Introduction to MMO
The Rheubin L. South Missouri Missions Offering (MMO) is our state’s annual missions offering, named after the late executive director who pioneered the annual giving emphasis that today supports projects in four areas of ministry:
Making disciples – sports evangelism; a prison extension campus of Hannibal-LaGrange University; Vacation Bible School training and resource development; youth evangelism and missions; and the state fair ministry of the Missouri DOM Fellowship.
Collegiate ministries – collegiate summer missions mentoring initiative; international student ministry missions conference and regional gatherings; and a new technical school initiative.
Multiplying churches – next-step requests for church multipliers; partnership missions in Mexico, Italy, and Minnesota/Wisconsin; and strategic missionary development.
Developing leaders – disaster relief equipment and volunteer readiness; Missouri WMU; church leader development; new pastors’ conference / revitalization pastors’ conference; Missouri Baptist Resound Network; Baptist Builders and volunteer mobilization; and hunger relief.
In addition, 17 percent of MMO receipts go to the Missouri Baptist Children’s Home, which provides spiritual guidance, counseling, and a safe haven from abuse and neglect at five state campuses.
And 10 percent of MMO gifts go back to the associations of the giving churches, where the funds support regional mission projects.
History of the Offering
Rheubin L. South became executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention in 1975, coming to Missouri from Park Hill Baptist Church, North Little Rock, Ark.
When South arrived, each Missouri Baptist agency promoted its own offering. The Missouri Woman’s Missionary Union promoted the convention’s offering for state missions. As mission causes and agencies multiplied, the different offerings became burdensome to Missouri Baptist churches. Having separate offerings meant that Missouri Baptist agencies were competing against each other.