SDB Missions Week 2022 offers a unique collaboration among SDB ministry partners: the Missionary Society, the Memorial Fund, and the General Conference of USA and Canada. Mark your calendars, the SDB Missionary Society’s Missions Week is coming on February 20-26, and there are great opportunities for all of us to participate.
Invitation to be Participating Witnesses
First, we can participate in the devotions, reflections, and missional work of the Missionary Society throughout Missions Week. For more information about how to participate in the week’s activities, go to: sdbmissions.org/missions-week-2022/.
Second, we can participate in the Missionary Society’s Missions Offering. All proceeds from the offering will be divided evenly between the SDB Africa Bible College and a church plant of the USA & Canada Conference (SDB Prayer Tabernacle, Port St. Lucie, Florida). What great opportunities! You can participate in the offering by going to sdbmissions.givecloud.co/give or by sending a check to the SDB Missionary Society.
But there is more. This is where our collective witness becomes interesting.
The SDB Memorial Fund is providing a matching grant challenge. All donations given to the Missions Week offering will be doubled, up to $15,000 by the SDB Memorial Fund. Every dollar you give will be matched for these great missional opportunities. Last year’s Mission offering was just over $12,000 – so we have a challenge before us!
Participating Together
As a General Conference, we have been redoubling our efforts in the areas of church planting and leadership development this ministry year. Our Conference church planting efforts build on the framework of the SDB Church Planting Funnel. As groups discern God’s specific calling and grow in their relationship with the SDB Conference of churches, we seek to help with financial hurdles that might prevent them from taking next steps through the “Funnel” toward Conference membership as a healthy church.
The SDB Missionary Society is generously collaborating with the Conference in specifically sponsoring the SDB Prayer Tabernacle in Port St. Lucie, Florida. This group was specifically identified by SDB Church Planting Coordinator David Stall and SDB Director of Church Development, John Pethtel, as a group in a prime place in the “Church Planting Funnel” to receive financial sponsorship.
The SDB Missionary Society’s leadership development initiative of the SDB Africa Bible College is preparing lay leaders and pastors in Africa while also providing in-service training for our own Conference leaders through opportunities to serve in this initiative. The opportunity for cross-cultural training and living out a missional call to the ends of the earth contributes to healthy leaders who are faithfully growing and serving.
Witnesses. Together.
The 2022 Missions Week theme based on Acts 1:8 calls us to be witnesses, “Doing Our Utmost to Reach the Uttermost.” Notice that the theme focuses on doing our utmost, not simply my utmost. We are called to serve together, reaching out into regional and global witnessing opportunities. The SDB Missionary Society is inviting us to do just that with the Missions Week Offering. The SDB Memorial Fund Trustees and the SDB General Council are encouraging us to come together with generosity and unity in missional purpose. The SDB General Conference has a collaborative opportunity through partnership in ministry as we focus on leadership development and church planting. Together.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. (Acts 1:8)
