{"id":47170,"date":"2024-05-15T08:00:59","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T12:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/?p=47170"},"modified":"2025-11-04T16:20:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T21:20:31","slug":"historic-church-makes-history-in-record-breaking-missions-giving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/historic-church-makes-history-in-record-breaking-missions-giving\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic church makes history in record-breaking missions giving"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE\u2014What started as a multigenerational mission-themed breakfast has transformed into record-breaking missions giving for one rural North<\/a> Florida Baptist<\/a> church.<\/p>\n

For more than 150 years, the people of Long Branch Baptist Church, located about 15 miles outside of Middleburg, have been steadfast in loving and serving their community.<\/p>\n

\u201cA genuine love for each other and reliance on God\u201d are the distinguishing marks of the church, said Pastor Harry Conaway.<\/p>\n

Recently that steadfast spirit of love and service has stirred a generosity in church members\u2019 hearts for giving to missions and supporting missionaries.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>In 2022 an enthusiastic 81-year-old woman, Helen Fife, began attending Long Branch Baptist Church. Shortly after arriving at the Florida Baptist church, Fife said the Lord began to cultivate her heart for missions. Wanting to act on what the Lord had stirred in her heart, Fife volunteered to carry the baton of missions and missions\u2019 education by reinvigorating the church\u2019s Woman\u2019s Missionary Union<\/a> involvement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more she read about missions and missionaries around the world, it became a bigger fire within her heart,\u201d Conaway said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMissionaries don\u2019t make it without us,\u201d Fife said.<\/p>\n

\u2018God can do big things\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over the past two years, the church has raised awareness for the annual North American Mission Board\u2019s\u00a0Annie Armstrong Easter Offering<\/a>\u00a0and the International Mission Board\u2019s\u00a0Lottie Moon Christmas Offering<\/a>. By using prayer prompts, videos and other missions and WMU resources and materials, the faithful church of about 75 members has exceeded its goals for the missions\u2019 offerings.<\/p>\n

Convinced that \u201cGod can do big things,\u201d and wanting to carry out the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20, Fife encouraged those in the church to set a goal for the 2023 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering at $3,000. After giving several hundred dollars in previous years, this goal for Long Branch Baptist Church would be a stretch, setting a record. After the Christmas season ended, the church gave $300 more than its goal. The church set another goal of $3,000 for this year\u2019s Annie Armstrong Easter Offering and recently exceeded that goal as well.<\/p>\n

Between these two seasonal offerings, the church has championed mission-giving by sending more than $6,000 over the past four months.<\/p>\n

The church has also increased its mission involvement and giving to include donating Bibles for The Gideons International<\/a>, taking part in the Samaritan\u2019s Purse Operation Christmas Child<\/a> shoebox ministry, financially supporting missionaries serving in Haiti and Romania, and donating items to its community Angel Tree drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere we were donating 82 shoeboxes to Operation Christmas Child, we\u2019re now donating 262,\u201d said Conaway. \u201cThis type of giving just proves that when you have a heart to serve, God will allow you to make an impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite this all, there is one thing Conaway and Fife wanted to make clear\u2014for the spotlight to shine upon the One who is deserving.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

“We don\u2019t want the spotlight. We\u2019re not bragging about our church or our people. We\u2019re bragging about God and what He has done.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n Harry Conaway<\/strong>
\n pastor, Long Branch Baptist Church, Jacksonville\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want the spotlight,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not bragging about our church or our people. We\u2019re bragging about God and what He has done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The missions-minded emphasis and giving has not only served mission organizations and missionaries but also strengthened the local church, Conaway believes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has greatly enriched our church,\u201d he said. \u201cWe love being with each other, laughing together, growing spiritually, and desiring to care and reach lost souls for Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

As you leave Long Branch Baptist Church on a given Sunday, a sign outside the door reminds members that they \u201care now entering their mission field.\u201d And that\u2019s exactly what these church members are doing due to their love for the Lord and the urging of Fife\u2014reaching their neighbor and the nations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What started as a multigenerational mission-themed breakfast has transformed into record-breaking missions giving for one rural North Florida Baptist church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":47171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,49,22,23,25,213],"tags":[640,727,728,729,448,730,217],"class_list":["post-47170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-missions","category-region-north","category-providing","category-sharing","category-stories","category-women","tag-aaeo","tag-gideons-international","tag-lmco","tag-long-branch-baptist-church","tag-missions","tag-samaritans-purse","tag-wmu"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47170"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64623,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47170\/revisions\/64623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}