Missions
God calls all believers to be a witness of his transformational grace in their everyday life . Through our mission efforts, we strive to inspire, equip and enable our members to be a witness in our community, in our nation and in our world.
Hurricane Helene Relief
Ways to Give:
Ways to Serve
- Join the Mount Vernon Disaster Relief Interest Group
- Disaster Relief Interest Meeting on November 17, 12pm, E210
- Online Option for Training for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief
Local Mission Opportunities
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Benevolence Ministry
Provides limited, short-term financial assistance to those who are in crisis especially in the case of essential needs like food, electricity, rent and water. We seek to help those in a short-term struggle that needs to be managed immediately and provide references to other communities, charitable and social service organizations who can help with long term struggles or with larger needs than we can assist with. Assistance can be provided to MVBC members as well as individuals in the community.
We strive to listen to each person’s story and pray with them that they would see God provide an answer to their situation. Sometimes it is a financial grant from Mount Vernon. Sometimes it is a referral to another organization who can assist them. Sometimes it is reaching out to our church volunteers who can assist them with specific physical needs. We strive to come alongside the person and point them to God and the resources that He provides them in their time of crisis.
If you have a particular skill or willingness to help someone in need of physical assistance, please contact Annette Miller • Administrative Assistant for Missions and Evangelism. -
Feeding the Hungry
For the past 15 years, Mount Vernon members have worked in conjunction with Richmond Friends of the Homeless (richmondfriendsofthehomeless.org) to provide meals to homeless and hungry people. Meals are prepared at the church and are distributed three times a month to two different locations in Richmond city.
God calls us to care for the hurting and needy people in the community and this ministry puts that call into action.
Feeding the hungry & homeless people in Richmond. We prepare sack lunches three times a month that are taken to Mt. Moriah Baptist Church and Swansboro Baptist Church. These are given out to the homeless and hungry. This ministry is a great example of feeding the hungry in the name of Jesus. A sack lunch: 2 sandwiches, chips, fruit, cookies, & a bottle of water.
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Missions Saturday
Mount Vernon community members come together to participate in projects to minister to needy people in our community to share the love of Christ and the gospel. Projects like renovating homes of needy elderly through Rebuild Together, landscaping the grounds at a Christian school assisting intercity children, welcoming new missionaries in training and praying for their training, preparing materials for an orphan ministry in Kenya and assembling boxes for Operation Christmas Child are some of the projects done on a Missions Saturday.
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Food Pantry
Food Pantry
Some people in our community struggle to have enough food to feed their families. The Mount Vernon Food Pantry helps address this need. Community residents in need within a 15-mile radius can receive two nutritionally balanced bags of food each Saturday morning.
How can you help? Packing bags on Wednesdays at 5pm, assisting with distribution on Saturdays from 10am-11am, and donating food at the Food Pantry drop off in the Worship Center lobby.
Recipient Guidelines & Sign Up for Food Pantry Distribution
Volunteer Options: packing the bags • Wednesdays • 5:45pm or distribution • every Saturday • 10am
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Operation Christmas Child Collection Center & Warehouse Trips
An opportunity to show God’s love in a tangible way to children in need around the world. Through this project, we partner with Samaritan’s Purse to share the Good News of Jesus and make disciples of the nations. Each year, Mount Vernon packs over 2,400 shoeboxes of gifts and we also serve as a Collection Center for our area during the third week of November. We also take groups of volunteers to warehouses in Charlotte and Baltimore during early December to inspect and prepare shoeboxes for international shipping.
Ways that you can be involved: Pack a shoebox, volunteer to receive shoeboxes at the church from the community, and participate in warehouse trips
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Saints Softball Prison Ministry
The Virginia Saints are a group of Christian men serving God and sharing the Good News with men in prison through the ministry of softball. The Saints were founded in 2004 and have played in over 100 prison events over that time. More than 12,000 men have heard the Gospel presentation with other 1,000 accepting Jesus as their personal Savior!
Info Contact: Jeff Long: JeffL65@comcast.net
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International Gatherings
A taste of heaven is what many describe our international gatherings as international attenders, their guests and our local members meet twice a year for a bring & share (pot luck) meal, mixers, music and testimonies. This gathering is open to all. Consider attending and being a part of this fellowship of believers who come from all over the world to worship Jesus together. We normally gather in early November and in April. Watch for the announcements in the Connecting Point and sign up to come.
