOME CHURCHES GUILTY OF FALSE PROMOTION OF LOTTIE MOON AND ANNIE ARMSTRONG OFFERINGS

by Phyllis Amis Randall                                                                                                         Vol. IX, No. 3, March 1996

[Phyllis Randall (Mrs. Clifford W.) serves on the SBC Foreign Mission Board of trustees and is chairman of the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia Missions Committee.]

The Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong offerings for foreign and home missions are under attack, sometimes unknowingly, in some churches across Virginia and the nation. Often the perpetrators use the reasoning that it is all the same, since all the money goes to missions, as they tell church members that they can designate their gifts to go to the Foreign/Home Mission Board of the SBC or to another mission group of other Baptists when theme offerings are taken.

Both the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for Foreign Missions and the Annie Armstrong Offering for Home Missions goals are established on priority needs determined by their respective Boards, and gifts may be specified for either the Lottie Moon or Annie Armstrong offering but for NO OTHER mission or vision project. These are long-established policies of the offerings and the Boards. For funds to be given in the name of the Southern Baptist sanctioned offerings and then designated to another group is dishonest, unethical, and immoral. Further, for a church's goal to be "met" and part of the funds to be sent to another group's offering is false promotion, false reporting, and robbing our Southern Baptist missionaries of their special offering for needs on the field.

Of course a church has the right to donate to any cause they wish, but the integrity of a church should dictate that if they desire to take an offering for another mission, that the offering ought to be labeled as such and not taken in conjunction with NOR UNDER THE GUISE OF the Lottie Moon or Annie Armstrong offerings or goals however stated.

Will a man rob God? Yes, not only in tithes but in offerings taken under the name of another offering. If it is called Lottie, it should go to Lottie. If it is for Annie, then all of it should be Annie's! Be vigilant about what your church is led into. These offerings are the lifeline for our home and foreign missionaries and provide almost half of their funds for each year. As Southern Baptists, we must maximize our giving to these offerings and not let the funds be diverted nor designated away from the priority needs of our Southern Baptist missionaries.