This past weekend was Thanksgiving here in Canada. This is a special weekend in which Canadians pause to reflect on their many blessings and give thanks. I'm not sure who they are thanking since the overwhelming majority of Canadians, according to the most recent national census, do not believe in God. But thoughts of God are not necessary in order for the average Canadian to delight in another day off from work. So, God or not, Canadians are celebrating Thanksgiving.

Regardless of how the average Canadian feels about God, we are intentionally pausing to thank God in the Claycamp house. The day has been filled with conversations about God's goodness, His blessing, His minute by minute provision for even the smallest things such as the air we breath and the beating heart in our chest. I want to take this moment and say before the world, "Thank you, God, for dying on the cross in order to remove my sin from me as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103), so that I can enter into Your Glory some day soon and be with You forever! Many Thanks!" Tonight we will enjoy a huge meal with our eternal family, eating and drinking before the Lord as an expression of gratitude to Him for what He has given us.

This day is a day of appreciation to Him. But it is also a day in which I pause to consider my duty to Him as His son, to ensure that His Word goes forth into the whole world that others may give Thanks to Him.

As sons and daughters of the King, as we give thanks to Him today, we must remember that we have a sacred duty to hold the rope for our other brothers and sisters who venture into the world in order to make God known among the Nations. We must hold the rope! What do I mean by this, 'hold the rope'? It comes from an account from the life of the legendary missionary, William Carey. After hearing an account of the spiritual needs of India, the secretary of the missionary society meeting in London remarked: "There is a gold mine in India, but it seems almost as deep as the center of the earth. Who will venture to explore it?" "I will venture to go down," said William Carey, "but remember that you must hold the ropes."

So, the question is this: what is the status of our rope and how well are we holding it for our courageous heroes?

Giving to support Missionaries by the Numbers

Our cooperative efforts to support missionaries have fallen on hard times. Below is a chart indicating that we have dropped off from giving all across the board since 2007. The chart below indicates the three major offerings of which Bridge Baptist is a part: The Annie Armstrong Offering for Send North America through the North American Mission Board, the Lottie Moon Offering for reaching the world through the International Mission Board, and the Cooperative Program of the Southern Baptist Convention which also funds both mission agencies in addition to six of the world's finest seminaries (and a few other things as well).

[Graphic stolen from the Plodder. See his analysis here.]

Annie Armstrong

The Annie Armstrong offering, used to support our church planting and evangelistic efforts in North America, is suffering from a 5.6% decline since 2007. This is a reflection of the worst of our global economic recession. But we must remember that we are holding the rope for others. While it may be easy for us to shrug our shoulders and say, "Oh, 5.6 percent isn't so bad given the state of the world economy," we must remember that this percentage is the equivalent of millions of dollars and that it negatively impacts the ability of missionaries serving in the United States and Canada to put food on the table, provide for their children, and look after the home front. What may seem a trivial 5.6% reduction to you and me is a major distraction for our warrior fighting hard in the West, North West, and even right here in Canada. We must prayerfully find ways to tighten our budget at Bridge Baptist Church in the coming fiscal year so that we can boost our giving to the Annie Armstrong offering.

Lottie Moon

It is obvious that when it comes time to tighten the pocket book, Southern Baptists and Canadian National Baptists prefer not to reduce our giving to the cause of global missions. We have still seen a decline in total dollars, but the decline in giving to the cause of international missions is less here than elsewhere. Nevertheless, a 2.4% decline to an organization that has a 50 million dollar budget is still comparable to around a 5 million dollar loss. The most recent data indicates that the International Mission Board has had to reduce its missionary force of international missionaries by about 700. Think of the consequences of this: seven hundred few missionaries means that we have seven hundred few people lifting high the name of Christ to as many as two hundred unreached people groups or countries where the Gospel is not exalted. This is tragic! We must grasp the rope more tightly!

Our courageous missionaries continue to have a positive attitude, continue to fight for the cause of the Gospel with good cheer, and basically are totally unfazed by this tragic cut. I love our missionaries, I love their heart for the Nations, and although they take such bad news in such good stride, this is a luxury which we should not allow ourselves to indulge in. We must take urgently and seriously the call of missions.

Hear the testimony of one of our missionaries here.

Cooperative Program

The Cooperative Program is the primary giving channel by which we support all of our Kingdom Work: American and International Missions, Disaster Relief, Seminary Education, Church Advancement, and we also modestly fund the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission which lobbies on our behalf on Capital Hill in Washington, D.C. When the going gets tough, and it's time to cut expenses and get down to brass tax, our fellow Baptists have been most willing to cut back giving to the primary giving channel. The general consensus is that things like lobbying on Capital Hill and supporting our Seminaries, while nice, are not as important as taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth. It is believed that we must most urgently support our missionaries and allow the dice to fall where it may when it comes to the cause of Christ on the home front. I understand this mentality and am in careful agreement, but I urge caution when adopting this view. We must support our seminary work and make sure that we continue to nurture the next generation of preachers, teachers, and church leaders -both men and women. We cannot allow ourselves to be starved from the regular preaching of the Word of God, or we will lose the spiritual nourishment necessary to complete the task of taking the Gospel to the ends of the Earth.

There is already a tragic crises of leadership within the church, especially here in Canada! We cannot afford through neglect to sew more seeds of ignorance towards the Holy Scriptures. Let us prize most highly our worship of God through the clear and powerful proclamation of the Scriptures, and let us assure ourselves that the resources for fulfilling the Great Commission will always be available in Him so long as we draw near to Him.

Be thankful to God on this Day of Thanksgiving. Give thanks for the opportunity to hear Him speak to you through His Word. Be sure to support your church's efforts to lift up the ministry of preaching and teaching so that God's voice can be heard. Be glad that you know Him, and be heartbroken that others do not. Pray for our missionaries who seek to make Him known, and think critically within your church about what we can do here at home in order to do more abroad for the cause of Christ. Let this be your expression of gratitude on this day of Thanksgiving.