Lottie Moon is coming for a visit

by T. C. Pinckney                                                                              Vol. VIII, No. 8, September 1995

Southern Baptists are looking forward to their annual visit with Lottie Moon this year with special excitement. In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the SBC's founding, the combined Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong offerings goal this year is 150 million dollars!

This will be a real challenge! The combined Christmas and Easter offering receipts last year were $118,605,986. So to reach $150 million means we have to increase our giving by 26.5 percent. Now 26.5% may seem like a large increase, but let's look at the problem from another perspective. What we are really talking about is souls. Assume that there are about three billion unsaved people in the world. And if Southern Baptists meet the $150 million goal, we will have given the enormous sum of one nickel per unsaved person!

Let me ask you not to think of this as just another program, another faceless campaign. Behind the dollars, behind the campaign are millions, even billions of lost souls who will spend eternity in hell if someone does not sacrifice a little out of the abundance with which God has blessed us so that missionaries can go and tell of Jesus' boundless love and mercy.

Someone could reasonably ask, "Well, aren't we giving enough already? Don't our missionaries in the field have enough money to do the job?" The answers, in brief, are, "No, we are not giving enough." and "Yes, our missionary work is hampered by lack of funds." As one example directly from the field, I want to share with you from two letters from David Crane, ex-pastor of Beulah Baptist Church, Kents Store, Virginia, and now a missionary in southern Kenya with the Maasai people. Regarding the need, David writes:

"I asked everyone who receives our newsletter to join us in praying about the work that needs to be done in the Oloitokitok area. ...there are no Maasai Baptists in that area, and only three small and very weak Baptist churches... When you compare that factor to the spiritual needs that are in the area, you soon come to realize that we as Baptists have a lot of work to do there. Our association [the association of Maasai Baptist churches where David is assigned] agreed during its Annual General Meeting to take up a special offering for this evangelistic work during each Easter season. However, for several years I expect that the total amount received through this offering will be small by American standards, and when compared to the total need.

"Therefore I know that the Maasai churches of our association will need outside help to do the necessary work of evangelism in Oloitokitok. They will need help doing the 10-14 day-long evangelistic trips into the area and then following up with new church starts. The trips will involve transport costs and money for food. The new church starts will require money to help pay for the expenses of those pastors of our association who agree to take on a new church in Oloitokitok. Several (or all) of these pastors will be traveling to the Oloitokitok area from the central or northern parts of our association.

For most, perhaps all, the new church will be their second one. Eventually we will also need to help these new church starts with a roof for a place of worship, as well as with Sunday School helps and other materials and programs."

In another letter David spoke of the limitations imposed by the shortage of funds.

"As an [SBC] Executive Committee member, you may be interested to know that Baptist missions all over the world are indeed feeling a money crunch. ... We have been told to limit our requests for new missionaries to a certain number, since if we were to go above that number, our mission would not be able to support them. Also, when trying to decide which areas will receive that limited number of missionaries, some unreached people groups in Kenya will not receive a Baptist missionary because of the costs of placing a family in such isolated areas. ... T. C., if Southern Baptists don't start giving to the point of real sacrifice, I'm afraid our Foreign Mission Board will begin to lag behind in the effort to reach unreached people."

Well, there is the goal ($100 million for Lottie Moon this year), the challenge (millions upon millions of precious people who have never heard the name of Jesus), and the present limitations (our missionaries unable to reach all they wish because of lack of money). If our missionaries can make the tremendous sacrifices they do (David mentions he has been robbed four times since arriving in Kenya), surely we can do more than give a pittance for the Lottie Moon (and later Annie Armstrong) offering.

There are approximately 15 million Southern Baptists on roll. If we contribute only $10 per church member, that would make $150 million, but don't forget that is $10 for every member, not just the resident members. [Now there's an incentive for purging your roll of dead wood!]