WMO Status Updates

by Deborah St. Lawrence

Free Will Baptists are a diverse group. Our congregations are both rural and urban. Musical styles traverse Southern gospel to traditional hymns to contemporary worship. Some congregations struggle to pay a bi-vocational pastor, and others support large full-time staffs. Few churches look exactly the same, yet in 2012, over 700 of these unique, independent churches joined together to raise more than $1 million for International Missions’ World Missions Offering.

What thread unified these distinctive groups? The Great Commission. Christ’s command to “take the gospel into all the world” seemed stymied as International Missions kept missionaries stateside due to massive financial concerns. Mission representatives determined to rally 650 churches to participate in the WMO. As the goal was reached and surpassed, expectation for a record-setting offering also rose. When all was said and done, the 2012 World Missions Offering totaled $1,010,935.64.

Each participating church gave as God led. Some gave multiple thousands; others gave less than $20. Yet, God took the unified effort and made it something much larger than any single church could do.

Forest Valley FWB Church, Springfield, Ohio

Pastor Del Wallace: $1,909.33

Pastor Del Wallace put his 11-year-old daughter Macy in charge of the World Missions Offering for their congregation. Playing on her church family’s competitive spirit, Macy organized a friendly competition with two teams: Team Ohio and Team Kentucky. Each team worked to bring home a win with the highest offering. Macy set a goal of $1,000.

Macy said, “We saved change, had a movie night, and took up an offering on WMO Sunday.” The Ohio team’s bucket contained an amazing $929.38! The Kentucky team’s bucket topped it with $979.95. The teams raised a grand total of $1,909.33 for the WMO. “My goal was $1,000 so, as you can imagine,” Macy wrote. “I was really, really, really happy. We hope many people hear about Jesus!!”

Faith FWB Church, Lubbock, Texas

Pastor Jackie Farmer: $12,000

Faith FWB Church has always considered it important to support missionaries both prayerfully and financially. “When we heard that our missionaries couldn’t return to their fields of service last winter, our hearts were broken,” Pastor Jackie said. He began to preach missions messages, months in advance of the WMO. “We were able to come to grips with the fact that it was our ministry to help send missionaries out to preach the gospel and FWBIM was a venue to help us fulfill this goal,” stated one church member.

People got on board and began to pray. The church held a “Taste of Missions” night, sampling foods from a variety of countries and watching the video clips from the missions department. The videos showed how lives have been changed throughout the world through the work of FWBIM.

Church members held a hog raffle with the theme “Going 'Whole Hog' for Missions.” The children of the church collected money in their “Change the World” coin banks and presented them to the church on WMO day.

Pastor Farmer said, “Our church heard the Macedonian Call for help and responded. We now look at missions as our responsibility and FWBIM as a tool to help us fulfill the Great Commission.”

Unity FWB Church, Greenville, North Carolina

Pastor Jeff Manning: $67,226.47

Pastor Jeff Manning and his leadership team have led Unity in Greenville, North Carolina, to consistent giving to the World Missions Offering. This year, the congregation felt an urgency to help missionaries to return to their countries of service and responded even more readily than before.

Pastor Jeff says three factors motivate Unity’s consistent, focused giving. First, everyone spends eternity somewhere. The WMO is about preventing people from spending eternity in Hell.

Priorities are the second factor. Just as an individual’s checkbook or bank statement reflects his personal priorities, a church’s budget is reflective of the congregation’s priorities. Unity’s leadership feels strongly that their budget should reflect an overwhelming desire to get the gospel out. “It’s not about us,” Jeff says. “It’s about them and Him.” The third factor is God’s glory. God is glorified when souls are saved.

“We don’t do the WMO the same way every year,” says Manning. “Some years, every penny of the offering on a designated Sunday goes to the WMO. Some years we set goals. We always have a monthly, budgeted amount in our church budget for International Missions. The WMO is above and beyond that.” The urgency of helping missionaries return “home” led Unity to give more than $65,000 in 2012.

The Japan Free Will Baptist Association of Churches, $1,000

Each month, the pastors, teachers, and missionaries meet via SKYPE for meetings of the association in Japan. Each meeting includes a segment from the missionaries for any updates or Mission information. For several months, missionaries continued to highlight the Mission's financial needs and the goal of the WMO. The teachers/pastors meetings in March and April voted to give an offering for the WMO.

In the days following the 2012 WMO, news of offerings large and small came to the office via text messages, email, phone calls, and our website. These are some of the first received:

• Aaron Baldridge, Calvary, Columbus, GA - our offering for World Missions Offering today was $1,405. Our goal was $500, so we are truly rejoicing at the people's response.

• John Gilliland - I wanted to report that our offering was $750, and it is on its way to you.

• Mark Price - $4,172.42 was our total!
  

• William Armstrong - The McArthur Free Will Baptist Church has sent $266.81 to the World International Missions Coin Bank program.

• Allen West - We took in $2,499.56 yesterday for the world missions offering.

• Cathy Logan - Our church and children of our church collected $1,197.00 for WMO. I am so humbled by the chance this has given our children and adults to come together and push for the common cause of others knowing Christ.

• Pastor Bill C. Pitts - Cross Pointe Free Will Baptist Church: $1,000.00

• Community Free Will Baptist, West Jefferson, Ohio - Total: $1,461.00. We are still counting coins…so total will be more!

• Pastor John Moran - WMO offerings: $3,409.00 and counting.

• Liberty in Vernon AL - Offering was $200

• First FWB, Checotah, OK, Larry Montgomery - Just wanted to report that our WMO offering was just over $4,000. Our goal was $2,000, so we actually doubled it. PTL!

• Mt. Elon FWB Church, Pamplico, SC, Pastor Mark Leonard - WMO total: $1,735.00

• Eddie Thomas, First FWB, Dickson, TN - We participated in the WMO, as we always do, with a goal of $5,000. I am praising God that I can report to you that our offering came in at $7,296. That is a record for us, and I thank God for the vision our people have for missions.

• Richland FWB Church in Nashville, TN - Raised $943.25 for WMO.
  

• Kenneth Eagelton - Just received word that the Ouro Verde Mission Church in Campinas, Brazil, took up an offering of R $300 (US $157.89) for WMO.

• Pastor Russell Street, Woodstock Free Will Baptist, Woodstock, OH - We received an offering of $203 on Sunday, April 29. We do not have our coin banks totaled yet; we will have that next week.

• Eddy Simmons, Faith Fellowship, Matthews, NC - PTL!! We have received nearly $2,000 for the WMO!! This is the first year that we have participated in quite a while. Our goal was $1,500.

• Beatty FWB Church took an offering of $506.92.

• Woodlawn FWB in Washington Court House, OH - total WMO was $97.35.

• New Castle, DE, called to say they took up $530 for the WMO.