2007 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering

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ALPHARETTA, Ga. (NAMB)—Each year Southern Baptists set aside a week of prayer to reflect on the work of Southern Baptist missionaries who are serving across North America—and to prepare for an offering that has exceeded $1 billion since its inception.

March 4-11 marks the 2007 Week of Prayer for the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering, of which one hundred percent goes to support missionaries and their ministries (see prayer guide inside on pages 6-7).

The 2007 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering, with a goal of $57 million is projected to supply about 44 percent of the North American Mission Board's budget of $124 million, with the other remaining 36 percent from the Southern Baptist Convention's Cooperative Program.

NAMB's primary responsibility is to assist Southern Baptist churches reach the United States, Canada and their territories with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The agency provides assistance to churches, associations and state conventions in church planting and evangelism, including soul-winning training, interfaith witness and church and community ministries. Three priority emphases of NAMB are sharing Christ, starting churches and sending people.

Headquartered in Alpharetta, Ga., NAMB was formed in 1997, and is the successor organization of the Home Mission Board (which began in 1845), the Brotherhood Commission and Radio and Television Commissions.

The 5,300 missionaries, 2,600 chaplains (serving in military, institutions such as prisons and hospitals, and in corporate settings), and hundreds of thousands of mission volunteers (e.g. World Changers, Mission Service Corps) are seeking to reach the estimated 248 million unbelievers in the United States, Canada and their territories.

ARMSTRONG

Most North American Mission Board missions personnel are jointly funded with state Baptist conventions, associations and churches.

Southern Baptists have a goal of starting more than 2,000 churches each year. Church and community ministries such as Pregnancy Care Centers, literacy missions, Baptist center ministries, week-day ministries and immigration and hunger ministries result in more than 30,000 professions of faith each year.

The Strategic Focus City (SFC) emphases for 2007 are Baltimore and San Diego. Since it began in 1998, NAMB's SFC emphasis has yielded more than 400 church plants and more than 55,000 volunteers in nine cities.

All seven Southern Baptist seminaries, including the Canadian Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, have Nehemiah Project mission professors in place. Because of this partnership to mobilize new church planters, almost 900 church planter interns have been appointed to serve in summer, semester and full-time capacities.

More than 25,000 youth and adults learned about mission involvement and ministry by participating in 93 World Changers and PowerPlant projects last year, leading 1,270 people to make decisions for Christ.

More than 1,700 high school and college students answered God's call as summer, Sojourner, Innovator and semester missionaries last year, resulting in 1,016 professions of faith.

More than 50,000 people are trained in Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, and NAMB works in partnership with Baptist state conventions to coordinate national disaster relief efforts.