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Partnership with IMB for Training New Missionaries
With the International Learning Center nearby, we partner with the International Mission Board (IMB) to assist in the training of new missionaries. Four times a year, we host new missionaries & assist them in sharing the gospel with people in our community. On a Tuesday & Wednesday afternoon, our members can accompany these new missionaries as they walk in our community seeking the lost to share Jesus with them. In October, we will adopt a New Missionary-In-Training Group where we will prepare a welcome bag and go door to door at the IMB Learning Center praying for these new missionaries before they arrive. We will provide homemade treats for special events, be able to attend a cultural worship service and be a part of their commissioning.
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Prayer for Missions & Mount Vernon Ministries
Starting in September 2024, we will begin a Prayer Ministry on Wednesday afternoons before Midweek Dinner. We will pray together for God’s work at Mount Vernon Baptist and throughout the world. Check the Connecting Point for more details about the starting time and location.
Mission Partners
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Local - Northside Outreach Center
the-noc.org
An on-the-ground non-profit organization located in Richmond’s Highland Park neighborhood. We are compelled by the love of God and the compassion of Christ to help others. We are uniting those working in the community to bring positive and lasting change to the Highland Park area. This is done through dynamic partnerships. We provide tutoring, mentoring, intentional discipleship, and community outreach programs. Our goal is to meet the holistic needs of those we serve. -
Local - Elijah House Academy (EHA)
elijahhouseacademy.org
Provides a Christ-centered and accessible choice in education that cultivates the hearts, minds, and bodies of our city’s children for God’s glory and Richmond’s flourishing. EHA creates Christ-centered urban school communities where learning about God and His world leads to a discovery of the student’s identity, dignity, and purpose in God’s mission to redeem all things. -
Local - Crossover Ministries
crossoverministry.org
A non-profit organization that provides high-quality, compassionate healthcare to uninsured and Medicaid patients. We are called to provide high quality healthcare, promote wellness, and connect community talents and resources with people in need in the name of Jesus Christ. A healthy, vibrant community where every person is restored by the compassionate, healing love of God. -
Local - Bloom by Pregnancy Resource Center (PRC)
prcrichmond.org
Committed to providing compassionate care to women and men unprepared for pregnancy by offering resources and practical assistance for life-affirming choices. -
Local - East End Pregnancy Care Center
eastsidepregnancy.com
A Christ-centered, nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the unborn and promoting life affirming choices by providing counseling for those facing crisis pregnancies, abuse of any kind and post abortion trauma. They strive to faithfully share the gospel with every client offering hope, healing and love to hurting women through God’s word. -
Local - Moments of Hope Outreach
momentsofhopeoutreach.org
Operates a homeless outreach and food pantry, provides emergency shelter to our homeless neighbors, and hosts a weekly community outreach luncheon rain or shine with a mobile pantry, health screenings, bike shop, clothing ministry, homeless services, and prayer. “Mo Hope” serves Hanover and Henrico counties, and Richmond north of the James River. -
Local - Patty's Hope
Pattyshope.org
A small non-profit in Richmond, VA working in partnership with the local church, DSS, and many other organizations. They focus on supporting biological mothers whose children have been removed from their custody and placed in foster care. Their program focuses on these four key areas: Safe Housing, Trauma Care, Healthy Community and Life Skills. They are grateful for the opportunity to engage with these mothers and offer support, friendship, groups, case management and more. It is their hope to see transformation in the lives of these mothers that will bring long-term stability and healthy relationships with their children. -
Regional - North American Mission Board (NAMB)
namb.net
Assists Southern Baptists in their task of fulfilling the Great Commission in the United States, Canada and their territories through a North American strategy for sharing Christ, starting churches and sending missionaries. The NAMB focuses on evangelism, church planting, chaplaincy and compassion ministries to advance the work of Christ among Southern Baptists in North America. -
Regional - Gideons
Gideons.org
The Gideons International is an association of Christian business and professional men and their wives dedicated to telling people about Jesus through associating together for service, sharing personal testimony, and by providing Bibles and New Testaments. While they are often recognized for their work with hotels, they also place and distribute Scriptures in strategic locations so they are available to those who want them, as well as to those who may not know they need them. -
International - International Mission Board (IMB)
Serves Southern Baptists in carrying out the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations. The IMB vision is a multitude from every nation, tribe, people and language, knowing and worshiping our Lord Jesus Christ. The IMB carries out this mission by using different platforms and ministries to lead people to Christ, plant new churches, train church leaders, and mobilizie national conventions to the missionary task.
