Part of the turf that goes with pastoring Southern Baptist churches is the annual tipping of the hat to international missions under the banner of Lottie Moon. At least that’s how I viewed it for many years: “It’s Lottie time again, let me work up a missions sermon and slide it in somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas.”

It wasn’t that I didn’t care, but reaching the nations just wasn’t high on my priority list. I had bigger, closer fish to fry in reaching a community and growing a church.