News Price to Head Volunteer Effort

June 25th, 2012

Antioch, TN—Director of Advancement Mark McPeak announced that Ohio pastor Mark Price has agreed to provide leadership for the 2013 World Missions Offering (WMO). Price, a volunteer himself, will chair a team of volunteer representatives. “If we are to invite every Free Will Baptist church to be involved in sharing the gospel overseas,” McPeak explained, “we must have more people engaged in spreading the word. By constructing an infrastructure of volunteers, passionate about reaching the world for Christ, we allow local pastors and laymen to fulfill one of their roles in the Great Commission.”
Mark Price has served with the Mission’s ambassador program since the 2008 WMO promotion. In 2011, Mark was elected to the IM board, yet continued to represent the Mission as an ambassador as well. “Mark Price has demonstrated an ongoing enthusiastic desire to grow the ambassador program. He has been innovative in promoting the WMO in Ohio and, this year, served on a WMO team led by Sam McVay that planned and implemented the 2012 campaign,” said McPeak.
The ambassador program began in 2007 with a handful of men—primarily former missionaries—who saw representing the Mission in this manner as a way to extend their commitment to the Great Commission well into their retirement years. “We just concluded our sixth year of the program,” McPeak stated. “Many of these men are road weary and battling personal or spousal health concerns. It is our desire to honor their tremendous efforts by continuing the program in a modified form and recruiting younger men to carry their mantle.”
The 2012 ambassadors agreed to set a goal to gain the WMO participation of 650 churches, rather than setting a financial goal. More than 720 churches expressed their intent to take a World Missions Offering. To date, with fewer than 500 churches having sent in their gifts, $842,000 has been received in the office.
“One of the key components of this year’s WMO was the emphasis on prayer and dependence on the Lord. I don’t see that changing,” McPeak affirmed. “We need His guidance. We need Him to move in hearts so people will respond in obedience to His mandate to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.”
Price said. “While we will focus heavily on the annual World Missions Offering, don’t be surprised to hear us reminding churches and individuals of the importance of consistent, monthly giving. The WMO gives a financial boost to the second quarter of the year, but monthly giving keeps missionaries on the field performing the tasks to which they have been called.”