The Annie Armstrong of the Easter Offering for 

North American Missions

Each year, we honor the life and work of Annie Walker Armstrong (1850-1938) when we give to the annual offering for North American missions named after her. As a tireless servant of God and a contagious advocate and supporter of mission efforts throughout the world, Annie Armstrong led women to unite in mission endeavors that ultimately led to the formation of Woman's Missionary Union, for which she served as the first corresponding secretary.

Annie believed in Christ with all her heart, but it was her hands that expressed that belief in tangible ways. She spent a great amount of time typing and handwriting letters in support of missions. Many of these letters were quite lengthy and all were filled with conviction that more could and should be done in our mission efforts. In 1893 alone, she wrote almost 18,000 letters! Annie also never hesitated to use her hands to reach out to hug a child or distribute food and clothing and the Word of God to those in need. Her hands held her own Bible as she studied to know how best to share Gods love with others. And, most important, Annie was a woman of prayer, folding her hands in prayer to intercede for the missionaries and for those they were helping discover Christ.
Annie rallied churches to give more, pray more, and do more for reaching people for Christ. As we continue to unite to make her vision a reality in North America today, we can be confident that her legacy will also be ours.

Annie Walker Armstrong was the first corresponding secretary (executive director) of Woman's Missionary Union. She was born on July 11, 1850, in Baltimore, Maryland. Her family was very active in Baptist life. Annie went with her mother to the missionary meetings of Woman's Mission to Woman. There she learned how important it is to give to and pray for missions. She developed a heart for missions. Annie worked with Indians, immigrants, Blacks, and children. In 1882, Annie helped organize the Woman's Baptist Home Mission Society of Maryland. She was the first president of the society.

In other states women did missions work. On May 14, 1888, women from 12 states met in Richmond, Virginia. They formed the Executive Committee of Woman's Mission Society, Auxiliary to the Southern Baptist Convention. In 1888, Annie Armstrong was elected corresponding secretary. Today that position is known as executive director. In 1890 the group became Woman's Missionary Union. Annie Armstrong served WMU until 1906. She did not accept a salary for her work. In 1934 the offering for the Home Mission Board was renamed the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for Home Missions. Annie Armstrong died on December 20, 1938. Woman's Missionary Union was 50 years old.

Important events that happened while Annie Armstrong was director of WMU:

1888 The motto, “Go Forward” was chosen. Foreign missions offering established to send a missionary to China to relieve Lottie Moon.

1890 The organization was officially named Woman’s Missionary Union, Auxiliary to the Southern Baptist Convention. WMU agreed to raise enough money to support all women foreign missionaries.

1892 First week of prayer held in connection with the Christmas Offering.

1894 WMU began promoting work of the Sunday School Board. An extra offering was taken to pay Foreign Mission Board debt. The offering went over its goal.

1895 First week of prayer and offering to pay off Home Mission Board debt was established.

1896 WMU adopted Sunbeam work at the request of the Foreign Mission Board.

1899 WMU recommended that churches use a system of organizations for missionary education. Baby Bands was the first group organized.

1900 WMU set up and funded the Home Mission Board Church Building Loan Fund. WMU opened the Margaret Home for children of missionaries who were overseas. First WMU-sponsored church-wide event – a stewardship emphasis.

1906 WMU began the process of legal incorporation. WMU adopted a week of prayer for state missions. WMU began publishing literature for sale. Our Mission Fields is the magazine published by WMU.

During the months of March, April, and May, we are praying as well as thinking about our efforts as Southern Baptist

in North America Missions. In March we have the Week of Prayer and during this three-month effort we take up the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering. This year’s theme is, “WHATEVER IT TAKES!”

In the Book of Acts, we are reminded of the conversion of the Ethiopian official and the need to share Jesus Christ while being on mission:

An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip: “Get up and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is the desert road.) So he got up and went. There was an Ethiopian man, a eunuch and high official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to worship in Jerusalem and was sitting in his chariot on his way home, reading the prophet Isaiah aloud. The Spirit told Philip, “Go and join that chariot.” When Philip ran up to it, he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you’re reading?” “How can I,” he said, “unless someone guides me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

Now the Scripture passage he was reading was this:

He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before its shearer, so He does not open His mouth. In His humiliation justice was denied Him. Who will describe His generation? For His life is taken from the earth.

