NASHVILLE — Southern Baptists continue to prioritize pushing back lostness through missions, marking another strong year of generous giving to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering. When the books closed on the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) 2024-25 fiscal year on Sept. 30, the Lottie offering totaled $207.2 million, and the Annie offering totaled $71.1 million, the second highest ever.
The continued faithfulness in giving through both the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for international missions and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American missions demonstrates Southern Baptists’ unwavering commitment to the Great Commission, SBC missions leaders said.
“We’ve surpassed a new threshold of generosity among our Southern Baptist family now that we’ve seen three consecutive years of more than $70 million to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering,” said North American Mission Board (NAMB) President Kevin Ezell. “Southern Baptists love their missionaries, and we couldn’t be more grateful for their faithful support.”
International Mission Board (IMB) President Paul Chitwood said he is encouraged by the Lottie offering total that exceeded this year’s goal of $205 million.
“Southern Baptist missionaries simply could not do what they do without the generous giving of churches and individuals through the mission offerings,” Chitwood said, expressing his gratitude. “IMB missionaries stay longer on the mission field, work with fewer distractions, have clearer strategies, and greater accountability than their peers from other organizations because of the resources provided by churches committed to our cooperative missions model.”
In the recently closed fiscal year, IMB for the first time included all estate gifts in its offering totals.
The national goals for both offerings are set in partnership with the Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) each year. WMU, which created the Lottie offering in 1888 and the Annie offering in 1895, has emphasized the crucial role of each offering for Southern Baptist missions for more than 100 years.
“In 1888, Annie Armstrong risked $72.82 on promotional materials to ask women to raise $2,000 to send two women to help Lottie Moon in China. The total offering that first year was enough to send three missionaries,” said Sandy Wisdom-Martin, executive director-treasurer of WMU.
“To see the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering grow to more than $200 million and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering total of $71.1 million is simply astonishing. It truly is God’s story,” Wisdom-Martin said. “I express deep gratitude to all who give sacrificially so the message of Jesus Christ may be proclaimed. Your faithfulness fuels the mandate and enables the lost to hear the hope of the Gospel.”
The Annie Armstrong offering supports more than 3,000 Southern Baptist missionaries serving throughout North America. The Annie offering helps to fuel church planting through NAMB’s Send Network, compassion ministry in North America through Send Relief while also supporting the creation of evangelism resources. Since 2010, Southern Baptists have started more than 11,000 new churches and have seen baptisms increase in North America for four consecutive years.
The Lottie Moon offering supports nearly 3,600 international missionaries and their families serving around the world. As a result of the 2023-24 offering, 2,409 churches were planted, 1.6 million people heard a gospel presentation and 68,628 new believers were baptized.
Missionaries serving with Send Relief, the collaborative compassion ministry through NAMB and IMB, also are funded through the two offerings.
One hundred percent of these Southern Baptist offerings directly supports missionaries. The Lottie Moon offering provides salaries, medical care, housing, transportation and children’s education. Then, the Annie Armstrong offering provides support for church planting missionaries: finances, training, recruitment, missionary housing and care.
Every dollar given enables the spread of the Gospel among people who need to hear about Christ by supporting missionary presence, church planting and compassion ministry. This is only possible because Southern Baptists give faithfully to the Cooperative Program, which covers additional support expenses.
Giving to both offerings takes place throughout the year, with many churches emphasizing the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering during the Easter season. Churches can learn more by visiting anniearmstrong.com.
Each year, the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering runs from Oct. 1 through Sep. 30 of the following year. As churches begin their campaigns for the 2025-26 Lottie Moon offering, they can find free downloadable resources at lottiemoon.com.
The 2025-26 Lottie goal has been set at $210 million. IMB leadership asks givers to prayerfully consider what they might give to enable gospel transformation among the world’s unreached people groups.
“With the number of lost people dying each day at 166,338, the urgency of sending more missionaries to share the gospel has never been greater,” Chitwood said. “Thankfully, the IMB missionary application pipeline is exploding, with a growth of more than 500 percent since I became president. Pastors are calling out the called, and they are answering, ready to go to the nations. We must now grow in our giving to ensure they can go.”
