Thursday, June 5, 2014

How does a record Lottie Moon offering sound?

Sounds pretty good to me.

The 2013 total for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions has been released:

$154,057,852

That is the most ever exceeding last year's offering by about $4.8 million, a 3.2% increase. Forget the goal of $175 million that has been the same since 2009. It is a meaningless figure.

Baptist Press has the story: Lottie Moon offering hits record $154 million

In a time when many Southern Baptists would welcome a flat result for the Cooperative Program, baptisms, churches or other stats, it is great to see that churches and individuals are placing a higher priority on the direct offering for international missions and increasing the offering. The LMCO has gone up each of the last four years and not many SBC statistics will be able to demonstrate that.

Most churches and individuals can do better. All you have to do is ask. There's no clutter of percentages, allocation formulas, diversions, shared expenses, and the like with the Lottie Moon offering. All of it goes to the International Mission Board. It is much easier to convince folks to give here than to the market basket of legacy institutions, ministries that make up the Cooperative Program. You will notice that when the CP is promoted international missions figures prominently even though the IMB receives only about 30 cents on the CP dollar. Missions is the money word for SBC fundraising. CP promoters know it, and use it.

But I digress.

I'm extremely pleased with the LM increase. As a pastor, even after the economic meltdown I always asked the church to do just a little more on the Lottie Moon offering. They always did.

God is good. Jesus is wonderful. Bless His holy name.



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