The 2009 Kentucky Baptist Convention Annual Meeting will be Tuesday, November 11 at Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington. The meeting has been condensed to one day to encourage more participation in all of the business sessions.
The theme "Sharing Christ with Urgency" speaks to what we as Kentucky Baptists need to be about. Great speakers, election of new KBC officers, displays, and more will make this day worth the trip. It is so important that we attend meetings like this to stay informed and up-to-date on the work of our state convention. Through the various reports and special presentations you will learn about our work and how your Cooperative Program dollars are at work. By visiting the displays, you can get copies of resources and connect with many of our KBC leaders.
Please stop by the WMU display. Our emphasis this year is on missions education and we will have free copies of WMU magazines. It will be a good time to pick up a resource you may not currently be receiving. We hope that these free copies will encourage many more to subscribe to WMU magazines and other resources. We know that churches with WMU give more to the Cooperative Program and all missions offerings. The difference in missions giving of churches with WMU points to to overall impact of WMU in the local church. Thus, we are doing all we can to encourage WMU growth in every church.
The WMU report will be at 2:45 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon. I hope that WMU will have a strong representation at our state convention meeting.
To learn more about the KBC meeting, go to
www.kybaptist.org/annualmeeting
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posted by: Joy Bolton on November 6th, 2008
Lonnie Wilkey, editor of the
Tennessee Baptist & Reflector has written the best editorial on missions education I've read in a long time. His title "Lack of missions education will doom SBC" caught my attention right away as I read through the October 28 issue of the
Western Recorder. I was nearly shouting in the office as Mr. Wilkey said so well everything we in WMU have been saying for years. I hope all SBC leaders will take note of his prophetic words.
You can read this editorial on line at
http://www.tnbaptist.org/BRARticle.asp?ID=2646 .
Lonnie Wilkey's assessment of the future with churches that have been started with Cooperative Program funds yet fail to provide missions education (including teaching what CP means) is absolutely correct. "If these churches do not offer missions education, the denomination which birthed them will eventually cease to exist." Mr. Wilkey makes the case throughout his editorial that the future of sending missionaries is dependent on what we do today in missions education.
Not only will the lack of missions education decrease missions funding in the future, but will also have an impact on the number who respond to the call to missions. Right now, the IMB has a dire lack of single young men responding to the call to missions. Young adult women are responding to go as Journeymen or career missionaries, but there are few young men. One only has to go back a few years and see the decline of Royal Ambassadors (WMU's biggest mistake - giving this missions education program away!) to understand why we see so few young men responding today. What is the future if we do not strengthen missions education?
Not only do we as Southern Baptists need to rediscover the relevancy of missions education, but we need to acknowledge that WMU does the best job in missions education. Southern Baptist missions leaders would do well to encourage churches without WMU to start or restart WMU missions organizations, as well as encourage the work of WMU on a churchwide basis. (See my last blog on "how" to read about the impact of WMU on a church.)
I attended a pastor appreciation dinner in Boone's Creek Association recently. One of the associational leaders and her nephew did a skit portraying a pastor's wife and her son talking while they washed and dried dishes. The conversation was about WMU and how WMU helped Dad (the pastor) to do his work. The son in the skit had questions about WMU and what it was. The mom explained how important it was for the church to always be aware of fulfilling the Great Commission and how they could do that through praying, giving, and doing missions. She explained that Dad did not have time to plan everything and what a help WMU was to him.
I pray for the day that every pastor sees WMU as his partner in keeping missions before the church. It is amazing what just a little encouragement from the pastor will do for the work of WMU as we seek to "challenge Christian believers to understand and be radically involved in the mission of God."
Be sure to read Lonnie Wilkey's editorial. I just wish I had written it!
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posted by: Joy Bolton on October 28th, 2008
Years ago I took a journalism class and learned that all good news stories or publicity pieces answer the questions of who, what, when, where, why and how.
We could look at who, what, when, where, why and how from the perspective of reaching a lost person. Who - all have sinned. What - God’s offers forgiveness of sin and eternal life. Where - the price for our salvation was paid at Calvary. Why - because God so loved. How do we receive this gift of salvation - by accepting Christ as Savior.
We can also look at who, what, when, where, why and how from the perspective of God’s call to us to be on mission with Him. Who - every believer. What - the Great Commission. When - every day until Jesus comes again. Where - all the world, starting at my house. Why - because God so loved the world and Jesus commanded us to go. How - that’s what missions is all about, how we carry out this command.
The permanent WMU watchword is “Laborers together with God,” taken from 1 Cor. 3:9. God is on mission and He has not just invited, but commanded us to join Him. You are a part of the how of missions when you pray for lost people by name (do you have a lost list?), when you pray for missionaries and unreached people of the world.
You are a part of missions when you give. Thank you for giving to our Southern Baptist missions offerings - Lottie, Annie, and Eliza. I want to thank Kentucky Baptists for giving in the 2007-08 offering year because in each offering, Kentucky Baptists gave the largest amounts ever given from our state to these offerings:
LMCO: $4,435,031.69
AAEO: $1,970,430.21
EBO: $1,105,721.92
Thank you especially for your gifts to the Eliza Broadus Offering. Through EBO you are a part of so many different ministries across our state, from Baptist Centers, to campgrounds, from college campuses, to crisis pregnancy centers, from English as a Second language classes, to Bible study in sign language. You are there as you pray and give. Let me encourage you to use our state missions material each year in your church because over time you will learn about many of our state missions ministries.
