Week of Prayer – GOTM

Now more than ever, Tennessee Baptists are responding to God’s call to meet critical needs and serve the least of these with dignity, assistance, and the gospel. Compassion Ministries help increase awareness, develop strategies, provide resources, train volunteers, and connect people to address the issues that challenge our communities.

The Golden Offering supports Compassion Ministries through church-based ministries, food distribution, unplanned pregnancy support, foster care, prison and jail ministries, just to name a few.

Praying for Compassion Ministries

• Pray for churches ministering to underserved populations in their community. Ask that they have wisdom and patience as they build relationships and share the Gospel.
• Pray for churches ministering in jails and prisons across Tennessee. Ask God to open the hearts of men and women to respond to the Gospel.
• Pray for churches and associations to identify needs in their community and for new compassion ministries that will reach the lost and hurting in our state.

There are communities and people groups all over Tennessee that need a gospel witness. Imagine what would happen if churches would plant new churches to reach people they can’t reach.

The Golden Offering supports Church Planting ministries by funding church planters, providing training, and funding new spaces for worship, discipleship and Bible study.

Praying for New Churches

• Pray for two training centers that have been established in Collierville and in Cookeville. Pray as they train a new generation of evangelistic church planters for the harvest.
• Pray for mother churches and potential planters for over 50 locations across our state that need new churches.
• Pray for a church or churches in the East Tennessee area that will serve as a church planting center.
• Pray for All Nations Camp at Carson Springs and Linden Valley. Ask the Holy Spirit to prepare the hearts of the campers to hear and respond to the Gospel.
• Pray for the 40 unreached people groups represented in Tennessee who are less than 2% evangelized world-world. Pray for Tennessee Baptists to look for opportunities for Gospel witness.
• Ask the Lord to send more workers into the harvest fields.

Unwed mothers account for 42% of all births in Tennessee. To call this one of the biggest crises and opportunities would be an understatement.

The Golden Offering funds will be used to continue building the Amy Hood adoption fund started by TBMB. A portion of the allocation will also be distributed to families seeking to change a young person’s life by providing them a forever family.

Contact Beth Moore at bmoore@tnbaptist.org for more information.

Praying for Adoption Ministries

• Pray for God to move in the hearts of families to take the step of faith to adopt a child.
• Pray for God’s abundant provision for families walking through the adoption process.
• Pray for more Tennessee Baptists to open their homes to children in our foster care system.
• Pray for Tennessee Baptist churches to wrap around foster care parents in their congregations and communities.
• Pray for children in foster care to know the love and care of God the Father.

Two-thirds of young people who previously attended church say they stopped regularly going to church for at least a year between the ages of 18 and 22, a recent Lifeway Research survey shows. Collegiate campus ministries are vitally important! We have ministries on almost every major college campus in Tennessee.

The Golden Offering supports collegiate campus ministries through facilities, training, events, evangelism, and discipleship.

Praying for Collegiate Campus Ministries

• Pray for Tennessee collegiate believers that they may faithfully give their hearts and ways to the Lord throughout their college careers.
• Pray that Baptist Collegiate Ministry Specialists may hold to and grow their love for our Tennessee universities, students, faculty, and staff.
• Pray for the next generation of leaders being developed through Baptist Collegiate Ministry across Tennessee, that they may sense God’s calling and be discipled and mentored toward a life of generous service to His Kingdom.

Ford is building the nation’s largest automobile plant in America in Haywood County to manufacture the all-electric F-150 Lightning truck. The population in the region is expected to increase by 90,000 over the next 10 years. Tennessee Baptists have an unprecedented opportunity to make Christ known to thousands of people, many who have never heard of him.

The Golden Offering supports the BlueOval City Initiative through creative hands-on ministry to workers living in RV parks, strengthening local churches, and preparing to plant 40 new churches in the area over the next 10 years.

Praying for BlueOval City Initiative

• Pray for the ministry that will take place at the newly renovated Exit 42 Hebron Chapel facility. It is ready for Bible studies and to host a church plant.
• Pray as Calvary Baptist Church in Brownsville is being prepared for a new church plant.
• Pray for block parties being organized by the churches in Haywood County inside the RV parks where many of the BlueOval City workers live.
• Pray as Gospel conversations are being shared with several BlueOval City workers from South Korea.
• Pray for the multiple conversations with church planters and for the recently purchased wedding venue in the BlueOval City area that will soon host a new church.

Did you know that 15% of GOTM funds given by churches goes back to their Association? These funds help associations and their strategists to reach the spiritually lost in their community nearby and next door. Associations use Golden Offering funds for ministries like pastor training, church planting, compassion ministry, counseling, and evangelism events.
For more information about how GOTM funds are used in your association, contact your Associational Mission Strategist/Director of Missions.

Praying for Missions Discipleship Ministries

• Pray for greater unity and harmony among the churches in each association. Ask the Father to “make us one” as Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane.
• Pray for AMS/DOMs as they continue to minister to the churches of their associations. Ask God to give church leaders a greater desire to work together to implement the strategies of the Acts 2:17 Initiative.
• Pray for a harvest of souls among those churches. There are more lost people in Tennessee than ever before, and we must be more intentional in reaching out to those “far from God.”
• Pray for associations that are actively seeking to find God’s direction for the future of their ministry.

Christians are commanded to take the gospel to all peoples. Missions discipleship ministries provide opportunities for adults, students, children, and preschoolers to deepen and strengthen their discipleship and impact. Tennessee WMU seeks to come alongside churches as we fulfill the Great Commission providing relevant and engaging resources for every age level to learn about and pray for missions and providing a variety of opportunities to be involved in missions.

The Golden Offering supports missions discipleship ministries like Christian Job Corps, Missionary Care, WMU student scholarships, children’s missions discipleship events, and more.

Praying for Missions Discipleship Ministries

• Pray for missions discipleship leaders as they encourage and equip preschoolers, children, students, and adults to engage in missions learning and involvement that enables them to fulfill the Great Commission.
• Pray for Christian Job Corps leaders and volunteers as they minister to participants in jails, prisons, and classrooms. Pray that their words will be pleasing to the Lord as they share the hope and truth of the Gospel.
• Pray that WMU scholarship recipients will be salt and light on their university campuses and that they will boldly share the Gospel with others.

Disasters often present open doors. Victims receive hope, encouragement, help and salvation every year. God has the power to bring beauty from the wreckage. As unpredictable as a disaster may be, they occur with great consistency.

The Golden Offering supports Disaster Relief ministries through training, equipment, and facilities.

Praying for Disaster Relief Ministries

• Pray that God keeps the Disaster Relief volunteers safe and provides them many opportunities to share Christ as they put their faith in action by bringing Help, Hope, and Healing to those in Crisis.
• Pray for those who will be affected by disaster that the Holy Spirit will already be preparing their hearts to receive comfort, encouragement, and hope from those DR volunteers who will serve them.
• Pray for the local DR volunteers as they serve between disasters to meet needs in their local communities. Pray that God will use them to encourage the saints and share the Hope of Christ with those who do not know Him.
• Pray that the DR volunteers see every encounter with every person as an opportunity to share Christ.