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International - Send Relief
SendRelief.org
A collaboration between the IMB and NAMB, Send Relief is the Southern Baptist one-stop shop for compassion ministry at home and abroad. We respond to crisis and strengthen vulnerable communities around the world by meeting physical and spiritual needs in Jesus’ name. -
International - Alpha International Ministries
aim18.org
Our mission is to raise heroes of faith who provide hope to hurting communities with the gospel. We equip national leaders around the world to spread the gospel through missions training, church planting, and community transformation projects. AIM primarily works in regions where Christ’s name is least heard. You help us give lost communities a chance to hear the gospel. Our mission is to raise heroes of faith who provide hope to hurting communities with the gospel. We equip national leaders around the world to spread the gospel through missions training, church planting, and community transformation projects. AIM primarily works in regions where Christ’s name is least heard. You help us give lost communities a chance to hear the gospel.
Mission Offerings
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North American Mission Board - Annie Armstrong Easter Offering (AAEO)
The primary way Southern Baptists fund missions in North America through the North American Mission Board. 100% of gifts given to AAEO go to the missionaries to support more than 2,400 missionary families serving across the United States and Canada.
2024 Goal: $35,000
FYE (Fiscal Year End) Final Giving Total: $49,557
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Dover Baptist Association - Leslie and Hazel Watson Missions Offering
Supports the local ministries in the Richmond area. It is administered through the Dover Baptist Association.
2024 Goal: $7,000
FYE (Fiscal Year End) Final Giving Total: $9,454
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International Missions Board - Lottie Moon Christmas Offering (LMCO)
Used to send and support International Mission Board missionaries to those who have never heard the gospel. 100% of the LMCO gifts are used to fund ministry overseas for the work of gospel transformation among the unreached people all around the world.
2023 Goal: $140,000
FYE (Fiscal Year End) Final Giving Total: $150,877
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Baptist General Association of Virginia (BGAV) - Alma Hunt Offering
The annual Virginia Missions Offering is a joint venture of the Woman’s Missionary Union of Virginia (WMUV) and the Baptist General Association of Virginia (BGAV). Join your gifts with those of many other Virginia Baptists as we work to share the love of Christ across the Commonwealth of Virginia and with the whole world.
2024 Virginia Baptist Missions Offering Goal: (BGAV & SBCV combined)
- $14,000
FYE (Fiscal Year End) Final Giving Total: $12,326
- BGAV: $9,500
- SBCV: $2,826
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Southern Baptist Convention of Virginia (SBCV) - Vision Virginia
Vision Virginia is uniquely designed to support ministry opportunities, such as providing grants to pregnancy care centers to meet needs in their communities. The program provides support to churches that are meeting physical needs through hunger funds, meeting physical and spiritual needs in times of natural disasters, making available worship equipment and resources for church plants and many other ministry opportunities. 100% of this important offering goes to the mission field in Virginia and around the world.
2024 Virginia Baptist Missions Offering Goal: (BGAV & SBCV combined)
- $14,000
FYE (Fiscal Year End) Final Giving Total: $12,326
- BGAV: $9,500
- SBCV: $2,826
Cooperative Giving
As a part of our missions effort, Mount Vernon Baptist currently gives 7.5% of all tithes and offerings to missions efforts at Mount Vernon and throughout the world. Of that 7.5%, 3% is spent on Mount Vernon ministries and direct partners while the remaining 4.5% is given as a part of our cooperative giving efforts through the Dover Baptist Association, BGAV, and SBCVa.
Dover Baptist Association assists other affiliated Baptist churches in the central Virginia area while cooperative gifts given to the BGAV and SBCVa are partially used to support Virginia Baptist mission efforts and other portion is given to support the national Cooperative Program of the SBC.
The Cooperative Program gifts are divided among the IMB, NAMB, six SBC seminaries and other SBC entities.
MOUNT VERNON BAPTIST AFFILIATIONS
Local
- Dover Baptist Association doverbaptist.org
State
- Baptist General Association of Virginia (BGAV) bgav.org
- Southern Baptist Convention of Virginia (SBCVa) sbcv.org
National
- Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) sbc.net