October 14, 2026
NASHVILLE — As the books closed on the latest fiscal year, receipts for the two Southern Baptist national annual missions offerings underscored the value Southern Baptist churches place on reaching the world with the gospel.
The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering totaled $212.5 million to support International Mission Board missionaries, and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering reached $73.6 million to support the North American Mission Board’s church planting, compassion ministry, and other evangelistic efforts to reach North America.
IMB President Paul Chitwood said he celebrates what God did in the 2025-26 season and what He is doing now to lead Southern Baptists toward historic generosity.
“I thank God for Southern Baptists! With giving through the Lottie Moon offering at an all-time high, churches and individual givers continue to display a heart for the gospel to be proclaimed to every nation, all tribes, peoples and languages,” Chitwood said.
The Annie Armstrong total marked the second highest in NAMB’s history. The record Lottie Moon offering total surpassed last year’s total by more than $5 million and is the best offering in IMB history.
“God is giving our generation unprecedented opportunity to send missionaries to the most unreached peoples and places,” Chitwood continued. “Though the challenges faced by our missionaries are enormous, the generosity of Southern Baptists ensures they have what they need to face those challenges and continue in the work while we hold the ropes with our support.”
National goals for both offerings are set in partnership with Woman’s Missionary Union each year. In response to the offering totals, Sandy Wisdom-Martin, the group's executive director-treasurer, said: “As Southern Baptists, we are all in for His mission. When we give sacrificially, we prioritize the mission of God. Together, our fervent prayers, our faithful generosity, and our wholehearted obedience become channels for the gospel to reach our neighbors as well as the nations.”
Southern Baptists have increasingly supported the Annie offering, setting records in seven of the last 10 years. Totals in each of the last four years have surpassed $70 million.
“I am so grateful to the pastors and churches for the faithfulness and generosity they have demonstrated through this offering,” said NAMB president Kevin Ezell. “As I travel and speak in churches of all sizes, I love seeing the posters in the hallways showing their offering goals. For some it is a few hundred dollars, for others several thousand.”
The Annie Armstrong offering supports more than 3,000 missionaries in North America, including the ongoing work of church planting in the U.S. and Canada. In 2025, Southern Baptists planted the largest number of churches, 699, since 2016. Including church plants and replants, Southern Baptists have surpassed 700 new churches in four of the last five years. More than 12,000 churches have been planted since 2010.
To go along with the increased giving totals to the SBC’s missions offerings, Southern Baptists have also increased their local outreach efforts, indicating that the focus is not just on giving but on sending. Baptism totals have increased in each of the last five years, recovering from the pandemic-year low in 2020 to surpass the 2017 total. The five consecutive years of increase marked the first such streak in approximately 75 years.
Rising offering totals and continued generosity are critical for the IMB as well as it has seen a 500 percent increase in missionary applicants since 2018, with total applicants above 1,600. IMB is also seeing growth among volunteers of all ages and global missionary partners. Southern Baptists’ faithful giving helps overcome the challenges of inflation and other rising costs of international work – an ongoing and vital effort as Southern Baptist missionary teams grow.
“Whatever the size of the church and whatever the size of the gift, the offering totals represent a sacrifice and the priority placed on reaching the lost around the world,” Ezell said. “The rise in baptisms, church plants, and IMB missionary applicants says so much about who Southern Baptists are as a family of churches. It tells the story that the mission is important and that our missionaries are not alone.”
Each year the annual offering season kicks off Oct. 1 and runs through Sep. 30 of the following year. As Southern Baptist churches celebrate one year’s offering total, they prepare for the next season of giving to Lottie Moon, which is often observed during Christmastime.
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Free downloadable resources to promote the 2026-27 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering are available at lottiemoon.com. For the 2026-2027 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering, free resources are available at anniearmstrong.com.
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