The eunuch replied to Philip, “I ask you, who is the prophet saying this about—himself or another person?” So Philip proceeded to tell him the good news about Jesus, beginning from that Scripture. The Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2009), Acts 8:26–35.

When it comes to missions and being on mission for Christ, it does not matter if one preaches to hundreds in a city or a single individual in the desert. Faithfulness to call is the only issue. Think about the obedience of Phillip to God’s call to do what ever it takes. Unquestionably the place and timing seemed so inappropriate. Why would God move him from an area-wide evangelistic campaign just getting underway in Samaria, down to this lonely desert road? God would bring about a divine appointment as Phillip faithfully shared the gospel. Compare Philip with Jonah. As he was empowered by the Holy Spirit, this lay evangelist and missionary went wherever God sent! In this passage Philip was on his way to the end of the Palestinian world south and west of Gaza where the desert trailed off across Sinai into Egypt. There was nothing. How easy we find it to picture Philip plodding southward on that desert road, casually observing the common sight of a foreign visitor returning from Jerusalem. Philip was a man who remembered the importance of connecting to the one.

Do you know that daily there are missionaries all across North America serving through the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention who are focused on connecting to the one with the Good News of Jesus Christ? Missions is all about connecting to individuals for the cause of Christ. This year the national goal is 70 million dollars, which every single penny collected will be used on the mission field reaching others with the gospel.

Check out the following visual of how your individual church offerings towards the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering might be utilized:

What is Send North America?

Send North America is the North American Mission Board’s strategy for moving churches and individuals into all regions of North America to lead people to faith in Jesus Christ and start new churches. This strategy is designed to:

• Mobilize churches, church planters and other missionaries to penetrate lostness and connect un-churched people with a local congregation.
• Equip church planters and sending churches for evangelistic church planting.
• Plant churches within defined regions, people groups and large population centers (cities).

How can Send North America help a church start churches?
Every church can be a part of planting new churches. The level of involvement is up to the individual church. There are three levels of involvement and all are extremely important in planting churches across North America.

1. Supporting Church: A Supporting Church partners with a plant through praying, participating and/or providing. Often there will be multiple supporting churches partnering with a particular plant, helping to meet different needs.
2. Sending Church: A Sending Church reproduces itself by taking the initiative to plant a new church in an area of need and in addition to praying, participating and providing, takes responsibility for partner recruitment and nurturing until the church is self-sustaining, self-governing and reproducing.
3. Multiplying Church: A Multiplying Church plays a mentoring role in the church planting process. Multiplying churches intentionally cultivate disciples who are selected, developed and supported in order to some day start new churches.

The Send North America Strategy

Send North America focuses on mobilizing missionaries and churches. When churches or individuals sign up they are first assessed to identify the types of partnerships or missionary tracks that best fit them. Then NAMB provides any needed equipping and training—including evangelism and leadership development—before the missionary or church enters the mission field.

Churches that partner with NAMB have a broad range of participation options, including starting a church themselves or with a group of other churches. All are encouraged to send volunteers and other resources to partner with church planters on the field. Were you aware that fewer than 4 percent of SBC churches are engaged in church planting as a primary sponsor? The goal for the North American Mission Board is to see an increase to 10 percent. Check out the visual below which emphasizes why we should plant churches:

