What s on the DVD? Go to pages 2-3 to learn more about these features and suggestions on how to use them. Theme interpretation: Totally His From Tom Elliff: What s in your well? Music video montage: We are the hands Because you gave: A pulpit point of view Pastor Ryan Pack of First Baptist, Hendersonville, N.C. (3:06) What is the value of one soul? Alex Garcia in London (3:45) Pouring out life Scott and Alyssa Branding* in Thailand (3:18) *names changed Salvation to the least of these Troy Lewis in Zambia (3:12) More videos are available at imb.org/lmcovideo, including formats for churches not calling their offering Lottie Moon. Next step in your church s mission journey: Join the journey (1:55) imb.org/lead
Why should we give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering? Matthew 22:36-39 May I have a heart that refuses to give to the Lord a sacrifice that costs me nothing, said a missionary among Central Asian peoples. No less than all our heart, soul and mind is what s required of us as believers. Missionaries commit their lives. Will we support them with our dollars? The world s population is now 7 billion, and more than half live among people groups still considered unreached, some having absolutely no Gospel sharing going on. So no longer can this be your average give-a-few-bucks-on-sunday-morning, pray-every-now-and-then kind of challenge. This is giving your everything, all you have so that people can know the love of Jesus. That s what being totally His requires: pouring ourselves out completely to be His heart, hands and voice individually, as a church, as Southern Baptists working cooperatively to reach all the nations. Remember, every penny given to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering goes directly to support missionaries and their ministries. It s an investment with eternal impact! Here are tools you will find in this guide to help you lead your offering promotion: What s on the DVD?... inside front cover Why should we give to LMCO?... page 1 Using the DVD and Web resources...pages 2-3 More key resources... page 4 Week of Prayer...pages 5-7 Why give?... page 8 How your church funds missions through the SBC... inside back cover imb.org/missionleader (800) 999-3113 2013 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering National Goal: $175 million 1
Using the DVD and Web resources Quick-start guide 1 2 3 4 5 Plan with your pastor on how/when/ where you will show videos. Coordinate small-group presentations with his sermon messages. See imb.org/lmcovideo. Coordinate with leaders of students and children. See imbstudents.org/all and imb.org/childrensleader. Reserve church calendar dates for events. For ideas, see imb.org/ideagallery. Order resources at imbresources.org. Set your goal. For ideas, go to imb.org/ goalsetting. Are you getting a late start? Check out imb.org/lastminutelottie. MAIN FEATURES: Totally His Set the stage for your Lottie Moon season of giving with this feature. Use it to remind your audience that we are called to be totally His as individuals, as a church, all His. What s in your well? IMB President Tom Elliff reminds us that thirsty people around the globe need the Living Water. Challenge people to give from the wellspring of their hearts. We are the hands (music video) Totally His in a music and video tapestry. Play it in your lobby for passersby, during worship service interludes or to kick-start missions night. 2 Why should we not prove that we are really in earnest in claiming to be followers of him who, though he was rich, for our sake became poor? Lottie Moon, missionary to China, 1873-1912. imb.org/lottie
