Candy Corn or Bread of Life

Disclaimer: This post is written primarily to my Southern Baptist friends. But, the rest of you are more than welcome to read on.

The other day, we were having a conversation with some colleagues of ours and we began talking about the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, which will be collected in December. Now, this offering is collected each year in SBC churches across the country. It’s purpose is to fund international missions around the world. 100% of the money goes directly to overseas missions work. It’s the primary funding of our international missions program. Without it, we couldn’t go, our friends couldn’t go, and the millions of Unreached, Unengaged People Groups that we’re trying to reach would not have someone strategically working to bring the gospel into the world’s darkest and most difficult places. Here’s a link that tells a little bit about some of the things the offering supports.

The reality is, with the economy struggling, Lottie Moon has struggled too. If you truly believe Matthew 28:19-20 is a command, then that’s a serious problem. I firmly believe that our work is not complete until EVERY tongue, EVERY tribe, and EVERY nation have heard. Which means, our task is not finished. People who have the gospel must go to places where there is no gospel witness. According to the research of Southern Baptists, that’s nearly 3,600 people groups. That’s kinda, sorta, unacceptable.

Why am I telling you this? Because you have the opportunity to be a part of changing that statistic. One of those ways is by giving faithfully to Lottie Moon this Christmas. I heard somewhere, that in 2009, the average Southern Baptist Attender gave $24 and some change to Lottie Moon. And I also read that in 2010, the average American spent $66.28 on Halloween supplies. WOW! How about this? How about if every Southern Baptist chose to cut their Halloween budget in half and give it to Lottie Moon instead? According to my calculations, that would more than double this year’s Lottie Moon offering.

Then, the folks who are applying to the mission board, able to defend a call to missions, who are being turned down simply because the funds are not there, would be able to go. More people could go, more people could know, and all we Southern Baptists would be missing is a few bags of candy corn. Seems like a great idea to me!