With a record $136.2 million for the 2003 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering,
trustees of the Southern Baptist International Mission Board recently approved
a plan to expand the agencys budget for specific overseas needs.
With a record $136.2 million for the 2003 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering,
trustees of the Southern Baptist International Mission Board recently approved
a plan to expand the agencys budget for specific overseas needs.
The board also clarified their policy on non-Southern Baptists participating
in board projects during their recent meeting.
The 18.4 percent increase in the Lottie Moon offering shows that more Southern
Baptists are understanding the staggering lostness of the world, but they have
only begun to tackle the challenge, trustee Chair Tom Hatley of Rogers, Ark.,
said.
“The success of the Lottie Moon offering last year … is not a laurel
upon which we can rest,” he said. “We still have many hundreds of
people in the pipeline, awaiting their turn for appointment. … If they will
go, we must find a way to send them.”
Responding to the record offering, trustees voted to expand the agency budget
by $3.2 million.
Of that amount, $1.7 million is earmarked for overseas operating expenses,
including the sending of additional new missionaries and board workers.
The other $1.5 million is to be used to bolster efforts to take the gospel
to more than 1.3 billion lost souls in South Asia, where Southern Baptists currently
have only one missionary unit for every 8 million unsaved people.
In other action, trustees clarified their policy on enlisting non-Southern
Baptists to serve in volunteer projects, following concern expressed by some
board members about an increase in those numbers.
The policy now states that only members of Southern Baptist churches can fill
positions on projects that involve church planting, preaching, teaching and
similar functions. Exceptions may be made for members of other evangelical churches
on projects that include activities such as human needs ministry, prayer and
Scripture distribution. However, only members of Southern Baptist churches may
serve as leaders for volunteer teams.
The policy also states that all groups working with Southern Baptist missionaries
are expected to work within the parameters of the Baptist Faith and Message.
During their meeting, trustees also participated in the commissioning of 58
missionaries. That means 5,346 missionaries now serve through the board, including
3,859 long-term career and associate workers.
Finally, in his first report to the board as overseas vice president, Gordon
Fort said multitudes of lost people are waiting for Southern Baptists who are
willing to come tell them how to be found.
“There is a tremendous harvest waiting for us around the world,”
Fort said.
He told how workers in Malawi paste numbered stickers on doorposts to indicate
homes in which they have shared a witness.
In one village, a man with one of the stickers placed on his forehead ran up
to a visiting team of workers.
“He said, Are you Baptists? And they said, Yes.
And he said, No one has come back to my house, and I want to be found.
“There are people around the world today who want to be found,” Fort
said. “The one thing I live for, the passion of my heart, is that the lost
people of this world may come to saving faith in Jesus Christ.” (BP)