South Carolina Baptists gave $3.9 million to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions in 2008, placing the Palmetto State squarely among the top 10 givers among all states.
The top 10 states were announced at a luncheon June 23 at the SBC annual meeting in Louisville, Ky., where 350 representatives of small to large Southern Baptist churches were honored for their 2008 gifts for North American missions.
Recognized as either the top dollar-giving or the highest per capita-giving church in their local association to the Annie Armstrong offering, the churches – along with associations, state conventions and Woman’s Missionary Union – were praised for raising more than $58.1 million in 2008.
Laurie Register, executive director-treasurer of South Carolina WMU, said she was “grateful for South Carolina Baptists’ commitment to missions, which is evidenced by their sacrificial gifts to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering even in the midst of difficult financial times.”
North American Mission Board president Geoff Hammond said the overall 2008 Annie Armstrong offering of $58.1 million was just 2.3 percent less than the year before. He reminded luncheon attendees that 2008 will be long remembered for the start of the worst U.S. recession of the last 60 years and for $4-per-gallon gasoline.
It’s too early to tell how the 2009 Annie Armstrong campaign is going, Hammond said, but he expects to see a preliminary trend by the end of July.
Noting that North America is a mission field, Hammond said the United States and Canada are two of the few industrial nations continuing to grow. Canada is growing by 250,000 immigrants a year, he said, while the U.S. will have 100 million more people in the next 35 years.
“Thirty years from now, we’ll see an American population that is 30 percent Hispanic and 46 percent Anglo,” Hammond said. “Folks, we have to reach the peoples of North America, and you are NAMB’s key partners. It is going to take praying, giving and going.”
All of the world’s religions are represented in the United States, he said, and it is No. 5 in the world in the number of ethno-linguistic groups – behind only India, China, Nigeria and Thailand.
“God is going to hold us accountable for reaching North America for Christ,” said Hammond, adding that there are some 255 million “lost” people in North America.
In discussing Southern Baptists’ newly launched evangelism initiative – “God’s Plan for Sharing,” or GPS – Hammond said NAMB and its partners, state conventions and associations, recently conducted four successful GPS pilot programs in Georgia, California, Texas and Pennsylvania.
“Between February and the weeks leading up to last Easter, these pilot programs touched 270,000 homes, or almost 1 million people. Under GPS in 2010, we want to sow down the gospel for three weeks before Easter. We have the potential of touching one-third of the population of the United States – some 32 million homes,” Hammond said.
Richard Harris, NAMB’s senior strategist for missions advancement, said NAMB had 5,611 commissioned missionaries and 3,077 chaplains at the end of 2008.
“In 2009, we will commission 330-340 new missionaries and chaplains for an all-time high, an average of about 30 a month,” Harris said. “We commissioned 144 missionaries and chaplains in February, 89 in May, and will commission another 100 or so in Denver in October.”
Saying 46 percent of NAMB’s budget comes from the Annie Armstrong offering and 36 percent from the Cooperative Program, Harris said, “We’re in some troubled times – economically, politically and spiritually.”
Woman’s Missionary Union, headed by executive director-treasurer Wanda Lee and president Kaye Miller, was lauded by Hammond and Harris for their support of the Annie Armstrong offering.
“We couldn’t do what we do without you ladies,” Harris said. Lee replied that the partnership between NAMB and WMU “has never been closer or better.”
The top 10 states for Annie Armstrong donations in 2008 were: 1) North Carolina, $6.08 million; 2) Alabama, $5.85 million; 3) Georgia, $5.1 million; 4) Texas (BGCT), $4.7 million; 5) Tennessee, $4.06 million; 6) South Carolina, $3.9 million; 7) Mississippi, $3.8 million; 8) Florida, $2.9 million; 9) Texas (SBTC), $2.5 million; and 10) Louisiana, $2.2 million. – NAMB