« November 30, 2007 | November 30, 2007 | November 30, 2007 »

Pastor's Page

Posted on November 30, 2007 ...

     Charlotte Diggs Moon was born into an affluent family in Virginia in 1840. She was also privileged with intelligence, assertiveness, and the opportunity for higher education. In short, she would have been successful at any avenue in life she chose. But God's call directed Lottie Moon's life on sharing Christ's love with China's lost masses. For 37 years she endured hardship and danger in a land oppressed by famine, disease, and war. Her actions demonstrated that she loved the Chinese more than her own life as she gave her own food to starving neighbors, eventually dying of starvation herself.
     The Southern Baptist international missions offering is named for this early missionary not only because of her devoted service on the mission field but also because she wrote numerous letters home, urging Southern Baptists to greater missions involvement and support. One such letter was penned in 1887 and included these words:
How many there are...who imagine that because Jesus paid it all, they need pay nothing, forgetting that the prime object of their salvation was that they should follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ in bringing back a lost world to God.
     This letter inspired Southern Baptists' first offering for international missions in 1888. It raised $3,315, enough to add three more missionaries to the mission force.
     Last year Southern Baptists collectively gave over $150 million to The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions. A little over one half of the funding needed to facilitate our denomination's international missionary force of over 5,000 career missionaries comes from this special offering.
December is our traditional time in our church for giving to and emphasis upon international missions. Our Mission Committee asked the church to set an ambitious goal of $27,000.00 for our Lottie Moon Offering this year. This amount can be achieved if our giving will reflect the priority that world missions should have upon our hearts. We can quickly achieve this goal if we will each simply resolve to give a gift to the Lottie Moon Offering that exceeds the amount we spend on a gift for any individual on our Christmas list. I'll do this. Will you? Jay

Pastor's P.S. The 2008 proposed operating budget is available for your review. It will be presented for adoption at the December 12 Business Meeting. If you have questions about the proposed budget or items you would like to discuss, the Stewardship Committee welcomes you to join them in the Choir Room (Room 205) on Wednesday night, December 5 between 7:00 and 8:00 p.m.