From the Desk of Our Executive Director

Welcome to another edition of the Stewardship Journal. Our stated goal is to help each MBC local church build and sustain a culture of generosity built upon biblical stewardship. The Stewardship Journal is your source for all things generosity and stewardship related.

Have you ever thought you are taking up too many offerings? We are days away from Easter and in the midst of promoting the Annie Armstrong Easter offering for North American missions. Do you have a focus on the Annie Armstrong offering? Most do, but a surprising number of SBC churches have moved away from holding this annual offering and have moved to combining all mission offerings, with some moving toward a concept called a One Fund. Our lead article entitled Why Not Just Have One Fund? addresses this trend.

Our focus is currently on Easter, but Mark Brooks’ Stewardship Coach column is titled It’s Time to Start Thinking About Summer Giving. Mark states, “Every year, right before Easter, I start turning your attention to your next big giving obstacle, the post-Easter slump.” That post-Easter slump will go through the summer, increasing the pressure on your giving. This post will help you avoid a slump in giving that might impact your summer missions and ministry.

While Mark forces us to think beyond Easter in this week’s Bonus Section entitled Last Minute Easter Planning Guide, he gives you a two-week step-by-step process that will help you have your best Easter offering. This offering could help carry you through the spring, setting up your summer for success.

Once again, let me remind you that we have moved all Missions and Ministry talks from the weekly Stewardship Journal site to Mark’s Stewardship Coach platform. This will give you access to hundreds of offering talks for free. This is yet another resource we provide our church leaders for free. Only a handful of SBC State Conventions do anything similar to what we provide, and to date, the Stewardship Journal is the only weekly stewardship resource in the Convention. You receive it free. Remember, if you know of someone that would like to receive the Journal, please send them this link for easy signup https://mobaptist.org/stewardship/stewardship-journal/. Our continual prayer is that the Journal will help you and our MBC churches in,

Advancing the Gospel!