By Executive Director J. Brent Walker
One of the many things I love about serving at the Baptist Joint Committee is working with our amazing donors. These loyal partners have taught me and the entire staff so much about what it means to be joyful stewards of the resources that God has given us. Learning from them about responsible Christian stewardship has been a great gift. When they regularly give away their resources to support churches and ministries like ours, they do it joyfully.
Paul writes about finding joy in giving in 2 Corinthians 8-9.
He uses the Macedonians’ astonishing generosity, even in the face of poverty and persecution, as an example to the Corinthians for how they ought to give. The Macedonians gave willingly, sacrificially and joyfully to the collection for the Jerusalem church, and Paul encourages the Corinthians — and us — to respond in the same way.
In the midst of holiday planning and bombardments by television ads and emails encouraging us to buy more and more, it can be hard to respond with joy to requests to give. It is precisely during this time that we need to be drawn back to our call to put our resources at the disposal of God’s Kingdom.
The BJC’s ministry on Capitol Hill would not be possible without your support. The magazine you are reading could not be published 10 times per year. The BJC staff could not travel to colleges, seminaries, churches, and denominational meetings. We could not host student and church groups in the Center for Religious Liberty. We could not interpret church-state relations and religious liberty issues for the national and local media. We could not file friend-of-the-court briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court or advocate for religious liberty in the legislative or executive branches.
This year, we also took great strides to better communicate our message. The all-new BJConline.org launched May 28, improving our website design and functionality while increasing our ability to connect with others. It has a host of helpful resources and information, including Spanish-language handouts. The mobile-friendly site tells our story and explains our mission to new and returning visitors, connecting them not just with our work but to the importance of religious liberty itself. Additionally, we began producing professional-grade videos, including an introduction to our work (both in English and with Spanish subtitles) and a primer on the Baptist heritage of religious liberty.
As exciting and productive as 2014 has been, 2015 will usher in even greater opportunities to carry out our mission.
In 2015:
• We will launch the inaugural BJC Fellows Program, offering young professionals the opportunity to deepen their understanding of religious liberty issues and develop skills to become lifelong advocates. Ten BJC Fellows will be selected to attend a four-day intensive seminar at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. Applications will be available January 5, 2015, and the seminar will be held July 29-August 2. Read more about the program on our website at BJConline.org/Fellows.
• The BJC will begin a new lectureship modeled after our popular Shurden Lectures. This event will help increase BJC’s geographic and demographic reach, allowing us to engage new populations of students, including those in communities with greater racial, religious, socio-economic and geographic diversity. It is slated to begin in fall 2015.
These are just two examples of the new and exciting directions the BJC is headed.
We can’t do any of this without your partnership and support. I invite you to invest yourself in the BJC’s vision and mission through your energy, your prayers and your money. Please make a generous gift to the BJC now and join with us as we seek to educate future generations about religious liberty and church-state separation.
Whether you can give a lot or little, give with joy!
From the November/December 2014 Report From the Capital. Click here to read the next article.
