Abortion in the Pews

We will have about 1.2 million abortions in our country this year. Half of those women will be regular church goers and self-identified Christians. One may argue that many of these women are casual or nominal Christians, and not genuinely saved. So just to be on the conservative side, let's say that 200,000 of the 600,000 are actually believers. An abortion costs about $500 on average. This means that in 2016 believers will contribute over $100,000,000; that's one-hundred million dollars for all of us who have trouble counting zeros. Therefore, if we could just stop Christians from have abortions, we would truly begin to defund Planned Parenthood without regard to a presidential veto.

After that lesson in math, here's one from statistics. A recently released study demonstrated that only 7% of women who were regular church attendees when they had an abortion ever sought counsel from someone in the church. When asked why, they responded in unison; the church was judgmental, condemning, and shameful. They felt like the church response would not be helpful, but terrible. They were probably right, and still are in most cases.

Having said those two things, I went to a seminar yesterday. It was put on by Care-Net which is a network of Pregnancy Centers seeking to care for women in unplanned pregnancies. The Pregnancy Care Center of Tiftarea, whom I work for, is an affiliated center. Our centers typically, not exclusively, see women who are unchurched. The seminar was addressing the problem of the other group of women that I mentioned before--those in the church that don't typically come to us.

They want to stop the money, the murder, and the mauling in the church. So what they are proposing is that the church be like the pregnancy centers within the church. They think that the church can and should non-judgmentally love and care for these women. Novel concept--love one another. Crazy, huh! Almost like Someone said that before John 15:12. Care-Net wants to offer training for churches, and ways for pcc's to come alongside the church (instead of the other way around) to help the churches help men, women, and families feel like the church is a place they can turn to in a time of fear, shame, and worry.

Training is good, but the perception of the people will take longer to change. The attitude of the church must change from condemnation to love. Our practice can be holiness and love simultaneously. We do not have to sacrifice our commitments to righteousness in order to look upon sinful people with compassion, and aid them in their suffering. When this is preached, taught, and lived out in the church for an extended time, perception may change. Hopefully church culture will change. Attitude will change. Only then will our effectiveness increase as we truly begin to rescue those who are regularly in our congregations, and those who would one day be in our congregations.

One-third of my generation is gone. Many from "Christian" mothers, afraid of "Christian" churches. Let's start changing the perception now.

Sanctity of Life Month

January 21st marks 43 years since the Roe vs Wade decision that legalized abortion. Since then over 58 million babies have been put to death, making what should be the safest place in the world, the most dangerous. January is Sanctity of Life Month.

The Pregnancy Care Center of Tiftarea continues to work in the trenches to save these unborn children from the terrible choice that is offered to their mothers. This year when all the numbers are in, we will have seen over 70 mothers that were considering abortion choose life for their children. We do this through trained counselors, ultrasounds, medical personnel, medical testing, referral services, and others.

The way that we are able to do these things is with the generous donations of churches, individuals, businesses, as well as fundraisers. By the way, there are still a couple of days left for year-end donations to help us finish out our year-end campaign; we still need about $4000. In January many of our supporting churches join us in the Baby Bottle Boomerang. Thousands of dollars are raised for our center by simply collecting change. We take this fundraiser very seriously because it is super important to our budget. Over the upcoming days your church may receive a call from our center asking about the number of bottles you want to have for this year. Please aim for a higher goal than last year. Send them out with your children as they go home after church. Put one in each of the Sunday School classes. Leave them on foyer tables for people to take with them. However you do it, make sure and put your two cents in :-)

Another thing that Sanctity of Life month brings is opportunity for churches to take advantage of our staff and the season, and have a speaker come in to share. Our expert staff can help raise awareness, explain our ministry, equip your people, and offer Jesus Christ as the true solution for abortion and the cause for life. I hope you will consider an outreach in this way. If there is any way that we can help, please don't hesitate to call, email, or stop by. Click the link above to learn all about us.

Looking forward to more new lives coming into the world in 2016 that otherwise would not,

Spirit of Giving

Christmas time is just around the corner (feels weird to say that as I write before Halloween), and I want to take a second and remind you about the opportunities and needs that are presented us during this season.

Backpacks for Appalachia – These are due really soon. We have become a pickup site for the GBC this year. Several of your churches participate, and the pickup info is on Nov 5^th at after noon at Northside. So, if you have your backpacks, you can bring them to Northside between 8-4 on Tuesday and Wednesday, or Thurs before lunch. Everything has to be boxed and ready by Thursday at noon. This is a needed and worthwhile ministry. If you need info, or want to participate individually, here is the website http://missiongeorgia.org/backpacks-for-appalachia/.

