By Jerry Parker
Pastor
Immanuel Baptist Church, Colonial Heights
Immanuel Baptist Church in Colonial Heights is a conservative church with a strong commitment to missions that is expressed in our giving to the Cooperative Program and specific mission offerings.
Through his grace, God has enabled us to give sacrificially and significantly to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions. We also give generously to the corresponding mission offerings for North America, Virginia and the Petersburg Baptist Association. In addition it has been our privilege this year to give to world hunger as well as disaster relief.
We consider it a privilege to give a little over a tithe of our undesignated offerings to the Cooperative Program. This enables us to join hands with Southern Baptists to carry out the Great Commission in significant ways.
A number of years ago our congregation chose the World Mission 1 plan as our method of distributing mission dollars through the Baptist General Association of Virginia. This method allows us to send the most dollars to support SBC causes throughout the world. This plan sends 50 percent to the work of the International Mission Board, which is significant to our congregation. This choice provides more to SBC operating costs and provides greater support for the six SBC seminaries.
If we were to change our designations, it would be to send a greater percentage to SBC causes than the present WM1 level of 66 per cent.