Fast Facts About “Our” North American Mission Board

• Website: www.namb.net
• Formed in 1997 with more than a 150-year tradition(successor organization to Home Mission Board, started in 1845)
• Headquarters in Alpharetta, Ga., near Atlanta
• Exists to work with churches, associations and state conventions in mobilizing Southern Baptists as a missional force to impact North America with the gospel of Jesus Christ through evangelism and church planting
• Funded primarily by Annie Armstrong Easter Offering®(www.anniearmstrong.com) and Cooperative Program (www.cpmissions.net)
• Gifts to Annie Armstrong Easter Offering, 2011: $56,151,275
• Annie Armstrong Easter Offering Goal for 2012: $70,000,000
• NAMB Budget for 2012: $114,900,000
• Baptisms in 2010 in North America: 331,000
• In 2011, partners reported 1,003 new church starts and 83 new affiliations.
• Appointed, Approved, and Endorsed Missions Personnel by major group category as of December 31, 2011. Non-appointed spouses are not reflected in the list.
3,650 Chaplains
214 Collegiate/University
262 Evangelism/Love Loud
495 Legacy Mission Service Corps
1,429 Mobilization/Church Planting
1,530 Sojourner/Summer/Semester
216 State Convention Staff
• In 2011, a total of 190,975 volunteers were engaged through the ministries of Baptist Builders, Campers on Mission, Disaster Relief, Appalachian Regional Ministry and The Bridge.
• In 2011, a year in which the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) reported that only two states (Michigan and South Carolina) did not have a federally declared disaster, 37 Baptist conventions responded to wildfires, tornados, earthquakes, floods, windstorms, tsunamis and other types of disasters. More than 11,000 volunteers worked to provide 1,051,816 meals; helped 7,708 homeowners with clean-up and recovery assistance; recorded 10,291 chaplaincy contacts; provided resources for 26,421 showers, and led 310 people to faith in Christ. In partnership with Baptist Global Response, 16 volunteer teams responded to Japan, providing aid to those affected by the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear incident.
• In 2011, Southern Baptist hunger ministries fed more than 5 million meals to the hungry in North America. More than 30,000 professions of faith were reported in 2011 as a result of these hunger relief ministries.

Dr. Tom Cheyney and Mark Weible from the Florida Baptist Convention 2012 Evangelism Conference: 5 Non-Geek Tools for Online Evangelism.  You can listen to all of the conference sessions and view videos of the main sessions at flbaptist.org/econference.

View the PowerPoint presentation from this session:

In the early 1990’s, Southern Baptists were starting almost 1,300 churches annually. With the development of a new missions agency for the Southern Baptist Convention, we were planting between 1,400 and 1,500 new churches annually with some miraculous years where we as Southern Baptist planted over 16,000 healthy new churches. During one year it was reported that we had planted 1,749 healthy new churches. Recently, while attending a Church Growth and Revitalization conference in Brandon, Florida we were told that there were 900 churches which closed their doors last year and we only planted 1,000 new churches for a net gain of 100. If we are going to grow as a convention we need to develop a renewed vision for planting healthy new churches. This vision must become a priority if our convention is going to climb out of its declining numbers.

Once responding to the question, why was it that the Church Planting Group of the North American Mission Board was so zealous about church planting, I responded as a team leader, “We have to be this zealous! Unless we create a sense of urgency for church planting it would be very easy to watch our precious convention dwindle due to our very own failure to keep the heat on for planting the gospel through church planting.” Gaining only one hundred churches while we watch 900 close is alarming to say the least.

All across North America we need local New Testament church leaders who will cultivate the characteristics necessary to lead their churches towards sponsoring new works. Those leading the established church, need cutting-edge daring and inspiration to move it forward as a sponsoring church. It is not for the limited thinker, the hesitant in spirit, or the comfort-seeker. Established church pastors must move away from doing "business as usual" and move into the sphere of "unusual business." This all begins with the cultivating of the characteristics necessary to lead your church into the uncharted territory of sponsoring churches.

Developing the Distinctives
There are at least seven strong distinctives, which need to be present or cultivated in the sponsoring church pastor:

The Sponsoring Church Pastor Must Have the Ability to See Beyond One's Own Harvest Field.

This is true kingdom vision. It is beyond the local church, association, and the denomination. It is the characteristic that believes God is pleased with a harvest, even if it is not in our own area. Having a truly kingdom perspective is essential.

