Southern Baptists set another record in giving to their 2002
Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, which closed the books at the end of May.
However, the offering still fell short of the $125 million
goal, complicating a Southern Baptist International Mission Board financial
situation already stressed by declining investment income and a rapidly-increasing
missionary force.
Southern Baptists set another record in giving to their 2002
Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, which closed the books at the end of May.
However, the offering still fell short of the $125 million
goal, complicating a Southern Baptist International Mission Board financial
situation already stressed by declining investment income and a rapidly-increasing
missionary force.
As a result, board leaders announced their intention to move
ahead with plans to restrict the number of new missionaries appointed to overseas
service.
Overall, Southern Baptist churches gave $115,015,216 to the
annual offering, a record high and an increase of $1.3 million (1.2 percent)
from the previous year.
“We are grateful Southern Baptists have a heart for missions
and continue to give so faithfully and generously to the Cooperative Program
and Lottie Moon Christmas Offering,” International Mission Board President
Jerry Rankin said. “Southern Baptists continue to set new records for giving.
…
“Because of the amazing growth in missionary personnel
and unprecedented new opportunities all over the world, however, all of the
$125 million goal was included in the operating budget. As a result, we are
having to restrict the approval of available missionary candidates for the first
time since the Depression years of the 1930s.”
In each of the past two years, the mission board has sent out
more than 1,000 new missionaries – a sharp upturn in an already extraordinary
growth curve, Rankin said.
“It took 14 years … to grow from 3,000 to 4,000 missionaries
under appointment but only seven years to grow from 4,000 to 5,000,” he
said. “The past two years have taken the board halfway to another thousand
with 5,545 fully-supported workers serving among 1,497 people groups.”
But while the missionary count grew 8.7 percent from 2000 to
2002, combined income from the Cooperative Program and Lottie Moon offering
rose only 1.5 percent.
Those two channels of funding provide the bulk of International
Missionary Board monies. Every dollar given to the offering is used for missionaries
and their ministries. None is spent on stateside administration or promotion.
The offering is named after a 19th-century missionary who gave her life taking
the gospel to people in China.
However, failure to reach offering goals has hurt the board
in recent years.
In addition to budget cuts announced in May, board leaders
say they now will limit the number of new workers being sent overseas by deferring
appointments and putting candidates on hold.
“About 100 candidates who hoped to begin their missionary
careers this year have been deferred to next year or put on hold,” board
Vice President Lloyd Atkinson said. “That is a tremendous disappointment
to them personally, as well as to missionaries on the field who hoped these
urgent strategic needs would be filled.
“We had anticipated sending another record number of long-term
missionaries this year, but that number is being limited to about 400,”
he said. “In 2004, we will approve only 300 new long-term workers. This
compares to 412 workers appointed in 2002 and 387 in 2001.”
The board also will restrict the number of short-term missionaries
being sent, Atkinson said. “The number of short-term workers being approved
will be limited to 400,” he said. “This means that in 2004, Southern
Baptists will send out less than 60 percent of the number of new missionaries
sent out in 2002, unless Southern Baptists respond with the needed support.”
In 2002, the board reported a net increase of 239 missionaries.
That exceeded the increase of 150 anticipated in the budget. And the surge came
as the stock market turned downward.
“This is not the first time in IMB history that growth
has exceeded budget projections, but in the past, we have been able to draw
from unrestricted reserve funds to send and support the missionaries, …”
board Vice President David Steverson said. “However, the performance of
the stock market over the last two years has resulted in investment income being
seriously diminished.”
Those facts have necessitated other action. Thus, in addition
to restricting the number of new missionaries being sent out, the board has
moved to reduce overseas work budgets by $2 million and the home office support
budget by $4 million.
However, it would not take an economic miracle to solve the
dilemma, board Vice President Larry Cox explained.
“Last year, Southern Baptist churches reported a total
of $9.4 billion received in their offering plates for all causes,” Cox
said. “Less than 2.5 percent was channeled through (the Cooperative Program)
and (the Lottie Moon offering) to reach 95 percent of the worlds population
overseas. …
“God has blessed Southern Baptists in numbers and resources.
… It would be sad if we failed to find ways to channel more of the financial
resources with which God has prospered us to reach a lost world.”
Senior Vice President Avery Willis said it is a painful irony
that a budget shortfall will restrict missionary appointments at a time when
there is great openness to the gospel around the world.
“The tragedy is that we now have unprecedented opportunities
around the world to share the gospel and fulfill the Great Commission mandate
of our Lord, …” Willis said. “God is breaking down barriers of access,
and unreached people groups are being systematically engaged with the gospel
for the first time.”
Meanwhile, International Mission Board leaders are looking
for what God wants to accomplish through the current budget challenge, Rankin
said.
“Lack of funding will help us to refine overseas strategies
and methodologies, to practice better stewardship and to give more emphasis
to ensuring that the missionaries appointed are going to the most strategic
assignments,” he explained.
“We are also praying that this will be a wakeup call to
Southern Baptists to give a higher priority to our missions task and impact
a world beyond our local budgeted programs,” he said. “This should
challenge us to evaluate our lifestyles and give more sacrificially to things
of eternal value, to rethink our church budgets and allocate more to Cooperative
Program missions.”
Many churches are making supplemental gifts to the Lottie Moon
offering, Rankin said. Others are setting more challenging giving goals for
the upcoming year.
The Lottie Moon goal for 2003 is $133 million – but board
leaders are challenging Southern Baptists to give $150 million.
“We need to realize that one day we will be accountable,” Rankin
said. “I hope Southern Baptists dont have to stand before God and
try to explain why so many did so little when he had blessed us with so much.”
(BP)
Louisiana Baptists were contributors to the record-breaking
total for the national 2002 Lottie Moon Offering for International Missions.
But they failed to set a state record for giving through
the annual offering, which is collected on a June 1-to-May 31 basis.
State gifts for the recently-completed offering year totaled
$3,240,099.28. The final total marks the seventh consecutive year that state
Lottie Moon offering receipts have closed at more than $3 million.
However, they still fell about $90,000 (2.7 percent) behind
last years final tally. The most-recent total marks the lowest state
offering since 1998.
Still, Louisiana Baptists continue an impressive record of
giving through the annual offering for international missions.
In the last 10 years, Louisiana Baptists have given a total
of $30,911,155 through the annual missions offering.
During the last 20 years, they have given a total of $55,889,051,
which represents an average of almost $2.8 million every year.
Since 1981, offering totals have never dropped below $2 million a year. They
reached a high of $3,330,594.49 in 1999.