Lottie Moon – Of course, most of you know about the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. It is our biggest offering of the year. This offering goes strictly to missionaries on the field and the supplies they need to carry out their ministries. This offering makes up nearly 60% of the IMB’s budget for the year. We have missionaries from the Mell Association serving overseas, and this helps keep them there. Info on the LMCO is located here - http://www.imb.org/main/lottie-moon/default.asp. As you may know the IMB has made large-scale cutbacks this year because of funding shortfalls, and we must help! Goal again for this year is $175,000,000 (for you and me that get confused with 0’s, that’s $175 million), let’s help them reach it. Five billion people need it.

Santa’s Helpers – This is an opportunity to give and to volunteer at the same time. Through this ministry we give 1200 underprivileged children in Tift County. This year they have experienced a cut in funding. Since Jog for Jake did not go this year, Santa’s Helpers lost $15,000 of their $20,000 budget. This means that instead of helping 500 families, they will only be able to help 300, as well as reducing the number of toys. We took up over $3400 to help make up the shortfall. You as individuals and as churches can really help meet this need. And of course, they are always in need of volunteers to help pack (Dec 7-11) and distribution (Dec 17^th). This year’s distribution will be at the county fairgrounds.

End of Year Gifts – Many non-profits in our area benefit from end-of-year donations. After you talk with the Lord (and your financial advisor, if you wish) consider giving to one of the location organizations such as Christian Women’s Job Corps, Ruth’s Cottage/Patticake House, Pregnancy Care Center, Lifehouse Ministries, Called to Care, Brother Charlie’s, or you could also give a gift to the association (we don’t turn money away).

Of course there are others, as we are commanded to look after the orphans and widows, to visit the sick and imprisoned, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and give cups of cold water in Jesus name. We are to be the hands and feet of Jesus all the time, but let this time of year, when Jesus came to earth as the greatest gift and most humble servant ever.

Let me be the first to say it J, Merry Christmas!

Mechanics of Pregnancy Centers

As most of you know, I work for a Pregnancy Care Center in addition to my work as a director of missions for the Mell Baptist Association. At the PCC, we are preparing for one of our annual fundraisers; a 5K color run. I write on the sanctity of life a couple of times a year, but usually directly about abortion and the Christian call to protect life. This time I wanted to give you some insight into how we operate.

This year we have implemented an additional strategy for advertising, and I feel like I am always pushing and pushing this event on social media. Event creation, then sharing, tweeting, retweeting, promoting, boosting, inviting, and telling others to invite, share, tweet, etc, are constantly coming from me (this doesn't count the direct fundraising I do to underwrite the cost of the event). So why do I (the PCC) and other non-profits spend so much time fundraising? Well, simple right, they can't make or sell anything to make a profit, and very few are self-supporting.

So we have about three fundraisers a year: a banquet, a baby bottle campaign, and for the last two years we have had a 5K/1M color run. These fundraisers make up a little less than half of the financial needs that we have to support an executive director and four part-time staff, including a nurse manager, patient manager, advancement manager (me), and an office manager. We definitely don't do it for the money, it's a service to the kingdom, women, and children. Then there are the volunteers who don't get any remuneration, and do everything from being patient advocates, nursing, newsletters, preparing food, counting coins, serving on the board of directors, and aiding with events. This ministry could not continue without them.

The other funding for our center comes from regular individual givers, churches and a few businesses. These are crucial to the continuation of our ministry as well. All these help us minister to women with unplanned pregnancies in at least eight counties. They help us share the gospel to over 100 women, and preserve the lives of 50-60 babies each year in the most recent years.

All that to conclude that these fundraisers (and their seemingly endless promotion) allow children to take their first breaths, and mothers to be rescued from the lingering scars of abortion. Thank you for all that you do, especially those who labor in prayer for us. If you are a runner, or know of someone who is, tell them to join us for our Color Me Baby color run on Oct 24th. You can get all the info on the colormebabyrun.com site. If you want to donate, you can do that as well through the site or through our Facebook page. Pray that it goes well, and that the Lord with use it to provide for us! Hope to see you there!

Non-Profit Funding

Working for two non-profits, the Mell Baptist Association and the Pregnancy Care Center of Tiftarea, I understand the importance of relying on funds of donors. They are both ministries, so we walk by faith, not by sight. However in the world we live in, it is hard for boards or teams to look at a previous year's income and not become overly cautious (this is coming from the one that is happy to spend and spend, just ask those I work with).

