When the 35 members of Conecuh Association’s Belleville Baptist Church, known as “Belleville’s Little 35,” decide to give, they are serious. In fact, they have exceeded all giving goals for the last decade and topped all missions giving records in 2003 with $22,164.
“We are not great in number, but our number is great,” said Belleville Pastor W.G. (Rusty) Robertson, noting 85 percent of active church members are retired.
Robertson said a report in The Alabama Baptist about how missionaries could not go to the missions fields because the International Mission Board (IMB) was short on money motivated Belleville members to give.
The 182-year-old church supporters the Cooperative Program, associational missions, the North American Mission Board, IMB, the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions and the Annuity Board’s Adopt an Annuitant Ministry.
Surpassed the goal
For 2003 the congregation’s Lottie Moon $14,828 Christmas Offering surpassed its $2,700 goal – $10,000 came from the church’s general fund.
“There wasn’t any use in that money laying in the [church] treasury. We had our needs covered, and we wanted that money to go to work,” Robertson said.
The church surpassed its 2004 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering goad of $1,500 by giving $2,921 on “walkdown” Sunday – an emphasis where people walk down to the front of the church to give their offering.
Robertson said part of the reason for the generosity of the church is that “missions is kept before the church 52 weeks a year.” Every Sunday morning the service features “Missionary Moments,” Robertson said. “During the song service we take about five minutes and talk about missionaries and what they are doing.”
Bettye Atkinson, who heads the church’s Woman’s Missionary Union, and Janetta Falls, church clerk, share or appoint someone to share information concerning missions. The “Missionary Moments” are followed by a time of prayer for missions.
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