Every year Southern Baptist Churches across America begin collecting an offering titled the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering. Named after a woman, Annie Armstrong, who transformed the way Southern Baptist do missions, this offering specifically supports missionaries across North America. One hundred percent of these funds are given directly to the missionaries and their work. This long-standing offering began in 1895 with approximately $5,000. However, in 2013 the offering collected was 57 million dollars. God has used the faithfulness of Southern Baptist for the last 119 years to do an incalculable work of missions through this offering.
We are praying that he will continue to do so in 2015. However, dangers exist in holding an offering such as this. It can be a temptation for Southern Baptist to merely put some money in an offering plate to support missions in general. Mrs. Annie would have been horrified by the thought of this. I want to issue A CALL TO MORE. Do more than drop a few dollars in a plate, commit in your heart to make this a season of care for missions. This can be accomplished in four specific ways.
Pray
Each day this week we will be posting specific missions and missionaries you can be praying for throughout your day. Take time to stop and pray for them with your family, in your small groups, and on your own. Don’t allow this to be a momentary thought rather devote your heart to lifting up the needs of these ministries and ministers to our Great God.
Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul. I cried to him with my mouth, and high praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer. (Psalm 66:16-19 ESV)
Encourage
Take time to read about each missionary or ministry and send them a note. We will include in each post a link to their Facebook page and/or an e-mail for you to send them some words of encouragement. In one year Annie Armstrong wrote 18,000 notes to encourage others to give, honor her legacy by sending messages to each of these missionaries. However, don’t allow this to be a one week event. If you use Facebook, follow them so you can see how God is using them and continue encourage them in the future. Missionary work can seem fruitless at times, because the fruit is not always immediate. Encouraging words can often bolster their perseverance in this difficult task.
Give
Don’t let this title scare you. Some may be saying, “Here we go again. They just want our money.” Let me exhort you with these words; Southern Baptist Missionaries are not rich, nor will they get rich doing this work. Many sacrifice nearness to relatives, good retirement plans, and benefits in order to barely get by, just so they can be more intentional about sharing the gospel and making disciples. This is not a task which bring fame and fortune, however it does exult the name of Christ among the nations. However, we must be realistic and see that this takes money. It takes money to have a place to live, food to eat, and a place to meet. It takes money to have the necessary resources for the work of ministry. So, give sacrificially in the same way they have sacrificially given their lives to this work. This can be accomplished through the offering time at your local church or at this link. Our church has a goal of $3,000, please consider joining us in this goal.
Go
I find it no coincidence that Christ encourages his disciples to pray for the missionaries (Luke 10:2) and then he sends them(Luke 10:3). So, I ask you to pray for more missionaries and I encourage you to consider how you might go on mission. Whether that be intentionality in your current community, taking short-term mission trips, or dedicating your life to being a missionary. This Sunday we will continue our sermon series through Gospel Mission, so join us in finding how you can be a part.
And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. (Luke 10:2-3 ESV)
The following video assists us in seeing how we can continue in the legacy of Annie Armstrong.
