Special Emphasis Begins

I am excited to share what is going on with the ministry of the Baptist Trumpet as we begin our time of Special Emphasis — “The Power of Connection.” The packets of promotional flyers, along with a letter to the pastor and the church, should be arriving in your mailbox by the end of the week. I encourage you to join us in this time of Special Emphasis and use the included posters to help promote the ministry of the Baptist Trumpet in the following ways over the next two months:

• Post the flyers in places around your church to let people know that we want to continue to be the connection between your church members and the work of the BMA on every level.

• If you are not already subscribers, please set up a church plan subscription for your members. The best way to ensure that the ministry of the Baptist Trumpet continues to connect for years to come is to provide the opportunity to reach your members and keep them “informed and inspired,” as our mission statement says.

• Set a goal and a time to collect a special love offering on or before Baptist Trumpet Day on Sunday, April 24. Please prayerfully consider how you can help us meet our goal of $45,000 to continue to be your ministry connection.

• Please visit BaptistTrumpet.com/SE2022 to follow our progress and download digital resources to help promote this time of Special Emphasis.

The following is a modified version of the letter that is included with the Special Emphasis packets that were mailed out:

The past 14 months since I began serving as the executive editor of the Baptist Trumpet have been exciting. We have continued to produce the only weekly newspaper in the BMA and have been able to connect with many of our subscribers across the state of Arkansas and beyond. It is truly a remarkable thing to see how God uses this ministry to provide the connection between what is happening in the BMA — locally, in Arkansas, nationally and internationally — to the people in our churches. I truly believe that the “Power of Connection” is something we can’t do without if we are going to continue to do the work of the association to the best of our ability.

As we enter the time set aside by the BMA of Arkansas for us to raise the needed support for this ministry, I want to let you know where we stand. The much-needed rate increase, along with a 50% funded Trumpet Team, has helped to stabilize our finances. As we begin this time of Special Emphasis (March 1), we are exactly 50% through our fiscal year (September-August). This means that the 50% funded Trumpet Team has carried us this far to help cover our deficit, but we must raise the other 50% during this time to complete the fiscal year strong. We need to raise just over $20,000 to offset the planned deficit.

For the past two years, we have been transitioning to a new circulation management system that allows us to better connect with our subscribers and provides a way for them to connect with the content on our website. The program we use is working well, but it has one major drawback — the ongoing monthly cost. We are working to develop our own software that can do what we need without the monthly cost, but it requires an upfront investment. This investment can easily be recovered once we are able to stop the cost associated with our current program and will be a big help in keeping our finances stable going forward. The initial estimated cost for the development of this software is $20,000, but we are hopeful it can be done for much less.

As you are reading this, we will have launched our new website. Please go check it out at www.BaptistTrumpet.com! While we are excited to present it to you, there are some other resources we are looking to provide in the future that will require more investment to develop. We are in the process of creating a resource for churches that are looking for pastors or staff members and also a place where those that are available can post their information. Our goal is to make this a searchable and sharable resource that will help our churches find God’s man to fulfill their ministry needs. We are budgeting $5,000 to help develop this resource and others for our churches.

As you consider each of these goals, I hope you see, as we do, that they will help us continue to provide the needed connection between the people in your church and the ministries of the BMA on all levels. Please prayerfully consider how you and your church can help us meet our goal of $45,000.

I would love to come and share about how God is working through the Baptist Trumpet with your church. You can contact me by email at editor@baptisttrumpet.com or by calling the office at (501) 565-4601.