January 2011 Press toward the Mark

Happy New Year.  We praise the Lord for His blessings upon this past year, and we pray for His leadership and blessings for this new calendar year as we partner in Mission Ohio.

The State Convention of Baptists in Ohio is the missionary organization of Southern Baptists in Ohio charged with assisting affiliated churches and associations to obey the Great Commission.  Our Lord blessed Mission Ohio greatly this past year: 27 new church starts and 3 new affiliations.  The latest annual church profile reflected 4,511 baptisms.  These statistics should elicit resounding praise to the Lord of the Harvest. 

Mission Ohio has experienced the continued blessings of the Lord of the Harvest.  Since 1995, Mission Ohio has witnessed the addition of 202 new congregations.  As of November 2, 2010, Mission Ohio congregations numbered 702 with 613 being constituted.  These new starts range from heavily funded to no-funded starts.  Of the funded starts, Mission Ohio has experienced an almost 80% survival rate.  These new congregations contributed 24% of the baptisms reported on the last annual church profile.

The last annual church profile reflected an 18% increase in baptisms over the previous year.  A portion of the increase is due to the increase of completed annual church profiles on the part of some of the Ohio Southern Baptist churches.  Apparently, the electronic filing process created by LifeWay presented difficulties in obtaining complete reports.  Hopefully, recent corrections will assist 100% completion.  Mission Ohio depends upon this tool to help measure results.

I deeply appreciate Ohio Southern Baptist churches continuing to support the Cooperative Mission Program of Southern Baptists during these economically challenging times.  Mission Ohio finished the fiscal year in the black.  Even so, we eliminated four support staff this year: Rick Sanderson, Kathy Brooks, Marion Wieder, and Paige Daniel.  We appreciate and miss them.  These precious servants of our Lord made significant contributions to Mission Ohio.

We appreciate very much the long-standing partnership of the North American Mission Board with Mission Ohio.  NAMB has joined Mission Ohio in jointly supporting missionaries and mission projects.  Their financial support and missional resources have benefited Mission Ohio greatly.  Mission Ohio has endeavored to be a trustworthy and genuine partner with NAMB.

As we begin a new calendar year, Mission Ohio remains focused upon strengthening congregations to start congregations to win and disciple people for Christ.  We are cooperating together to reach at least 1,000,000 believers in 2,020 congregations by the end of 2020.  This is the Mission Ohio 2020 Vision.  Let’s press toward that mark.