The Sponsoring Church Pastor Must Have Ability to Release the Lord's Resources Beyond One's Immediate Interests.

This is a willingness to release any resources that will help multiply the gospel message of Jesus. It is not driven by "how will this make me or my church look?" It is motivated by "how will the kingdom of God benefit from this?" Someone has said it well: "Churches that plant churches need a pastor with a real vision for the lost of this world and a complete lack of selfishness."

The Sponsoring Church Pastor Must Have Willingness to Invest in the Kingdom.

A pastor who leads his church in sponsoring will have to make incredible investments. The big five investments are:

· financial investments
· ministries investments
· gifts investments
· skills investments
· talents investments

The Sponsoring Church Pastor Must Have Willingness to Go Against the Flow.

Partnering (another term for sponsoring) church pastors must also be willing to move forward to implement what is right and biblical. You must be going against the flow. You will resist the popular attitude of the 1980’s where everyone believed that bigger is better and that the most "successful" churches are those that build a huge crowd, as opposed to those who mobilize more of God's people in the harvest. Partnering church pastors are the great missional thinkers of our age as they look for ways to give away, not simply gather in.

The Sponsoring Church Pastor Must Have Ability to Paint the BIG Picture About a Vision That is Hard to See.

A partnering church pastor must be able to help his people see that it is not just about them, but about those who are not yet in the kingdom of God. It will take tremendous creativity to rally people to that which are not easily seen. It is one thing to help people see a brand new building that is not yet constructed, but they have been able to see an artist’s rendering of the building sitting in the vestibule each Sunday. However, it is more of a challenge to help Christians see a body of believers where none exists.

The Sponsoring Church Pastor Must Have Ability to Regularly Develop and Apprentice Young Leaders.

A sponsoring church pastor has to develop young leaders. He needs to develop leaders intentionally and regularly. Often it is the young leaders who accept the challenge to participate in a new church launch. A wise sponsoring church pastor needs to have new leaders ready to step up and step in. The task of raising up leaders out of the harvest never stops. The sponsoring church pastor is unable to rest on those who have been previously developed. Movement planting pastors need to keep looking for those who can be apprenticed and developed as leaders for new churches.

The Sponsoring Church Pastor Must Have Ability to Boldly Go Where None Have Gone Before!

We need to make every attempt and expect to succeed, but realize we will sometimes fail. We must develop the characteristic of going boldly where others have not gone. You may fail at what you attempt, but for the kingdom's sake, keep trying! All great things accomplished for the kingdom involve risk. You get better at being a sponsoring church the more you do it. Each time you gain in the skill sets necessary to be a great sponsoring church. We must be willing to address our fears towards the sponsoring of new works. This fear causes us to hold onto the known, limits what we are willing to attempt, and shortchanges incredible discoveries. Christ Jesus is counting on all of us—let's get going![1]

The Lucky Thirteen
There are thirteen things[2] (the “lucky thirteen”), which happen within sponsoring churches when those churches become actively involved in planting new churches.
Let’s take a look:
1. Sponsoring keeps the church fresh and alive to its mission and vision and challenges the church’s faith.
2. Sponsoring reminds the church of the challenge to pray for the lost.
3. Sponsoring enables the church to welcome other people into the kingdom that it would not otherwise have assimilated.
4. Sponsoring creates a climate open to birthing a variety of need-meeting groups within the sending church.
5. Sponsoring provides evangelistic vitality and activity.
6. Sponsoring encourages the discovery and development of new and latent leaders.
7. Sponsoring encourages coaching, mentoring, and apprenticeship in ministry while providing a renewed understanding of how we are all part of a team effort.
8. Sponsoring provides an occasion for church members to get to know missionaries personally.
9. Sponsoring builds on the past and insures the future.
10. Sponsoring minimizes the tendency toward a self-centered ministry.
11. Sponsoring provides an education in missions and serves as a stimulus for young people’s dedication to Christian service.
12. Sponsoring provides a visible proof that God is still working through people and that some are responding to his commission to go out and evangelize.
13. Sponsoring provides new opportunities for personal involvement in missions.

