Baptist & Reflector

Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835

LOTTIE MOON CHRISTMAS OFFERING HITS CUMULATIVE $5 BILLION

By Myriah Snyder
IMB senior writer/editor

International Mission Board leaders are celebrating a monumental milestone in Southern Baptist life: On March 31, 2021, the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering® surpassed $5 billion total gifts since collection to send missionaries to China began in 1888. 

The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering is an annual offering collected by believers around the world to support international missions. The offering is unique because 100 percent of the gifts are used to provide for missionaries who are spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth. 

“I praise God for this significant milestone in giving through the Lottie offering as it indicates that the love of Southern Baptists for the lost has not waned, nor has their commitment to sending and supporting missionaries through the IMB,” said Paul Chitwood, president of the International Mission Board.  [Read more…]

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IMB NEHEMIAH TEAMS LAUNCH GAP YEAR PROGRAM

Baptist Press

RICHMOND — The International Mission Board’s Nehemiah Teams program is providing opportunities for students to do something eternal with their “gap year.”

More and more students are choosing to take a year to pursue other interests – travel, experiencing new cultures, gaining life experience, volunteering – before starting college.

Nehemiah Teams offers summer missions opportunities for students to serve among unreached people groups, and this fall a new initiative called NT365, an IMB gap year, will be launched for high school and college graduates ages 18-23.

NT365 is designed to help students discover God’s purpose for their lives and discern their role in fulfilling the Great Commission. 

Jess and Wendy Jennings founded Nehemiah Teams in 2004 while they were living in Southeast Asia. The Jenningses are now the student strategists for the Southeast Asian peoples region. [Read more…]

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‘BIBLICAL DIVERSITY DISCUSSION AT IMB WILL CONTINUE,’ CHITWOOD SAYS

By Catherine Finch
Baptist Press

Adeola Adelere (right) and Mary Ruth Davis served as journeymen in Uganda. Adelere, from Nigeria, now serves as an IMB student mobilizer.

RICHMOND – As part of its February emphasis on racial diversity in missions, the International Mission Board hosted a panel discussion called “The Future of Missions: Why Biblical Diversity Matters” Feb. 25.

The conversation, which was streamed on Facebook and through the IMB: Advance the Kingdom app, will be ongoing, as it is vital to IMB’s vision, IMB President Paul Chitwood said.

“The diversity discussion at the IMB will continue because the Word of God is clear. We need churches who reflect the people of this world,” Chitwood said. “These are not singular discussions. We are making a long-term commitment to support a more racially diverse missions force around the world.”

The event opened with testimonies from IMB missionaries and IMB student mobilizer, Adeola Adelere, who was born in Nigeria and grew up in South Carolina. [Read more…]

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IMB APPOINTS 30 MISSIONARIES

Seth Polk (left), trustee chairman, joined the virtual IMB board of trustee meeting from West Virginia. IMB President Paul Chitwood participated from IMB’s studio in the Richmond home office.
-IMB photo

RICHMOND — International Mission Board trustees unanimously approved the appointment of 30 full-time, fully funded missionary personnel during their Feb. 3-4 meeting, and trustees applauded a report that cumulative international mission offerings have nearly reached a historic $5 billion.

The new missionaries will be sent to eight of IMB’s nine global affinities. A recent Sending Celebration recognized the 30 new appointees, plus two missionaries previously appointed, and one sent in partnership with the Canadian National Baptist Convention. Both the Sending Celebration and trustee meetings  were held virtually due to COVID-19 safety considerations. [Read more…]

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PERSPECTIVE ON THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org

Messengers from across the Southern Baptist Convention will travel to Music City in June (COVID-permitting) for their annual meeting to be held at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center.

The last time the SBC annual meeting was held in Nashville in 2005 , it drew 11,641 messengers. That number likely will go unchallenged in 2021, primarily because a large number of people probably will be hesitant to travel due to uncertainties about COVID-19.

Still, with a large number of Southern Baptists who live within a six-hour drive to Nashville, attendance could be better than expected. A number of Tennessee Baptists will be involved as volunteers at the annual meeting. We will have information in an upcoming issue about Crossover Nashville which takes place on June 13. So, with the SBC looming close, my thoughts have been more on the SBC than normal. [Read more…]

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AFRICAN AMERICAN MISSIONARIES HONORED BY IMB

IMB staff

IMB missionary Troy Lewis plays with children at Streams of Living Waters School in Lusaka, Zambia. — IMB photo

RICHMOND — The International Mission Board is celebrating the ongoing and indelible legacy of African Americans who have served and are serving on the mission field. 

