outhwestern l=
= Record
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Oficial Organ of the Southwestern i'n we be ay Seventh- «day Adventists
Vou. XXXIV
KEENE, Texas, FEB
Cally 6, 1435
pp————‘————— y —
NUMBER 5
Our Mission Offerings are Growing
IN 1922 the Southwest gave
for missionz., In 1933 we gave $69,
334. And the year just closed, 1934,
we pave T0308.08. This includes
Sabbath school offering, foreign mis-
sion offering, Harvest Ingathering,
and everything that goes into the
regular Forty-cent-a-aveck fund. We
now have approximately ten thousand
members in the Southwest, This
means that we averaged almost eight
dollars apiece for the year 1934.
While that is ten thousand dollars
more than we turned in in 1933, yet,
brethren, when you stop to think of
it, how much is that per week? That
is an average of fifteen cents per week
per member. ‘The General Conference
goal is forty cents per week per mem-
ber.
Doubtless in the past we have been
somewhat discouraged because we
have been so far beneath the goal,
But now the General Conference has
passed an action urging that in places
where it seems impossible to reach the
"forty-cent-a-week goal, that we en-
courage our conferences, churches,
57,700
and members to raise an amount equal
to a twenty-five per cent increase
above 1934. I have figured that out,
and it would mean $99,135. 10.
1 believe, Lrethren, that if we set
our hearts to it that we can gO over
$100,000 for 1935, which is a few
hundred over the twenty-five per cent
increase. One hundred thousand dol-
lars Tor ten thousand members would
be ten dollars a member. Of course,
we have some members who probably
will not be ableé to raise ten dollars.
But we have large numbers whe will
be able to raize ten dollars, and many
who will raise double that, and still
large numbers who will doubtless
multiply it by ten, and some by twenty
or twenty-five. This can be casily
accomplished if every one of us earn-
estly seeks the Lord to find out what
our responsibility would be, the a-
mount we should raise during the
year. If it is ten dollars, let us de-
cide that means that we shall raise
about eighty-five cents a month, This
would mean around twenty-one cents
a week, or three cents a day. You will
say this is too smull an amount to
talk about. Well, it is small. Yeti,
if every member actually did it, we
would raise $100,000 in 1935.
The Layman
Leave it to the ministers, and soon
the church will die,
Leave it to the women-folk,—the
young will pass it by.
For the church is all that lifts us
from the coarse and selfish mob,
And the church that is to prosper
needs the layman on the job.
It's the chureh’s special function to
uphold the finer things,
To teach that way of living from
which all that’s noble springs;
But the minister can't do it, single-
handed and alone,
For the laymen of the country are
the church's cornerstone.
When you see a church that's empty,
though its doors are open wide,
It is not the church that's
dying,—
it’s the laymen who have died;
For it's not by song or sermon that
the church's work is done,
It's the laymen of the country who
for God must carry on.
: EnGar A. GUEST.
Now, why should not every member
attempt at least that, and many,
many of our members attempt many
times more? The individual Sabbath
school goal is an average of twenty
cents, Then comes our investment
fund, Big Week, Week of Sacrifice,
our campmeeting pledges, and last
but not least, the Ingathering.
Brethren, if we will study this mat-
ter as individuals and families and
churches and conferences, the South-
western Union will go so far beyond
$100,000 in 1935 that $100,000 will
not need to be remembered any longer.
Gur union committee met a few
days ago, and set a goal of §34,200.
which has been properly distributed
among the conferences, and each con-
ference will in turn re-distribute this
among the churches, and then the
churches will undoubtedly sot sgroals
and lay plans to very definitely reach
their goal and go away beyond.
The reason we have not gone beyond
is because we have not heretofore
definitely pointed at some goal that
is within reach. We have thought of
some goals that have seemingly heen
away beyond our reach. Now, if we
will make this goal this year, which is
wholly within the realm of possibility,
then another year we can take a step
farther, and eventually we will be up
with those conferences that actually
raise forty cents a week for missions.
I am sure it is a matter of vision,
definite planning, and leadership. As
we get near the end, we must remem-
ber that God has promised to make
his people willing. Along with that
willingness, He wants us to use in-
telligence, consecration, and exercise
faith. If we will make His finances
first instead of ours, He will greatly
help ours. He has told us that if we
would bring the tithe and offerings to
the storehouse that He would do cer-
tain things for us. Let us prove Him
now and sce if He will not open the
windows of heaven and send us the
blessing that he has promised.
Let us all definitely set ourselves
to do our
utmost, so. far as individ-
ually we are concerned, ta reach the
goal for the Southwest in 1935. Let's
try to make $100,000 for missions.
R. L. BexTtoxN,
“The Foreign Literature Offering
to be taken March 2 ix to help meet
the expense of printing the gospel for
these last days in the many foreign
languages represented by foreign-
speaking people in the United States
and Canada.”