What Do Church Planters Need from the Sponsoring Church?

What do planters want from a sponsoring church? I asked that in a peer-learning group recently and the first response surprised me. Let’s see what planter’s think:

It’s not about the money, but the relationship!
Not that planters do not need financial resources, they do, but the most important thing they want from a sponsoring church is a vital relationship with the church and the pastoral leadership.
Coaching and mentoring is important to us.
Church Planters spoke of the importance of the mentoring or coaching relationship with the sponsoring pastor, the one-on-one time to share dreams and visions, and the opportunity to bounce ideas off someone with more experience.

We need a prayer covering!
Developing a prayer covering was another huge appeal. When the sponsoring church enlists prayer warriors and encourages the church to pray with and for the church plant and planter, everyone shares in the victories and the heavenly Father gets the glory.

Finding the right volunteers for the work of the ministry.
Even more important than money, the church plant and planter needs people, the right people. Helpers who come should understand what church planting is about, come prepared to work, not just sit in a chair.

We need the stuff that others do not think about!
Sometimes the ‘stuff’ the sponsoring church has stored such as – chairs, tables, sound equipment, and lights – can be just what the new work needs. When available, the sponsoring church staff can be of great assistance in sharing input on worship resources, providing administrative support, even the use of office equipment.

If you commit to sponsor, fulfill your commitment!
When it comes to support, consistency is the key. Deliver what you promise, and when you promised it. Far too many church plants are hurt when a pastor leaves the sponsoring church and the new leader comes in and pulls funding because “that is not our thing,” and the Lord’s church is hurt as a result.

Wrapping it up!
Remember also that the sponsoring church often learns from the church plant. New ways to do things, innovative ideas, and new technology skills can be shared from the plant with the sponsor. The North American Mission Board reports that nationally 4% of SBC churches are sponsoring churches. Sounds surprising doesn’t it; but if we are going to have one million believers in our Southern Baptist congregations by the end of 2020, we must have many more sponsoring churches. If you would like more information about becoming a sponsoring church, there are many ready to help you and your church in the effort. Contact your Executive Director of Missions, Dr. Tom Cheyney (tcheyney@goba.org), or GOBA’s Director of Church Planting, Mark Weible (mweible@goba.org and we will be glad to work with you in your effort to sponsor new churches. Right now we need 225 new churches in the next ten years right here in central Florida and we are praying for 1,825 new church plants around the great state of Florida through the godly churches of the Greater Orlando Baptist Association.

[1]www.churchplantingvillage.net/churchplantingvillagepb.aspx?pageid=8589989663 by Tom Cheyney.
[2]The list is taken from Spin-off Churches: How One Church Successfully Plants Another by Harrison, Cheyney and Overstreet.

Today's podcast is Martin Boelens, a Church Revitalization Assistant Team Member (CRAT), will discuss the spiritual principle & a business principle for merging congregations. If there is a message for church mergers today; it is to call the church to a new level of cooperation: "One Body in Christ for the sake of His mission."

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Dr. Tom Cheyney & Ron Smith, Executive Pastor, First Baptist Altamonte.

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Organ grinders, complete with dancing monkeys, were often seen on the streets of New York City from 1890 - 1920 and would draw substantial crowds. However, after a few minutes the crowd would disperse to other pursuits. In other words, the sight of a dancing monkey was not enough to sustain a crowd. The same principle is true in church revitalization. A pastor with a dynamic personality or a compelling communication style can draw a substantial crowd to a church in decline. Unfortunately, pastoral personality and style alone is not enough to sustain church growth. But what happens when God taps a young pastor to step in to a declining church to illustrate the principle that only God grows and sustains a local church? This is just the beginning of this story. 

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Tom Cheyney and Mark Weible talk about Greater Orlando Adventures in Leadership peer learning groups.  G.O.A.L. groups are composed of church planters, pastors, and other church leaders who commit to walk together for two years of personal leadership development resulting in leadership multiplication in the local church.