MISSIONARY STORIES: Because you gave Show one a week leading up to your offering to show the results of giving. A pulpit point of view Pastor Ryan Pack of First Baptist, Hendersonville, N.C., says it s important for eternity to support our workers through the Lottie Moon offering. Working together is biblical, and he s seen results firsthand. Pouring out life Scott and Alyssa Branding (names changed) are working to reach 2.5 million Burmese living in Thailand. The Brandings are grateful that Southern Baptists are part of this work through their giving. What is the value of one soul? Alex Garcia, serving among ethnics in London, is grateful for your giving that allows him to help people from all over the world fall in love with Jesus. Salvation to the least of these Troy Lewis has seen a lot of death from AIDS in Zambia. But he also sees a difference in the lives he s able to touch, thanks to the Lottie Moon offering. LOOKING FOR MORE STORIES? Feature stories Check out imb.org/ lmcovideo for downloadable videos for every need and every age in your church. Some videos come with outlines for small-group presentations. Week of Prayer Eight inspirational Totally His features are available for your Week of Prayer (Dec. 1-8) or anytime to promote the offering. Find stories, videos and photos at imb. org/weekofprayer. Lottie Moon at Work See how every Lottie Moon dollar makes a difference at imb.org/ lottieatwork. Find dollar illustrations for Week of Prayer features and a 40+ story archive. READY FOR THE NEXT STEP? JOIN THE JOURNEY! You support missions financially. But what s next? Watch Join the journey on this DVD and go to imb.org/lead. 3
HIS V O I C E More key resources PRODUCTS PROVIDED BY WMU Inspire your church to be Totally His with the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering poster and envelopes and the Week of Prayer (Dec. 1-8) brochure. WMU state offices (imb.org/wmustateoffices) send free quantities to churches. International Mission Study: Peru Missionaries and national partners share Christ with the ultimate goal of Peruvians reaching the nations. Learn more at wmu.com/peru. IMB products / imbresources.org CommissionStories tabloid The winter edition (vol. 5, no. 4) of this quarterly tabloid includes stories from Week of Prayer (Dec. 1-8). Many features are also on commissionstories.com, a multimedia story site. Week of Prayer bookmarks Eight bookmarks remind you and your church to pray for missionaries, national believers and partnering U.S. churches who are being totally His. Living Letters, Lottie Moon Christmas Offering edition This special edition promotes the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and is sized to fit in your Sunday bulletin. If you already subscribe to this flier, you will receive this edition. 4 Find more Lottie Moon offering products at imb.org/lmcoproducts. Planning helps, ideas and downloadables are available at imb.org/ offering.
2013 Week of Prayer for International Missions December 1-8 imb.org/weekofprayer Missionaries connecting churches to people groups and churches serving as God s hands to reach them workers reflecting His heart in dangerous or lonely places and believers crossing oceans to be His voice. During 2013 Week of Prayer, your church will learn what it means to be totally His and totally His heart, hands and voice. Day 1: Divine appointment Abraham Rios of Seville, Spain, is grateful for the work of Southern Baptists. Believers who were willing to be totally obedient pointed him to the Savior. Day 2: Pieces of God s puzzle When autistic missionary kid Steven Kunkel became a volunteer missionary to Japan, his mother gave him a puzzle piece, symbolic of how God is putting his life together. imb.org/weekofprayer 5
Day 3: An unlikely partnership Send a hearing church with zero experience with the Deaf to share Jesus with a Deaf unengaged, unreached people group a fool s errand? Not at all! Day 4: A matter of a tithe Little in life in the Andes predicted Cebrián Bolívar (name changed) would one day become a missionary in one of South Asia s most populated cities. It was a matter of a tithe. Day 5: Living among them The Scotland tour bus doesn t stop in Gena s neighborhood of concrete buildings and dirty streets. It s where God called her to take Jesus. And cancer hasn t stopped her. Day 6: Closer than they seem Valley Baptist of Bakersfield is committed to reaching the Mixteco in southern Mexico and the 700 Mixteco immigrants living in their California neighborhood. 6 Go to imb.org/weekofprayer to find short stories as well as full features including photos, video and multimedia packages for each day of Week of Prayer.
