November 27, 2000
Virginia offers new offering plans
___RICHMOND, Va.--Virginia Baptists now have three options for the Christmas and Easter offerings promoted by Virginia Woman's Missionary Union.
___At Christmas, in addition to the traditional Lottie Moon Offering that benefits the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board and the newer Global Missions Offering that benefits the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a new "customized" Virginia offering option has been added.
___Likewise, at Easter, the new Virginia option has been added alongside promotion of the Annie Armstrong Offering that benefits the SBC's North American Mission Board and the CBF Global Missions Offering.
___The new options, approved Oct. 28 by the executive board of Virginia WMU, were created "in response to the many churches asking for personalized funding of special mission projects and for 'hands-on' relational connections," said Earlene Jessee, executive director of Virginia WMU.
___Called the Virginia International Mission Projects, the new options this year include assistance for livestock production and extension in Liberia, a hospice/nursing care project in China and training for women at a new Baptist seminary in southern India.
___All three "customized" projects were chosen from several suggested by officials at the Virginia Baptist Mission Board.
___The funds will be channeled through the treasurer's office of the mission board, as are gifts to the Lottie Moon and global missions offerings.
___Although Virginia WMU will promote all three giving options under one goal, contributions will not be co-mingled, Jessee said. Funds given to the Lottie Moon Offering, for instance, will go only to that cause.
___The new options continue a trend begun five years ago, when Virginia WMU began setting a statewide goal for Christmas and Easter offerings that incorporated more than just the SBC offerings.
___"The reason WMU of Virginia created a general Christmas offering goal was to celebrate our mission contributions together as diverse Virginia Baptist churches," Jessee explained.
___A committee of Virginia WMU's executive board studied the request of churches for more personalized funding of mission projects for a year, she said.
___They first explored the possibility of funding specialized projects through the Lottie Moon Offering and the Annie Armstrong Offering. The committee hoped to target ministries coordinated by missionaries with Virginia ties or in countries that have mission partnerships with Virginia Baptists. But at a meeting last August, representatives of both the IMB and the NAMB told the Virginians such designations were not desirable, Jessee said.
___The expanded giving options in Virginia are not good news to Jerry Rankin, president of the IMB, which is headquartered in Richmond, Va.
___Legendary missions hero Lottie Moon would be "disappointed and brokenhearted" by the Virginia plan, Rankin said. He predicted the change would be "a devastating blow to the morale of our missionaries."
___The Lottie Moon Offering was initiated by Virginia WMU in 1888.
___"This legendary hero of missions and daughter of Virginia Baptists appealed to the women of Virginia in 1888 to take an offering to support sending more missionaries to China," Rankin noted. "Sponsored by the WMU, the Lottie Moon Christmas offering continues to provide the primary support for almost 5,000 missionaries serving with the IMB, just as it did for three new missionaries for China in 1888. Lottie would be heartbroken to know that Virginia WMU is now creating an opportunity for churches to divert funds from this vital lifeline of missionary support by endorsing specific, designated projects."
___In the future, the customized options in Virginia's Christmas and Easter offerings will relate to a variety of partners, including national Baptist unions and conventions, the IMB, NAMB, CBF, the Baptist World Alliance, state Baptist conventions and district associations, Jessee said.
___Each year, a committee of the WMU executive board will recommend to the full board allocations for the Virginia International Mission Projects. Priority of funding will go to projects that benefit women and children, will be self-supporting and self-sustaining once they are initiated, are based outside Virginia and do not involve ministerial funding and support.
___Based on reporting by Robert Dilday of the Virginia Religious Herald
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