Each September Georgia Baptists join hearts and resources together in support of the Georgia Baptist State Missions Season of Prayer and Offering. This year's goal is 1.5 million dollars, and the suggested emphasis dates are September 7-11. A fourteen-day prayer guide is available to you through the offices of the Georgia Baptist Convention to assist you and your church as you pray specifically about Georgia Baptist state missions.

As you know, we live in a state with a rapidly growing population. Georgia is become increasingly lost as now between seventy and eighty percent of Georgia's population is unchurched. We have a huge mission field all around us, which causes us to understand that Christ's command in Acts 1:8 has never been more relevant or needed than it is today.

Jesus commanded that we go with the Gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. We often think about our mission responsibility to the uttermost but need to be reminded that a person in Georgia today who is lost is just as lost as a person on the other side of the world.

Right here in Georgia literally millions need to know about the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ as Lord. We have a wonderful convention of nearly 3,600 churches, all of whom are committed to preaching and teaching the Gospel of Christ, baptizing new believers, and discipling people in their faith. What I want you to be aware of is the fact that we have a wonderful staff of full-time missionaries in Georgia who are serving the Georgia Baptist Convention in many outstanding ministries throughout our state.

As you review the prayer guide for this year's State Missions Emphasis, you will see many of the areas where your state missionaries are serving faithfully. One that I would mention is youth ministries that just completed a successful summer of SuperWow camps at Fort Walton and Jekyll Island.

In those conferences, where nearly 8,000 young people attended, there were 192 professions of faith, 369 who came expressing repentance, 58 who surrendered to full-time Christian service, and 129 other decisions for Christ. These decisions represent the spiritual impact of SuperWow, which will literally last throughout the lifetime of these young people.

You are aware that our Evangelism Ministries worked diligently throughout this year to emphasize the Wave Revivals among our Georgia Baptist churches. I believe that we will see at the conclusion of the year, the largest number of baptisms in our history as a convention. We are so thankful for the powerful moving of God among our churches and the response of those who came trusting Christ as Savior.

Through this mission enterprise, Georgia Baptists support ministry to those who are underprivileged, to those with special needs, to children, and to adults, to Anglos and to ethnic people. We preach in approximately 30 different languages in our churches every Sunday. We go across the world to be involved in disaster relief ministries.

We support ministry on 50 college and university campuses in Georgia where God is moving in a great way. We start approximately 100 new churches a year, look forward to enrolling one million people in Sunday School and Open Groups among our Georgia Baptist churches, conduct Bible drills, speakers tournaments, family ministries and other discipleship ministries throughout our Convention.

We work in partnership with the associations of our state, seeking to facilitate our associational missionaries and to bless the work of the association through providing resources that assist in mission ministry projects on the local association scene.

We work with men and women on mission through our Men's Ministries and our Woman's Missionary Union. We conduct conferences and seminars to train leadership for our churches and seek through our Music and Worship Ministries to inspire that leadership as they bless the local church in Georgia. We have nine ministry resource consultants throughout the state who work diligently to bring the services of the Georgia Baptist Convention close to our associations and churches. We have conference centers in North and South Georgia that provide beautiful surroundings in which to worship, learn, and grow in our walk with the Lord.

Georgia Baptists are 1.4 million strong with a great heart for missions and evangelism. I encourage each one of you to demonstrate your commitment to reach Georgia for Christ by enthusiastically joining in the prayer effort for our state and also by giving the finest state missions offering in our history. May God bless our beloved state convention as we work to reach Georgia for Christ.