Quiet Work, Lasting Fruit
When you give to a specific project, you can see where your gift goes. A fish farm. Leadership training. Relief supplies. A ministry trip. A church building. Orphan support. Those gifts matter, and we are committed to making sure each one does exactly what you intended. And donating to SDB Missions this way is a great choice. Because of our close relationships with partners, project funding goes directly to the people it’s meant for.
But some of the most strategic work we do doesn’t fit neatly into a project fund.
Who builds the relationship that connects a leader in Ecuador with a ministry opportunity in Colombia? Who walks alongside a Conference as it discovers unreached people groups in its own country? Who helps Brazil be more equipped to mobilize its own churches, then introduces Brazilian leaders to partners in Chile and Mozambique? Who helps programs like Africa Bible College get off the ground? That is the work behind the work, and we increasingly believe it is some of the most important work we do.
The Work that Connects the Global Church
Our vision is to mobilize Seventh Day Baptists around the world for effective missions, especially among unreached people groups. We don’t expect SDB Missions to be the center of missions activity. Instead, we want to connect and equip the global church so SDBs everywhere can recognize how God has already positioned them and step into those opportunities.
That takes increased capacity. It takes people who nurture relationships with partners in more than 40 countries. It takes communication, technology, travel coordination, missions education, and leadership mentoring, plus the ability to connect the right people at the right time. It also takes initiatives like the Missions Mobilization Network, which doesn’t belong to any one project or country but can multiply mission engagement across all of them.
A gift designated for a specific project is valuable, but it can’t fund these things. That’s why we created the SDB Missions Sustainers Circle.
How the Sustainers Circle works
We launched the Sustainers Circle at General Conference this year and welcomed our first Sustainers with special lapel pins. Sustainers give recurring, undesignated gifts that form the foundation under our mission. Those gifts let us build partnerships, mobilize leaders, coordinate opportunities, and respond quickly when God opens a door.
Sustainers make it possible for every designated gift to go 100% to the purpose it was given for.
This isn’t a new idea. SDB Missions did this for decades. Then about ten years ago, we recognized a growing need to fund the work behind the work, so we began charging a fee on designated donations, as many other missions organizations do. But we know our donors want their entire gift to go toward the project they choose, and we want that too! The Sustainers Circle allows us to return to our original approach, with recurring, undesignated gifts supporting the work behind the work so that 100% of designated donations can go exactly where donors intend.
We believe both kinds of giving matter. We need people who will fund the fish farm. We also need people who will make it possible to build the relationships, systems, and partnerships that help more ministries like it take root around the world.
Become a Sustainer
If you already give a recurring, undesignated gift to SDB Missions, thank you. You’re already doing the work of a Sustainer, and over the next few months we’ll begin formally welcoming you into Sustainers Circle.
If you don’t yet give this way, I hope you’ll consider joining us. Sustainers do more than help us pay bills. They give us room to connect a leader in one country with a church in another, and to walk with a Conference as it finds unreached people groups in its own backyard.
Those relationships start small, and they are how a conversation today becomes a ministry partnership tomorrow.
-Pastor Miriam Berg
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