Day 7: His hands and feet Imagine trying to reach 2.5 million Burmese immigrants living in Thailand who don t know Jesus. The secret? Missionaries training nationals to make disciples! Day 8: Embrace partnership sees fruit Praying blindly was not easy for an Arkansas church who couldn t contact their people group for five years. But God was answering their prayers. Making the most of Week of Prayer Whether you observe Week of Prayer (imb.org/ weekofprayer) Dec. 1-8 or another time, these eight features represent a world needing your prayers. And they are a picture of what happens because you and your church support missionaries through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Lottie Moon at Work (imb.org/lottieatwork) takes a closer look at your offering dollars making a difference in each Week of Prayer story. LOTTIE MOON @work Use them together to show your church what it means to be totally His! late Coordinate volore a pore whole-church imb.org Ne focus perest on Day pliciis 8 of nulparuptas Week of Prayer. alitiatus Learn vollabo how members repture of nonsequi all ages in quid an Arkansas que erspistorem church embraced aut quid the et, Bedia poreiuscient of South Asia quund. at imb.org/weekofprayer/bedia. 7
Why give? Southern Baptists faithful giving undergirds the thousands of missionaries sent from our churches, through IMB, and all for a single, eternal purpose: making disciples in the name of Jesus. This is what it means for all of us, together, to be totally His. Here are some numbers to celebrate! In a recent year, the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and Cooperative Program enabled missionaries and their national partners to: present the Gospel to more than 1,400,000 individuals baptize more than 266,000 new believers start more than 24,000 churches engage 133 new people groups More exciting news some people groups are reaching their own and others! 141 people groups are engaging their own people inside their country 153 people groups are going to other peoples inside their country 41 people groups are going outside their country We have every reason to rejoice. But these statistics also show how much more could be accomplished if more were given! More missionaries sent from our churches to partner with more nationals, more people groups engaging others more lives for the kingdom. We still face this challenge: Out of the world s 11,000-plus people groups, nearly 7,000 are considered yet unreached; they include more than half the world s population. More than 3,000 unreached people groups are unengaged, having no church-planting strategy at all. (The figures above are taken from the 2012 Annual Statistical Report; data as of 12/31/11. For up-to-date statistics, go to public.imb.org/globalresearch.) 8 Learn more about how your gifts to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering are an investment with eternal impact. Go to imb.org/offering and select the Why Give tab.
How your church funds missions through the SBC Go to the Give tab of imb.org for more on funding IMB missions. Find your state s Cooperative Program giving chart. Other SBC Entities State Conventions Cooperative Program(s) 12.88-55% SBC Cooperative Program (45-87.12% stays in state) 49.8% North American Mission Board Seminaries Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission Executive Committee YOUR CHURCH S GIVING Lottie Moon Christmas Offering 100% overseas budget Development 1% Hunger, Relief 2% Field Generated 8% Investment 3% Other 2% 30% 50.2% IMB Budget 54% INTO ALL THE WORLD Southern Baptist churches partner with their associations, state conventions and the SBC to do more through the Cooperative Program than they could ever do alone. It provides 30 percent of IMB s total income. The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering provides the largest portion of IMB s income 54 percent and gives Southern Baptists a chance to support their missionaries through 100 percent of their gifts. Hunger and relief funds,* field-generated funds, investment returns and other income constitute 16 percent of IMB s income. *100 percent of your giving through Global Hunger Relief (World Hunger Fund) brings both life-giving nourishment and a hope in Jesus Christ to those without Him. As of April 2013, 4,867 missionaries were under appointment. The 2013 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering goal is $175 million. It s based on real needs as together we work to reach those who don t know our Lord. Consider setting your goal based on the average cost to support an individual missionary: $51,000 a year (average) $4,250 a month $981 a week $140 a day (Reported May 2013. Support includes housing, salary, children s education, medical expenses, retirement and more.)
We have the resources we need TO DO THE WORK THE LORD S CALLED US TO DO. Am I going to stand before the Lord and say, Lord, I watched some really good shows on TV today or, am I going to say I cut off my cable so that I can put that money towards seeing the Gospel spread? Dan Mahaffie, associate pastor, Sequoia Heights Baptist Church, Manteca, Calif. More tools to help you promote your offering: imb.org/offering (800) 999-3113 Facebook.com/imbconnecting Twitter.com/imbconnecting Go to live.imb.org for the latest social media from IMB. A Southern Baptist Convention entity supported by the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering is a registered trademark of WMU.