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“The earth is the LORD’s and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.”
Psalm 24:1 (NIV)
The Mississippi Baptist Foundation serves as the trust agency of the Mississippi Baptist Convention, offering a means whereby Mississippi Baptists can provide perpetual support for Mississippi Baptist and Southern Baptist causes until our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, returns.
As the trust agency of the Convention, the Mississippi Baptist Foundation promotes Christian estate stewardship, receives, invests, and manages endowment gifts. Additionally, the Foundation distributes earnings from these endowments to many Baptist ministries. In essence, the Mississippi Baptist Foundation serves as a money-management partner for Mississippi Baptist churches, institutions, and agencies. The Mississippi Baptist Foundation ministers under the direction of a Board of Trustees elected by the Mississippi Baptist Convention and the Foundation receives primary funding through a Cooperative Program allocation. As a Mississippi Baptist agency, the Mississippi Baptist Foundation desires to advance the goal of “helping bring Mississippi and the World to Jesus.”
The words to Frances Havergal’s great hymn “Take My Life, and Let It Be Consecrated” reflect the heart, soul, body, and mind of a person who lives in complete submission to our Heavenly Father. Although this hymn may not flash across the screen as frequently as other songs and choruses, I can happily attest that scores of faithful Mississippi Baptists regularly exhibit the qualities of this prayer through the stewardship of their time, talents, tithe, and other financial resources.
A key emphasis of the Mississippi Baptist Foundation is to encourage and educate Mississippi Baptists in the area of estate stewardship. When I sing the words, “Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold,” I think of the manner in which so many Christian stewards have provided perpetual financial blessings to our Baptist institutions through outright endowments or bequests presented through a Last Will and Testament. In other words, financial stewardship is not limited to the contributions placed in the offering plate on Sunday. The Mississippi Baptist Foundation provides the means through which these important acts of stewardship can occur.
By way of illustration, Mississippi Baptists exhibited exceptional stewardship to Kingdom ministries through the Mississippi Baptist Foundation by giving $5,062,936 in new contributions during the 12 months ending June 30, 2012. During this same period, total assets managed by the Foundation increased by 4.7% from the previous year to $107,475,082.
Since 1943, Mississippi churches and mission causes, our Mississippi Baptist colleges and the Baptist Children’s Village, North American and International missions, and the six Southern Baptist Seminaries have received encouragement and financial support from the generosity of committed stewards. As a result of these historic and recent blessings, distributions of income by the Foundation to various Baptist causes totaled $3,636,356 during the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2012.
Presentations were made by Foundation staff at associational meetings, Senior Adults rallies and retreats, and to various church groups. These visits provided the opportunity to share information on the benefits and blessings of Kingdom stewardship that are available through a Last Will and Testament, an Advance Health Care Directive, Powers of Attorney, and Charitable Gifts. Many Mississippi Baptists responded to the invitation to promote Kingdom ministries by favoring Baptist causes in their will or through a charitable trust.
In addition to the continued popularity of our booklet entitled Your Personal Planning Toolkit, the Foundation enlisted the services of PhilanthroCorp to assist with planned giving promotion. Headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, PhilanthroCorp has a proven track record of helping Christian stewards navigate the often unfamiliar waters of estate planning.
The Mississippi Baptist Foundation promotes estate stewardship by offering seminars that focus on Last Will and Testament, Investments, and the nature, method, and benefits of making Financial Gifts. The format of each seminar is appropriate for Discipleship Training sessions, group luncheons, and other gatherings. Please call the Mississippi Baptist Foundation to schedule one of our seminars or for assistance in make a gift to a Mississippi Baptist or Southern Baptist cause or mission.
“Take my will and make it Thine, It shall be no longer mine;
Take my heart, it is Thine own, It shall be thy royal throne,
It shall be thy royal throne.”
Please call the Mississippi Baptist Foundation with questions or for assistance regarding any of the services offered through the Foundation.
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