JOURNEY WITH JEFF: Prayers Appreciated

As many of you may already know, on July 11, my mom had a hemorrhagic brain bleed in the front left portion her brain. She spent 10 days in ICU and a few more days on the neurology floor before being transferred to begin rehab. I know many have been praying, and I can’t begin to tell you how much it means to my family that so many are lifting us up in prayers. We ask you to continue to pray for her recovery as she works to regain some function and communication skills.

Time to Start Traveling

We are just over a month away from the first local association meeting. Either Associate Editor Allan Eakin, Editor Emeritus Diane Spriggs or I are planning to be at each meeting to share about the ministry of the Baptist Trumpet. We are thankful the opportunity to do so, and we want to help you and your church in any way we can as we seek to keep you informed about all things relating to the Baptist Missionary Association while also providing news for the Christian community.

We Need Your Help

Last year, we implemented the final of the two-stage rate increase that brought our subscription rate in line with our actual production and post-production costs. I shared then that I do not believe the greatest threat to the future ministry of the Baptist Trumpet is a rise in costs, but rather a decline in subscribers. Over the past few months, four churches made the choice to cancel their church plans (for a variety of reasons) and two others were going to cancel before we offered to continue the paper while they “got over the hump” so they can try and find room in their budget to continue. If it wasn’t for some churches that aggressively added members to their list and took time to get it “caught up,” we would have seen an even greater decrease in our subscriber base.

The truth is that when we lose subscribers, even if our actual costs stay the same, the cost per paper goes up. I wholeheartedly believe that every church should subscribe to the church plan for their members so each member can be informed about what their association is doing.

Church leaders, will you actively add all new members to your church plan? Church members, will you be an ambassador for the Trumpet by encouraging everyone you know to become a subscriber? Let us know if we can help in any way.

Special Emphasis Update

Thank you to everyone who has given toward our goal. We are now in the last month of the fiscal year, which means it is the last month we will receive Special Emphasis offerings toward our goal. We are just under $7,000 away! Would you pray and ask God if He would have you give to help us cross the finish line before we run out of time?

2023 Special Emphasis • Goal — $30,000

Previous Balance (May 24) $21,387.16

Calvary Baptist Church, White Hall $1,470.00

Hershel Conley $50.00

Denise Rogers $62.00

Jay/Jana Hefner $100.00

David Burns $100.00

Total $23,169.16