Rick Lance, executive director of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM), wants Alabama Baptists to focus on “what really matters.”
Pointing to a prayer of the apostle Paul in Philippians 1:9 “so you can determine what really matters,” Lance outlined what he and the SBOM believe really matters as he addressed messengers to the state convention annual meeting Nov. 13.
1. Reaching people. “Alabama … is a missions field, and we need to realize and remember that the Cooperative Program (CP) budget and all the endeavors we seek to do is because reaching people really matters,” Lance said, noting more than 2 million people in the state claim to not know Jesus Christ as Savior.
2. Starting churches. “[The SBOM does] not intentionally go out and pick a site out and start a church,” he said. “It begins locally. … We are helping the birthing process of new churches.”
3. Praying for others. To take prayer to a new level, Lance has launched www.prayingbridge.com, which will offer an online prayer network. “We are going to connect the believers of Alabama in praying for each other,” he said.
4. Funding the CP. “As we look to the future, investing in the mutual fund we have called the CP really matters,” Lance said. “It is not a bucket; it’s a channel. You don’t give to it. You give through it and you invest in it. You are impacting the world for Christ by the means of what we call the CP.”
He also noted that Alabama Baptists gave more than $4 million through the CP four times in the previous 10 months.
“I want to thank you for the fact that Alabama Baptists are among the leaders for supporting and giving through the missions mutual funds we are talking about.”
5. Helping to connect leaders in ministry.
“Leadership under inspiration of the Holy Spirit following the leadership of Jesus Christ determines what really matters,” Lance said.
6. Preparing for 2008. “We do not present you a budget we do not think we can reach together,” he said. “Last year, we missed the budget by $70,000, … but this year, we predict we are going to be able to exceed the base budget by 2.5 percent.
“We promote undesignated giving to make sure that in this faith (group) called Alabama Baptists, we impact this world with Christ, doing together what we cannot do alone.” (TAB)
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