This diagram fits the situation of the PCC more so than the Mell. It shows all the places that we anticipate that funding might come from each year. It's a diagram I copied off the web, so it is not completely the way we operate, but close. One of the components is "special events." Many non-profits have them, and we are no different. We are doing the preparations right now for our third of three that we usually do each year. We raise a good deal of our budget through special events. We are grateful to every giver who comes and gives. However, if we rely on events to carry us through the year, it is hard to plan long-term. Good ministries should plan long-term. It is so we will not have to live simply year to year.

One of the BIG components missing from the diagram is our monthly supporters. Churches and individuals who are monthly or quarterly sponsors for us keep us going in between events. Long-term planning needs long-term funding. The best way to have long-term funding is to find people with a passion for your organization or you cause, and give them an outlet for their passion. Sometimes it will be financial, but sometimes it will take on other forms. The former model is event based, but sooner or later people get tired of it, or just come back each year without bringing new people. So at the PCC, we are trying to move toward our operating budget being generated by monthly giving, and our larger needs being done with event money. That's the goal, but after several years, we are not doing so well with our paradigm shift.

She looks up at me, and says, "Thanks for giving me a chance"

Another testimony of a life that almost was not...awesome!

Many Lives Narrowly Missing Death

As I came out of the Pregnancy Care Center today, a woman stopped me and showed me a picture.  Knowing what we do there, she began to tell me this story about the picture.

This woman's sister was at a point in her life that was bringing her to her knees.  Her husband was dying of cancer and the doctors were not hopeful. Her sister also had a 16 year-old daughter, who found herself pregnant out of wedlock. This was devastating to the young teen.

She confided in the woman (her aunt), and told her about the pregnancy.  The advice that was given was something along the lines of, "you cannot have this baby.  This will crush your parents.  They are going through enough right now, and I don't know if they can handle anymore." This woman cringed as she thought about giving that advice.

Thankfully the woman's advice was not heeded.  The teen chose life, and carried "David" to term.  He become the biggest blessing to her dying father, who got to hold him for about the last year of his fleeting life. God's grace was magnified even through sin.

The picture that she showed me on her phone was that of the 3-D ultrasound of "David's" baby soon to be born into this world. The woman is now so glad that her advice was not listened to, and millions of blessings would have been lost.  Had "David" been aborted, so would his children, and their children, and so on.  One abortion costs many lives, and often we don't think about it.

A Second Job: PCC

Lots of thoughts have been swirling in my head about the local church and how is should operate (whole other blog, many of them), and so my current position at the Mell Baptist Association will give me time to think.  For those of you that may not know, my position at the Mell Assocation is to coordinate the efforts of the 29 churches in our association to do ministry and missions.

Anyway, I have a second "part-time" job, which is also a ministry position.  I work for the Pregnancy Care Center/Women's First Choice Medical Center of TiftArea.  I am the Advancement Manager there, and my job is to advance the mission of our center which is to erase the perceived need for abortion in Tifton and the surrounding area.  This ministry has been operational for more than a decade, and the principle it is founded on is Psalm 139:13-16; that God creates all life, including in the womb.

Our aim is to care for women with unplanned pregnancies who are at risk for choosing abortion. Single moms, married couples, and many situations walk through our doors and call our phones each week, and our trained staff takes care of them.  We are a medical clinic, so we do have nurses on staff to operate our ultrasound machine, as well as administer pregnancy and STD tests.

We counsel all our women about their options, and especially about the dangers of abortion, and benefits of alternatives.  We are completely donor supported, so we are under no government regulations about what we say.  We are a Christian clinic.  Patients look us up and are referred to us as the Women's First Choice Medical Center.  And we are a safe place to turn for tough situations that require lots of love.

Last year we saved 50 babies and led 14 women to Christ. This year we have 36 women who have come to us ready to abort that have chosen life.  But we want to do more.  We want to spread out into outlying counties and towns (which we have never done before).  We want to speak for the unborn in places that they need us, and we are not there yet.  We want to give people an option.

We have Vision Tours here at the center that show and tell you all about our ministry and we would love for you to come and see.  But mostly we would like to come and serve you. Your communities and churches need to know that we are here.  Women are facing pressure from boyfriends and parents in those communities now, and we want to help.  If you can help us make inroads into a church or community group, we would gladly send a speaker or schedule a tour for them to come and see.  Or maybe you want to volunteer.  Any way that we can save lives, we are willing to help.

I would love to tell you a story or two about the lives changes here, even last week, but confidentiality prevents that.  Just know that God is saving the unborn here!