On Feb. 24 the First Baptist Missions Council took steps to insure that we would be positioned to do missions in the 21st century. These are indeed exciting times for the Christian community and for the missionary movement around the world. In 2009 in one province of China alone, 20,000 people accepted Christ as Lord and Savior and over 500 new churches were planted. God’s Spirit is moving mightily in Africa, Asia, South America and Eastern Europe. In the last decade we have seen over 2 million baptisms and 80,000 new church starts. Itis indeed an exciting time to be a followerof Jesus.
Yet, there is still much to be done. Eighty-four percent of the population of our nine northeastern states does not know Christ as Lord and Savior. You can see there is still much work to been done even in the continental U.S. The world is changing rapidly. Mission sending agencies are reorganizing to meet the needs of an ever-changing world. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has already redirected their focus to the world’s poor and forgotten. The SouthernBaptist Convention is currently rethinking how we do missions through the Great Commission Resurgence.
Your Missions Council wants you to know that they are aware of what is happening and communicate to you the steps they have taken to insure that we are in step with God’s Spirit. Beginning this Spring, we are replacing seasonal mission offerings with a yearround approach to missions giving through a church-wide combined missions “Global Impact Offering”.
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Why change and why change now?
(1)To elevate mission awareness and increase mission giving through a year round emphasis
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(2)To insure that we continue to focus on mission causes that the First Baptist family values no matter what organizational changes may take place within convention entities (i.e., Lottie Moon, Annie Armstrong, CBF Global Missions, Dixie Jackson, Arkansas Baptist Children’s Home, Disaster Relief, World Hunger, etc)
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(3)To give First Baptist the flexibility to respond to new mission opportunities as they occur.
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(4)To address the ever-changing make-up of the First Baptist family that is unfamiliar with a Baptist background.
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(5)To alleviate the growing perceptions of competition among seasonal mission offerings.
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(6)To allow the FBC family to give to mission causes at times that better match their own budget requirements rather than designated seasons.
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(7)To build towards and emphasize our GlobalImpact Conference.
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How do you give toward the combined Global Impact Offering?
In the future specialized offering envelopes will be provided to church members. Until that time we are asking you to utilize the “Other Designated” item on your church offering envelopes.
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Can I continue to designate my offering for a particular mission cause? Yes, of course! First Baptist will always honor a church members desire to give to a specific offering. The mission council in setting our Global Impact goal has honored historic offering percentages and has even built in increases so that we hope our members will not feel the need to designate in the future.
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Our Global Impact Goal for 2011 is $63,000. Weencourage you to join us in our endeavor to reach our world through this new approach to giving andprayerfully consider what God would have you give.
