One of the most important ministries of Signal Mountain Baptist Church has always been in the area of missions. Both long time members and newcomers to the church consider SMBC to be a very mission-minded church. With a variety of mission activities, there is something in which every member of the church can be a part. As you look at SMBC, you will want to find a place in the mission ministries in which you feel God is leading you to participate.
Missions Education -
Missions Education occurs primarily through our weekly programs for our preschoolers and children. Each Wednesday night, these groups meet to both introduce and involve our children in missions. Mission Friends includes those children ages 3 through kindergarten and helps them become introduced to missionaries and various ways that God’s love is shown around the world. Ga’s, or Girls in Action, is for girls grades 1 - 5 and RA’s, or Royal Ambassadors, is for boys of that same age. Both of these groups continue the process of explaining the importance of missions and missionaries, but also begin to give the girls and boys opportunities to participate in local mission activities.
Mission Education also continues through youth and adults, but in more informal ways. Through our mission giving emphasis and our numerous opportunities for both youth and adults to be involved in hands-on mission activities, our members continue to learn and be informed about missions around the world.
Mission Giving -
Through our weekly offerings, a percentage of the money received is sent to various mission organizations. In addition, each year Signal Mountain Baptist Church has special offerings to help meet the special needs of specific mission causes. Our spring offering typically includes donations for Global Missions through the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, donations for the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering through the Southern Baptist Convention and donations for the local Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home located here in Chattanooga. In the fall of the year, our emphasis is on receiving donations for the Tennessee Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Then, during November and December, we emphasize Global Missions through the CBF, the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering through the SBC and World Hunger. Occasionally throughout the year, there may also be opportunities to give in crisis situations such as Hurricane Katrina relief or through helping to support some hands-on ministry opportunity.
Local Missions -
Each month, SMBC seeks to give our members the opportunity to help with a local mission/ministry organization. Many of these opportunities include collecting items needed by the organization, but some monthly ministries also give our members opportunity to physically be a part of the ministry which we are spotlighting that month. Although various ministries in the Chattanooga area are included, a lot of the local mission work is done through the Signal Mountain Social Services, the local Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home, the HaCoBA Care Center in St. Elmo and the Interfaith Hospitality Network. The Signal Mountain Social Services agency, which we also financially support each quarter, helps families in need right here in our own community. Through a monthly food offering Sunday, help with donations for Christmas baskets, and through other occasional special needs projects, we strive to be a vital part of this organization. At least two months of each year, we include the local Children’s Home as our major emphasis. Through donations of needed school supplies as well as providing occasional activities for the children who live at the Home, the Children’s Home is a special ministry to many of our members. The HaCoBA Care Center in St. Elmo is funded totally by churches in our association and has for several years been the number one food provider for those in need in the Chattanooga area. Several of our members volunteer on a weekly basis to help with this ministry and we also collect needed food items on a regular basis. Interfaith Hospitality Network is an organization where various churches house homeless families while they try to secure jobs and housing. For one week every three months, over fifty volunteers from our church work with these families by providing them with lodging in our church annex, prepared meals, activities for their children and transportation.
Mission Trips -
Each year, opportunities are made available for youth, adults and families to be a part of various mission trips. During the summer, two youth mission trips are planned, one for youth 9th-12th grades and the other for youth 6th-12th grades. These trips take our youth to various areas to do different types of mission work. For example, one year we may be in a rural area doing primarily construction type work while the next year we may be doing inner city work with children. The all youth mission trip is usually done in conjunction with a family mission trip which is geared for all ages and usually offers enough different ministry opportunities that families with children of all ages can be a part of at least some, if not all, of the trip. Adults are also given opportunities to participate in mission trips geared just for them. In the past, adults have worked done repair work on trips to areas hit hard by Hurricane Katrina and have provided food and supplies to the poor outside Reynosa, Mexico. One of the church’s favorite trips each year is to deliver shoebox Christmas presents to children in the Lynch, Kentucky area. Lynch is a poor coal mining town where 80% of the children are on free lunch. This ministry began in 2000 and has grown each year since then. Church members donate shoeboxes of personal items and toys which are wrapped for Christmas presents and then any members who wish to go on the trip to deliver the boxes.
