Lance thanks Alabama Baptists for missions work

Thank you, Alabama Baptists, for being on mission for the gospel of Jesus Christ, thank you for your gifts and contributions to the Cooperative Program, and what you do locally and globally in our missions endeavors,” said Rick Lance, executive director of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM).

To participate in the Cooperative Program is also to take part in actively living the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) theme of Empowering Kingdom Growth, he said.

Cooperative ministries are one of several priorities shared by Alabama Baptists within the Great Commission, Lance said. “You cannot live out the [Southern Baptist Convention’s] theme of Empowering Kingdom Growth unless you are on mission for the Great Commission of God,” he said.

Alabama Baptists share a common purpose in Great Commission ministries, that of making disciples as they go into the world.

Four priorities are shared by Baptists within Great Commission ministries. These are cooperative ministries, leadership ministries, outreach ministries and discipleship ministries. “Our [state convention] theme of Going Through Open Doors is simply going through the open doors of opportunity the Lord has for us,” Lance said.

Lance said Alabama Baptists are brought together through the plan we have for supporting the Great Commission ministries. Nearly 55 percent of all money that is given through the SBOM goes to Southern Baptist causes outside Alabama. “That is one of the highest percentages in the constellation of conventions of the SBC,” Lance said. “I would like to see the day when every one of our 3,200 churches comes together and contributes something to the Cooperative Program.”

In looking at all the things that make Great Commission ministries important to Alabama Baptists, Lance said the main thing to remember is the reason why we participate in them.

“You can look at the purpose, priorities and plan, but the people are the most important, the people we serve through Great Commission ministries,” Lance said.

And some of these people were in a video detailing the stories of a Brazilian soccer player who had been reached by the Baptist Campus Ministries of Auburn University at Montgomery and an Abbeville family who had received disaster relief assistance.