IMB President Paul Chitwood says as the organization reflects on its history, Southern Baptists must be quick to confess the organization began with roots in slavery.

“Only God’s redeeming love and the reconciling power of the Gospel could result not only in repentance from that but in a convention of churches today, that is among the most diverse in the world and whose membership includes thousands of African American churches, as well as many other ethnicities,” Chitwood said.

“That diversity from such a regretful beginning is not only humbling, but it causes us to celebrate what God is doing through Southern Baptists today with even more joy to think that He would use us.” [Read more…]

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A SIMPLE FORMULA FOR REACHING LOTTIE MOON GOAL

By Paul Chitwood
President, International Mission Board

The 2020 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering goal is $175 million. That number is significant because 2020 marks the 175th anniversary of Southern Baptists sending workers to the nations. 

The annual offering makes up almost 60 percent of the International Mission Board’s revenue and helps to support 3,535 missionaries and their families. Going back to 1888, the year Woman’s Missionary Union launched the offering, Southern Baptists have given over $4.7 billion through the offering. 

Simply put, our company cannot exist without the Lottie Moon offering and this year’s offering goal is a God-sized goal. We’ve never had a $175 million dollar offering goal and never had a $175 million offering. Last year’s offering, the third largest in history, was $157 million. The largest Lottie Moon offering ever was $165,798,000. That falls almost $10 million short of this year’s goal of $175 million. [Read more…]

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IMB MISSIONARIES AND STAFF GIVE MORE THAN $800,000 TO LMCO

By Ann Lovell
IMB internal communications director 

IMB missionaries and staff pledged $802,700 to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering through an internal campaign that began Sept. 23 and ended Nov. 30. The campaign, which allowed missionaries and U.S.-based staff to make their pledges confidentially, indicates their high level of commitment to the Revelation 7:9 vision and sets an example for Southern Baptists, said IMB President Paul Chitwood.

“Our IMB missionaries around the world and our stateside support staff wanted to lead by example as we asked Southern Baptists to give more generously than ever before to get the gospel to the nations. And I’m proud to say that is happening!” Chitwood said.  [Read more…]

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IMB MISSIONARIES AND STAFF GIVE MORE THAN $800,000 TO LMCO

By Ann Lovell
IMB internal communications director

IMB missionaries and staff pledged $802,700 to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering through an internal campaign that began Sept. 23 and ended Nov. 30. The campaign, which allowed missionaries and U.S.-based staff to make their pledges confidentially, indicates their high level of commitment to the Revelation 7:9 vision and sets an example for Southern Baptists, said IMB President Paul Chitwood.

“Our IMB missionaries around the world and our stateside support staff wanted to lead by example as we asked Southern Baptists to give more generously than ever before to get the gospel to the nations. And I’m proud to say that is happening!” Chitwood said. [Read more…]

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TAKING THE GOSPEL’S HOPE TO ITALY

Editor’s Note: Charlie and Shannon Worthy are the featured missionaries on Day 6 (Dec. 4) of the Week of Prayer for International Missions (Nov. 29-Dec. 6). The Worthys have strong ties to Tennessee with family in both West and Middle Tennessee. Charlie Worthy is a graduate of Union University in Jackson. They worked closely with Tennessee Baptists during a partnership with IMB personnel from 2010-2017. Two of their four children are attending a Tennessee Baptist university this fall — Micah at Carson-Newman in Jefferson City and Emma at Union in Jackson. They are currently on stateside assignment and will be living in the Woman’s Missionary Union missions house on the property of the Missions Mobilization Center in Mount Juliet until  next summer when they return to the field.

IMB News Office

Shannon Worthy tells the Easter story to a group of classmates of Ben and Alessia Worthy. The Worthys are IMB missionaries in Italy.

MOUNT JULIET — The Worthy family recognizes the importance of developing relationships in the Italian culture. For more than 17 years, Tennesseans Charlie and Shannon Worthy have invested their lives and ministry in Italy as IMB missionaries.

They describe the spiritual climate of Italy as ambivalent towards religion. Italians are warm, loving and open people; however, most don’t know they need Jesus as Savior. Evangelical Christians in Italy number roughly 1 percent, and most Italians are nominal Catholics at best. [Read more…]

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