Press Toward the Mark - April 2017

Hallelujah!  Glory to God, He is risen.  Every Sunday and Easter Season, Christians celebrate the glorious resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Even a lost and increasingly hostile world has encountered this annual reminder that Jesus rose from the grave.  He arose to demonstrate that his death on the cross paid the full penalty for humanity’s sin.  He arose to herald the news that sin and death have been conquered.  Because of His resurrection, the Bible declares that forgiveness of sin and deliverance from the penalty of sin are to be found in Jesus Christ and Him alone.  Hallelujah, this is Good News.  Glory to God, this is Great News!

Southern Baptists cooperate to tell this Good News to everyone.  Through our Cooperative Mission Program, we are supporting over 8,000 missionaries all over the world.  Along with our own personal witness and the ministry of these missionaries, Southern Baptists are obeying His Great Commission to take the Gospel, the Good News to every person in the world.

Over 16 million members in more than 46,000 churches in all the states and territories of the United States and the all the provinces of Canada cooperate through 1,139 associations, 42 state conventions, and the Southern Baptist Convention to do far more together than any one person or church could do by itself.  We fund this worldwide mission enterprise through our Cooperative Mission Program.  Since 1925, Southern Baptists have found the Cooperative Mission Program to be the most efficient and equitable means of supporting a very effective worldwide missionary enterprise.

Many Southern Baptist churches will celebrate Cooperative Mission Program Day April 9.  Hopefully, your church will be among those who do.  Resources are available to help with such a celebration as well as ongoing education and support for the Cooperative Mission Program.  You may access them through the www.sbc.net/cp/resources website of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The annual meetings of the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio and the Southern Baptist Convention are excellent resources for learning about our Southern Baptist Cooperative Mission Program.  This year, Phoenix, Arizona will host the Southern Baptist Convention June 13-14.  The Woman’s Missionary Union meeting and the Pastor’s Conference precede the convention meeting at the same location June 11-12.  Later in the year, the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio will hold its annual meeting November 7-8 at the Chillicothe Baptist Church in Chillicothe, Ohio.

Everyone should hear this Good News: “… that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…”.  This is the Gospel; and this is why Ohio Southern Baptists support Southern Baptist missions from Ohio to the ends of the earth through the Cooperative Mission Program.  Let’s Press toward that Mark.