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Language is an interesting thing.  Since the Tower of Babel, we as human beings have struggled - with lesser or greater success - to understand each other.  There are different languages and different dialects of those languages worldwide.  Why, even natives of two neighboring states in our fair union can find themselves in confusion.

I’ll never forget the first time I heard someone say, “I don’t care to” after I moved here from Georgia.  In Georgia, that phrase means, “I don’t wanna do it, and you can’t make me.”  In Tennessee, it means, “I don’t mind doing that at all” - the exact opposite.  When we were in the process of buying the property across the street from the sanctuary for extra parking, someone came to the back door and said to me, “I don’t care to park over there.”  My response was, “Well, you don’t have to park over there; you can park over here, and somebody else can park over there.”  She looked at me like I was crazy.  Eventually, I became more conversant in “Tennesseean,” although I’m still far from fluent.

Another little language quirk that came up that first year happened in September.  I was told that it was time for the Golden State Offering, as it was then called.  “Golden State Offering?” I thought.  “Why are we taking up money for California?”   I don’t know how long it was before I learned that the Golden State Offering had nothing to do with the Golden State of California, but was in fact the name of the offering for Tennessee state missions, named after a former Executive Director of the Tennessee Convention, Dr. W.C. Golden and his wife Mildred, who were instrumental in starting that offering.  At some point in the last 17 years, the name of the offering was changed to a less confusing “Golden Offering for State Missions.”  It all stays here in Tennessee.  None of it goes to California.

Back in 1901, Mildred Golden wrote to Women’s Missionary Union members across the state of Tennessee, “We learn that in our own Tennessee there are hundreds of homes without a Bible; there are people who have never heard a Baptist preacher; there are whole counties without a Baptist church.  How can we be idle or indifferent?  We owe it to ourselves and our Master to do all we can to spread the tidings of salvation.”  In 1902, Mildred suggested a special season of prayer and an offering for state missions modeled after the Convention-wide Christmas offering for foreign missions and the Easter offering for North American missions.  That first year, a total of $800 was raised through the offering (about $31,062.14 in today’s money).  In 1992, the state mission offering topped $1 million for the first time.  In 2022, the offering exceeded $2 million for the first time.  This past year, the offering has exceeded $3 millon for the first time.

What Tennessee Baptist mission projects are funded by this offering?   It funds evangelism strategies; the Amy Hood Adoption Endowment, which provides funds for Tennessee Baptist couples seeking adoption; resources for foster care support and pregnancy ministries across the state; compassion ministries, including feeding ministries, school partnerships, English language ministries, and restorative justice programs; training, assessment, and funding for church planting in the state; recovery programs and Christian Job Corps; Bibles provided to many organizations; training, equipment, facilities and deployment of Disaster Relief Teams; Baptist Collegiate Ministries on university campuses; and Vacation Bible School training for Hispanic churches.  

Pray for these ministries and the Golden Offering that supports them, and pray about what the Lord would have you give to this important missions effort right here in our state.  The goal for this year is $3 million, with a challenge goal of $3.5 million.

Numbers 6:24-26,

Bro. Donnie