Having attended Southern Baptist churches all my life, the Christmas season always brings to my mind the name of Lottie Moon and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Lottie, of course, gave her life as a missionary to China and as a passionate advocate for international missions.
Last year when our family gave to international missions through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, our gift joined dozens of other families in our church to total more than five thousand dollars. Our church’s gifts were then added to those of hundreds of other churches from Illinois to total more than $1.2 million. And by the time our Illinois gifts were combined with those from other states, we as Southern Baptists together gave more than $196 million to support almost 3,600 international missionaries and their 2,700 children.
Because we helped send those missionaries, 879,798 people from more than a thousand different people groups heard the gospel in 2023; 141,206 professed their faith in Christ, and 116,992 were baptized. As our missionaries worked with local leaders, 269,571 were discipled, and 12,618 were trained in church planting. These numbers and more outlining Southern Baptists’ international missions impact can be found at www.imb.org/impact.
This is a great time of year to focus on international missions, and on the support our international missionaries need, since most churches receive their Lottie Moon Christmas Offering in December. But it’s also a great time to remember that those missionaries provide a worldwide network of opportunity for our churches here in Illinois.
At the end of 2023, the number of volunteers going on an international missions trip that were reported by our Illinois churches was still 36% lower than in pre-Covid 2019. With 2025 now on the horizon, it’s time to get up and go!
The phrase get-up-and-go is cited in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as originating around 1906 as a synonym for energy or drive. The example sentence it offers is, “Even after her broken hip healed, Grandma never regained her get-up-and-go.” It refers to enthusiasm and initiative, often in the context of energy that has been lost and then regained. We need to regain our get-up-and-go for international missions.
Perhaps you’re familiar with the sadly amusing phrase, “My get-up-and-go has got-up-and-went.” Pete Seeger recorded a song with those lyrics in the 1960’s, though the original poem was written 30 years earlier by Homer A. Shively. It’s a fun but true lament about the realities of aging that says in part, “How do I know my youth is all spent? My get-up-and-go has got-up-and-went.” Illinois Baptists, our get-up-and-go for international missions has not got-up-and-went!
Twenty years later, a popular 80’s girl band ironically named the Go-Go’s also recorded a song titled, “Get Up and Go.” Presumably speaking to her boyfriend, the lead singer boldly issues the ultimatum, “If you’re so tired of moving slow, get up and go.”
But it’s in the middle of that unlikely song that I found words eerily appropriate for our international missions calling: “Now’s the time for you to move. Actions shout out loud. So cut the talk and move your feet, ‘cause words get lost in crowds. Quit talking, start walking now. So get up and go.”
The missionaries we support with our Lottie Moon Christmas Offering gifts also provide an amazing, worldwide network of partners for direct missions involvement by our churches. As we pray and give, let’s also get back in action and go. If your church needs help finding an international missions destination that matches your church’s strategy and skills, call or write Shannon Ford in our offices here at IBSA and he will be glad to help. 2025 is almost here. It’s time to get-up-and-go.
Nate Adams is executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association. Respond at IllinoisBaptist@IBSA.org.