When we think of the who, what, when, where, why, and how questions, Paul answered the who, what, when, where and why questions in his letter to church at Rome, but then posed a challenging how question that we must still answer today.
In Romans 10:5-15, you will find:
Who - you, if you confess with your mouth.
What - you will be saved.
When - immediately, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Where - in your heart your believe and are justified and with your mouth you confess and are saved.
Why - because there is no difference between Jew and Gentile, the same Lord blesses all who call on Him
But
how, Paul asks, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And
how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And
how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And
how can they preach unless they are sent?
You have probably heard it said that you may be the only Bible some people ever read, the only sermon they ever hear. So this passage is not just for pastors. It is for all of us. And the Lord himself asks the question to all of us, as He did to Isaiah, “Who will go for us?”
If you want to have beautiful feet, then we must answer as Isaiah did - “Here am I, send me.” For Paul writes after his series of how questions, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.”
I want to add another series of how questions to Paul’s list in regard to the children and youth in our churches and communities:
How can our children and youth learn to care about a lost world unless someone teaches them? And
how can our children and youth develop lifelong habits of missions praying and giving without someone showing them. And
how can our children and youth learn ministry skills without someone guiding them? And
how will our children and youth begin to go out into a lost world with the good news unless someone leads them?
Much of what WMU does is behind the scenes, may take years to come to fruition, and is often difficult to measure. But we have found one concrete measurement - Cooperative Program and missions offering giving. This past spring, Steve Heartsill, who serves as the national WMU liaison with the IMB and NAMB wrote about WMU and missions giving in one of his monthly letters to the IMB trustees. In his April 2008 letter, he broke down CP, AAEO, and LMCO giving of churches with WMU and without WMU by size category. In every size church, from small to large, churches with WMU out gave those without WMU. Depending on the size category, the difference was as much as two to one. So, the influence of WMU can be measured in dollars.
And those dollar measurements point to that which cannot be measured:
the impact of missions education on children and youth, people who respond to the call to pray for missions, and those who do missions because they were challenged by WMU to understand the mission of God and get radically involved. WMU has great missions education resources for preschoolers, children, youth and adults. Our staff can help you with training for missions leaders. We can help you with resources to share the missions challenge in your church. The great thing about these resources is that a leader does not have to dream it up - good, age-appropriate teaching plans are right here in WMU materials.
Kentucky WMU also has events such as GA JAM; Exalt, our state Acteens conference; summer camps; and our state annual meeting which encourage and inspire people in missions. In 2009 we will have two annual meetings in Kentucky. Our own in March at FBC Richmond, and then in June we are hosting the national WMU meeting at St. Matthews Baptist Church, just prior to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting. Both sessions are wonderful opportunities to hear missionaries and get new ideas for ministry. We are proud of our state Baptist Nursing Fellowship chapter that has developed a ministry to pregnant teens called Baby Boot Camp. The nurses have done such a great job with this, that they will be featured in the January issue of
Missons Mosaicand people from around the country are contacting us for information on how to do this ministry. So there will be a Baby Boot Camp conference during the national WMU meeting.
If your church is small and you wonder how you can do all of this, please know that a church can have churchwide WMU simply by electing a director and doing things like the seasons of prayer, offerings, and ministry projects on a churchwide basis. Whether you have a WMU with all the age-level groups, or simply a churchwide structure, through WMU, you can present missions to your church in such as way that people begin to hear the Lord saying “Who will go for us?” And you will be thrilled when people from your church say, “Here am I, send me.”
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posted by: Joy Bolton on October 21st, 2008
The 2008-09 Eliza Broadus Offering has gotten off to a good start with $55,751.60 received in September. We track the offering on a monthly basis and compare it month by month to that point in the year to previous year's offerings. While the largest amounts are received in October and November, we receive gifts for the offering every month of the year!
We are so grateful for the wonderful response to the 2007-08 offering and the $1,105,721.92 that was given. The overage of $105,721.92 will be used for evangelism, including Crossover 2009 just prior to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Louisville. The specific projects to be funded will be announced in November.
To help us write thank you letters to Kentucky Baptist Churches, we recently requested a data file listing the churches that gave in 2007-08 and the amount given by each church. We found that 1,115 churches participated in the 2007-08 Eliza Broadus Offering. The smallest gift was $5.00 and the largest was $55,202.91 from First Baptist Church, Paducah. We want to say big thank you to every church that gave and encourage you to give more than you gave last year to the 2008-09 offering.
If you have not used the 2008 state missions materials in your church, they are undated and can be used any time. Join us as we "Celebrate God's Love" in Kentucky through state missions and the Eliza Broadus Offering.
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posted by: Joy Bolton on October 13th, 2008
Kentucky WMU is in our third year of partnership with Korea WMU. As a part of our partnership, we have also been praying for requests from missionary personnel in Korea, one of the PacRim countries. A summit for the purpose of learning more about the PacRim and how to be involved in praying and/or going will be held November 5-7 in Olive Branch, Mississippi. Olive Branch is about 10 miles south of Memphis.
Kentucky WMU has been asked to help promote this conference to encourage greater involvement in the PacRim. This conference is open to everyone with an interest in reaching the PacRim with the gospel. The conference is an opportunity to learn about the work God is doing among people in this region. The PacRim is home to each of the world's major religions including Shinto, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Catholicism, and Secularism.
The summit is designed to equip participants for strategic involvement among the people of the PacRim. More than 40 field personnel will share a fresh perspective of God at work among the peoples of the PacRim and help participants explore ways to be at work in the region. For more information go to
www.takeit2therim.info.
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posted by: Joy Bolton on October 8th, 2008