What’s New In 2024?

My favorite holiday each year is New Year’s Day. Not New Year’s Eve, but the first day of the year. I like what it symbolizes, the opportunity for a fresh start. In fact, my personal name for the day is, Philippians 3:13-14 Day. “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

New Year’s Day allows us the opportunity to close the door on the past year and step through the door that Christ has opened to us for the new year. So . . . what’s new in the DBC as we step through His door to 2024? Let me share a new prayer initiative, two new bold giving goals, and four new opportunities for fellowship, encouragement, and equipping.

A New Prayer Initiative

Our theme for the coming year is “We Always Pray,” taken from 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12. Read the articles above this one for a challenge from our DBC president Josh Brown regarding this theme and an introduction to our new prayer initiative, PrayDakotas 2024. 

Throughout the year, Josh and I will unveil new opportunities for us to “always pray” for each other, for the lost, and for the fulfillment of our mission to strengthen established churches and start new churches. For now, let me highlight two of them. First, we invite you to begin sending prayer requests for your church family to PrayDakotas2024@dakotabaptist.com. Our staff will lift concerns to the Lord and soon we will put together a team of prayer warriors from various churches around the Dakotas to pray for and encourage you.

Second, identify another church in the Dakotas and begin praying for them. Reach out to their pastor and let him know you are praying for them. Ask for specific ways to “always pray” for them. Perhaps you might reach out to one of our pastorless churches. If so, contact us here at the DBC office and we can give you a contact person for that church.

Two New Bold Giving Goals

At our DBC annual meeting last October, we adopted a budget that set bold targets for Cooperative Program (CP) giving and the 2024 Baker Offering. Our CP goal is $460,000 and the Baker goal is $55,000. 

These are challenging goals, but I am confident that a group of churches that “always pray” will be empowered and emboldened to give in unprecedented ways to take the name of Jesus across the Dakotas and around the world.  Our CP gifts work here in the Dakotas and are joined together with the giving of other SBC churches to carry the gospel to the nations. The Baker Offering touches everything we do here in the Dakotas. When you give to Baker you are helping pastors and their families in times of crisis. You are supporting our four church relations missionaries as they reach out to strengthen our 85 churches and new works in North and South Dakota. You are helping to take the gospel to the Native American reservations. And you are doing so much more.

I would like to invite our DBC churches to consider helping reach these goals in one or more of the following ways:

     1) Increase the percentage or annual giving amount to CP by 1%.

     2) Increase your 2024 Baker goal or annual giving amount to Baker by 5%.

And don’t forget to “always pray.” We can set all the goals and targets we want, but our provision is always from the Lord. He is the One that can “supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19). Please pray daily for our missionaries, church planters, seminaries, and others whose work is funded through the Cooperative Program. And pray daily for our work here in the Dakotas as we, “partner together to strengthen established churches and start new churches.”

By the way . . . be watching this summer for a 30-day prayer devotional that we will provide to our churches for the September Baker Offering month of prayer.

Four New Opportunities for Fellowship, Encouragement, and Equipping

There are four special events throughout 2024 that will provide opportunities for getting together for fellowship, encouragement, and equipping.

We will again have two evangelism workshops this Spring. The first will be April 18-20. It will be held at Connection Church in Sioux Falls, SD. The second will be May 2-4 at the Gladstone Inn in Jamestown, ND. Each workshop will feature a different program, so feel free to come to either or both. The DBC will provide two nights of hotel for those coming from out of town and meals for DBC pastors and wives and up to three key church leaders and their spouse.

Speaking of pastors and wives, we will have a retreat August 15-17 for DBC pastors and wives. It will be at Cornerstone Church in Mobridge, SD. The keynote speaker will be New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary president, Dr. Jamie Duke.

Finally, the DBC annual meeting will be October 4-5 in Williston, ND. It will be hosted by Cornerstone FBC Church. 

Be watching for more information throughout the year on each of these events and have a Christ-filled 2024.