JOURNEY WITH JEFF: No More Room!

It is a busy season for the Baptist Trumpet. Between sharing all the needed information leading up to the national meeting, reporting on the meeting and sharing follow-up information after the meeting, it has been hard to find any extra space as we put the paper together for the past few months. I have things I have had to hold on to for a few weeks because I simply have not had the room to get them in.

We do our best to make each issue of the Baptist Trumpet something that is valuable to you by keeping you informed about all things going on with the BMA on every level — local, state, national and international. We also try to include things that will encourage you in your walk with the Lord and sometimes challenge you to think about things in a different way.

Over the last four issues, we have featured many things that help to do this. In our April 19 issue we had 16 pages (instead of the normal 8)! This included a special insert to continue the conversation about why it is important to be actively involved in our associational work on every level — from the local to the national. If you missed that special edition insert, you can go to BaptistTrumpet.com and click on the link on the slider on the homepage to read the four pages of content from multiple authors. In the same issue, we included our Transforming Arkansas bimonthly insert featuring content from State Missions, Central Baptist College and Student Ministry Matters about how God is transforming lives through those ministries. In last week’s issue, we included our bimonthly Global Ministry Insert that featured stories from BMA Global Missions and Lifeword. This is all in addition to our content from our regular authors and featured columnists.

Even with this issue, we have added four extra pages just so we can get all the content included. You have heard this before, but I don’t know how we could adequately keep our readers informed about everything if we didn’t have a weekly paper.

I wanted to share all of this to help you understand that we truly believe receiving the weekly Trumpet is the best way to stay informed about all things BMA along with all of the other inspirational and informative content. That is why it hurts when we hear of churches that want to cancel their church plan. We believe the 80¢ per issue (church plan rate) per family is an amazing price for all you have access to through our Total Access Subscription that not only brings you the paper weekly to your mailbox or email (or both) but also allows you to access all the content at our website.

We truly understand that times can get difficult, but we also want to help in any way possible to help keep as many people as possible in our churches connected with a subscription. We will work with you to keep things going until you get back on your feet or help you find an alternative way to cover your subscription costs for your people. Just like we talked about at the national meeting and in our special edition insert — we are better when we work together!

Special Emphasis Update

Because of the tight space over the last month, I was unable to include our promotional information about our Special Emphasis or share an update about where we are in our fundraising efforts. Our specific time is March and April each year, but we do count all offerings that come in designated for Special Emphasis toward our goal through the end of our fiscal year (Aug. 31).

Thank you to those that have given and thank you for praying for this ministry. Below is an update for our Special Emphasis 2023:

2023 Special Emphasis • Goal — $30,000

Previous Balance (April 12) $12,950.00

Woodberry Baptist Church, Hampton $100.00

Old Baptist Mission Church, Westville, Okla. $440.00

New Home Baptist Church, Quitman $95.00

Springhill Baptist Church, Greenbrier* $100.00

Diane Jackson $150.00

Anonymous $25.00

Summers Baptist Church, Summers $250.00

Cross Roads Baptist Church, Warren $578.00

Immanuel Baptist Church, Greenbrier* $80.00

Patricia Simmons $200.00

Pleasant Valley Baptist Church, Greenbrier* $2,200.00

Rowes Chapel Baptist Church, Humnoke $450.00

Sand Springs Baptist Church, Damascus $294.16

Calvary Baptist Church, Marvell $300.00

Eastside Baptist Church, Lonoke $150.00

Fellowship Baptist Church, Bella Vista $1,300.00

Oakland Heights Baptist Church, White Hall $30.00

Total $19,692.16

*Previously given