After a pandemic-influenced decline in 2020, Southern Baptists rallied to give $66.5 million to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering in 2021, the highest amount ever given to the offering that supports missions in North America.
North American Mission Board president, Kevin Ezell, told trustees meeting recently in Pittsburgh.
“The hard part about this year is we didn’t really know exactly what to expect. But thank goodness, Southern Baptists love their missionaries and give sacrificially.”
Ezell said that since 2010, the offering has increased 22 percent.
Southern Baptist giving to the offering set records for three consecutive years in 2017, 2018 and 2019 before pandemic shutdowns occurred in 2020 during the season when churches typically collect the Annie offering, which supports missionaries who plant gospel-proclaiming churches and provide gospel-focused compassion ministry across North America.
The 2021 offering pushed the cumulative sum of gifts given to the Annie fund past the $2 billion mark since the Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) organized the first collection for the Home Mission Board in 1895. The offering is named for Annie Armstrong, a woman who encouraged the expansion of missions efforts and mobilized Southern Baptists to support missionaries.