A Missions Challenge (Or 2 Or 3) For You

From the update e-mail of the same name.

Here are three challenges, one specifically for young men and two that are more general. Even if these do not apply to you it's something to pray for so please read on.

First, for young men...

There were more than two times as many single girls than guys at my ISC/JMan conference. And I hear the number of guys was relatively high. What's happening, guys? I'm not saying we need to outnumber the girls, but it'd be nice if we were even in the same ballpark. We need more young men to be bold and step up to missionary service. I challenge you to seriously pray about serving overseas, possibly as a Journeyman, even if you've never seriously considered missionary service. You never know how God might respond if you don't ask. And if He starts leading, be bold enough to follow.

The second challenge applies to the supply of Journeymen versus the demand. There were a total of 98 people at conference, potentially filling 79 positions. There are over 500 available positions to be filled. The harvest is great but the workers are few. I challenge you to consider being a part of fulfilling this need.

Now, you may be thinking the IMB couldn't currently fund 500 more Journeyman, and you're probably right. But here's something else to think about. The Lottie Moon offering brought in $134 million last year. Sounds great, right? Just shy of 2003's totals and short of the $150 million goal, but still a lot of money. But consider this: if a quarter of all Southern Baptists set aside a dollar each week for Lottie Moon, we would collect $208 million. The same number of people giving $5 per week would result in over a billion dollars. OVER A BILLION DOLLARS!!! The IMB's total expenditures for 2004 was $238 million. $1 Billion would support 25,000 missionaries for a year. The IMB currently supports 5,238. Can you imagine the impact that an additional 20,000 missionaries would make? My challenge to you is to determine how much you can set aside each week, be it $1 or $5 or $10 or $100, and give it to your church on top of your regular tithe, designated as being for Lottie Moon. And if you aren't a Southern Baptist, that doesn't mean you can't give the same way to the missionary agency of your choosing. The IMB doesn't have a monopoly on missions work.

So three challenges, and though they don't all apply to everyone, there is at least one that applies to you. I pray that you seriously pray about any and all of them that apply to you and step up to the plate if God is so leading.