After a pandemic-influenced decline in 2020, Southern Baptists rallied to give $66.5 million to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering in 2021, the highest amount ever given to the offering that supports missions in North America. North American Mission Board President Kevin Ezell announced the total during the entity’s fall trustee meeting in Pittsburgh.
“The hard part about this year is we didn’t really know exactly what to expect,” Ezell said, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic and other unrest. “But thank goodness, Southern Baptists love their missionaries and give sacrificially — and that’s why it’s humbling and with a great sense of gratitude that we can share the total this year is $66.5 million.”
Ezell said that since 2010, the offering has increased 22 percent.
“There are a lot of things Southern Baptists have in common,” Ezell said. “A steadfast love for Christ, a commitment to the Great Commission, and Southern Baptists love their missionaries.”
Southern Baptist giving to the offering set records for three consecutive years in 2017, 2018 and 2019 before pandemic shutdowns occurred in 2020 during the season when churches typically collect the AAEO, which supports NAMB missionaries who plant gospel-proclaiming churches and provide gospel-focused compassion ministry across North America.
“I continue to be encouraged and amazed at the undying enthusiasm and support Southern Baptists display for their missionaries and their mission entities,” said Eric Thomas, chairman of NAMB’s board of trustees and senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Norfolk, Va.
“Thousands of churches joining arms together like this will change peoples’ lives for generations to come.”
The 2021 offering pushed the cumulative sum of gifts given to the AAEO past the $2 billion mark since the Woman’s Missionary Union organized the first collection for the Home Mission Board (the predecessor to NAMB) in 1895. The offering is named for Annie Armstrong, a woman who encouraged the expansion of missions efforts and mobilized Southern Baptists to support missionaries.
— Brandon Elrod writes for the North American Mission Board.