The Southern Baptist Convention announced that the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, an annual donation meant to benefit international missions, received a record $206.8 million.
The SBC International Mission Board, which provides oversight to the offering, recently announced that, for fiscal year 2024 (Oct. 1, 2023 to Sept. 30), $206.8 million was received.
The Woman’s Missionary Union, an auxiliary of the SBC founded in the 19th century and trademarked the offering, had previously set a goal of raising $205 million for fiscal year 2024.
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IMB Chief Advancement Officer Chris Kennedy told The Christian Post that the money will go “toward undergirding a missionary’s ministry and presence on the mission field.”
“With about 3,600 missionaries at work in more than 100 countries, the Lottie Moon offering covers a vast variety of needs,” said Kennedy.
“Some examples include Bibles and Scripture translation work, church leader training materials, digital engagement with online audiences, community needs such as medical clinics and water wells, crisis and compassion ministry response through Send Relief, missionary housing and transportation, and children’s education.”
The money came from church offerings as well as through individual donors, according to Kennedy, with some of the donations being channeled to “specific projects, often referred to as Lottie Moon challenges or Lottie giving projects.”
IMB President Paul Chitwood said in a statement emailed to CP that “Southern Baptists have not lost God’s heart for the nations — despite trends such as a decline in church attendance or an apathy toward religion.”
“Every person needs to hear this good news,” stated Chitwood. “And we cannot, we must not, give up. Southern Baptists’ very DNA is missions, and this year’s record offering totals are evidence that Southern Baptists continue to have a passion for our Great Pursuit of the lost.”
The Christmas offering is named after Lottie Moon (1840-1912), a Baptist missionary to China known for her influence on how overseas SBC missions are conducted, according to the WMU.
“While living in China, Lottie wrote letters to the Foreign Mission Board (now the International Mission Board) and to Baptist women. She asked for more missionaries and for money to grow her work among the Chinese,” noted the Union.
“Because of Lottie’s determination, WMU collected a Christmas Offering to give to the Foreign Mission Board. In 1918, at Annie Armstrong’s suggestion, WMU named the offering after Lottie Moon. Today, we still give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering in honor of her work and sacrifice to keep our missionaries on the field.”
