Margaret Lackey Offering

The Margaret Lackey Offering for State Missions is the primary funding stream for key mission efforts in many different areas: Garaywa Camp and Conference Center in Clinton, Central Hills Retreat near West, Missions Volunteers, Church Multiplication, Community Ministry, Disaster Relief, Criminal Justice Ministries, Collegiate Outreach, Christian Women’s/Men’s Job Corps, Cross-Cultural Evangelism, Language/Deaf Ministry, and Port Ministry.
The Margaret Lackey Offering for State Missions is like the Cooperative Program’s little sister, and adds value to what Mississippi Baptists are doing together in missions, church leadership training, and compassionate evangelism. The offering helps position us to fulfill the Great Commission appeal of Acts 1:8.
2021 Resources
Poster
Offering Guide
Offering Envelopes
Weekly Children’s Activities
Giving Map
Videos
Click a title below to view the corresponding video.
Print Resources
Poster
Offering Guide
Margaret Lackey Stories – 2021 Info Coming Soon
Weekly Children’s Activities
- Children’s Activity Sheet – Community Ministry
- Children’s Activity Sheet – BSU
- Children’s Activity Sheet – Criminal Justice Ministry
- Children’s Activity Sheet – Mission Volunteers
Giving Map
Margaret Lackey Offering – Mississippi Baptist State Missions
Leading Your Congregation to Participate in State Missions
- Lead your church to pray for and give generously to the Margaret Lackey Offering for State Missions.
- Empower a state missions coordinator to plan your congregation’s emphasis.
- Look over the 2021 resources and download or order materials as needed.
- Choose a calendar date between August and October for your offering emphasis.
- Set an offering goal and challenge your members to respond generously.
- Display posters in prominent places throughout your church.
- Distribute Offering Guides and offering envelopes to every member.
- Show the Margaret Lackey Offering for State Missions videos during church worship services and other ministry times, such as midweek prayer meetings.
- Prepare copies of the children’s activity sheets
- Promote the offering in your church newsletter and during pre-service emphases.
- Celebrate the grace of God and the power of Christ to include us to “Teach This People.”
2021 Mississippi State Missions Emphasis
“And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” Colossians 3:14 NIV
Offering Goal: $2.1 Million
Speaker’s List
Angie Boydstun
Aboydstun@mbcb.org
(601) 392.3294
Barri Shirley
bshirley@mbcb.org
(601) 292.3240
Beverly Bridges
bbridges@mbcb.org
(601) 292.3231
Cindy Heimbach
cindyheimbach@msn.com
(662) 417.3944
Hubert Yates
hyates@mbcb.org
(601) 292.3334
Jennie Taylor
jtaylor@mbcb.org
(662) 275.7189
Johnny Ervin
jervin@mbcb.org
(601) 292.3224
Jon Martin
jmartin@mbcb.org
(601) 292.3231
Lloyd Lunceford
llunceford@mbcb.org
(601) 310.1552
Mary & Roy Callahan
maryvcallahan@aol.com
rcalla3623@aol.com
(601) 826-0442
(601) 826-0449
Maria Teel
mteel@mbcb.org
(601) 292.3201
Mike Ray
mray@mbcb.org
(601) 292.3398
Molly Hopper
mhopper@mbcb.org
(601) 292.3299
Philip Price
AMD@goJCBA.com
(228) 761.6003
Rebekah Peavy
rpeavy@mbcb.org
(601) 292.3209
Rena Register
renar1976@yahoo.com
(601) 649.8114
Roddy Reed
rreed@garaywa.org
(601) 924.7034
Shane Thrash
sthrash@mbcb.org
(662) 289.9730
Tammy Anderson
Tanderson@mbcb.org
(601) 292.3323
Who is Margaret Lackey?
MARGARET LACKEY AND THE STATE MISSION OFFERING
Margaret McRae Lackey was born in Copiah County, Mississippi, on October 24,1858, to James and Elizabeth Lackey. She was the fifth of nine children. Upon graduation from Hillman College in Clinton, she taught in several county schools and at Lea Female College in Summit. Margaret later returned to Clinton so she could reconnect with her alma mater, Hillman College.
Margaret actively stressed the values of women’s mission organizations in Baptist churches. She
loved learning about missions and taught the young children in her church to love missions as well. She was active in the Mississippi Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU), and her name appeared frequently in annual WMU meeting procedures.
In 1912, Miss Lackey was employed as the first salaried corresponding secretary of Mississippi WMU. Brilliant in intellectual gifts and consecrated to the Master’s service, she entered eagerly into the work. Funds were scarce during those early days. The yearly budget for Mississippi WMU was $900. Margaret received a salary of $50 per month and $25 per month for “running expenses of the work.”
When Margaret assumed the duties of Corresponding Secretary, she had a vision of what might be accomplished through more organized efforts of the women of the state. She likewise had faith in the part women played in kingdom work. With that vision and that faith, she well served Mississippi WMU and missions for nearly nineteen years. ln December of 1930, at the age of seventy-two, she retired.
In retirement, Margaret was associated with Mississippi Baptist Hospital (now Mississippi Baptist Medical Center) in Jackson for more than 15 years. It was said of her that she spoke words of cheer to the sick, consoled the suffering, prayed for the dying, and “made for herself a place in the daily life of the institution that only a person with a great soul can fill.” Margaret Lackey died and was buried in June of 1948, just a few days before her 90th birthday. During
her funeral, the flags over the Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson and Jackson City Hall were flown at half-mast to honor her life of service.
The offering, which bears Miss Lackey’s name, began in 1903. It was at that time the Mississippi WMU set aside an annual day in the interest of state missions. The purpose of the emphasis was to “familiarize women with the conditions of our state – social, racial, moral, and religious.” In 1917, the State Missions Day became the Week of Prayer for State Missions. ln 1935, five years after her retirement, the offering was given the name, “Margaret Lackey State Mission Offering,” to honor the one who had led WMU so valiantly.
The offering has expanded in ways Miss Lackey would approve. The first state mission offering received in 1903 was $294.38. In 2015, the amount given to the Margaret Lackey Offering for State Missions was $2,154,549. The offering has expanded in its outreach, funding ministries in our own backyard as well as sending Mississippians throughout the world for Christ. The offering sustains ministries such as church planting, children’s camps, and missionary mobilization. The offering trains and mobilizes volunteers in disaster relief, criminal justice, literacy, and international outreach. The offering adds to and works hand-in-hand with the evangelistic and benevolent ministries funded through the Cooperative Program.