Thankful To Be A Southern Baptist

I have always belonged to a Southern Baptist Church. There has never been a time when I have wanted to be anything else. We are not a perfect people by any stretch of the imagination. However, like all believers we are being perfected.

We are at that time of year when we are receiving our mission offering for International Missions. We do the same in the spring for North American Missions and in the fall for State Missions.

The offering we are taking during this season was named after one of our most storied missionaries Charlotte Diggs "Lottie" Moon. Miss Moon served in China for over 39 years. She didn't just serve as a missionary, she identified with the people and gave her life in service to her Lord. She only came home when her health prevented her from staying and died on Christmas Eve on board ship bound for the states.

She has become something of a legend to us. But in her time Lottie was anything but an untouchable hero. In fact, she was like today's missionaries. She was a hard-working, deep-loving Southern Baptist who labored tirelessly so her people group could know Jesus.

Over the next weeks children will give their pennies and adults their dollars. Some churches will reach toward a goal of several hundreds of dollars while larger ones will set goals well into the thousands. Last year almost 138 million dollars was given toward a goal of 150 million.

A long time ago before I was even a thought in my parent's mind God gave Southern Baptist leaders a vision for a vehicle through which we could do missions and evangelism around the world and at home. They were convicted that we could do so much more together than we could do on our own.

In 1925 the Cooperative Program was born. Through this cooperative stewardship vehicle, Southern Baptists pool their monies in order to fund mission and evangelistic causes.

I have never been a part of a church that did not give to the Cooperative program. I never interd to be a part of one either. It is not the only way, it may not be the best way, but it is the best I have seen and until someone comes up with a better plan it's the one for me. Dr. J. Robert White, Executive Secretary Treasurer of the Georgia Baptist Convention says, "If there were no Cooperative Program we would have to invent something just like it in order to accomplish our mission."