Living Out the Life and Legacy of Annie Armstrong 

I remember on frequent occasions during my childhood going to my grandparents’ house to spend the night on a weekend and attending church with them on Sunday. Without fail, Saturday evening would be filled with both of my grandparents studying their Sunday School lesson. As I sat on the couch next to them, not too far from an open Bible and an open lesson guide, there would also be a Women’s Missionary Union monthly magazine.

My Grandmother Martin was an active member of her church’s WMU, even serving as the president. She was always engaged in the work of missions through praying, giving, and going. Certainly, this was influenced through her service in the WMU of her church.

She, like others — even you and me — whether we know it or not, has been impacted by the WMU’s founder, Annie Armstrong. For those of us who are members of SBC churches, each March we highlight Annie’s ministry and legacy through the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering. This offering supports church planters and missionaries throughout North America.

But exactly who is Annie Armstrong?

How did the life of one woman, whose pen wrote thousands of letters and whose offering supports church planting and compassion ministry throughout North America, end up being used by God to mobilize churches towards God’s mission? This is the story of ‘Miss Annie’.

Annie Armstrong was born on July 11, 1850, in Baltimore, Maryland, to James D. and Mary Walker Armstrong. She did not become a Christian until she was 19, and she became a member of Seventh Baptist Church in Baltimore. She left with 117 others to help start Eutaw Place Baptist Church on February 20, 1871, and she would remain there for close to 70 years, until she died. She faithfully served the church in the infant class for 30 of those years.

Most women in her day had no voice, and Annie was one of the first to speak up for them. She was even a voice for the urban poor in her hometown of Baltimore and for Southern Baptists. She was a founding member of the Women’s Missionary Union (the WMU), started in 1888, which helped others build awareness and mobilize churches to pray, give, and go towards missions in North America and around the world. Annie would serve as their first recording secretary. She used this platform to write letters to churches to focus their efforts on helping the hurting and the lost and starting churches. In just one year, she wrote 18,000 letters.

She traveled great distances across America to encourage churches towards the fulfillment of the Great Commission. She traveled 3,300 miles in 21 days, visiting 19 places, and making 26 addresses before churches. All of this she did while refusing to accept a salary.

Not only did her letters spur churches to care for the hurting and to plant churches, but also to give towards the gospel going globally. She wrote letters to mission societies to contribute to the first foreign mission offering, named after another missionary hero in Southern Baptist life — Lottie Moon.

Her faithful service and ministry would later move the Home Mission Board in 1934 to name an offering, started in 1895, after Annie Armstrong. That first offering gave $5,000 and, as of today, over 1 billion dollars have been given. The Annie Armstrong offering impacts around 386 million people living in the United States and Canada — 286 million of whom are without a relationship with Jesus. Not all who live in North America look or speak like us, and many have never even heard the name of Jesus — this offering helps to reach these people too!

Only one picture of her remains following her death in 1938, but her impact and influence across North America continues to live on. Everywhere a new missionary is sent, a church is planted, or someone makes a decision to follow Jesus, Annie’s gospel witness lives on.

Annie Armstrong was known for her slogan, “Go forward!” and we can take several lessons from her life as we ‘go forward’ on mission:

1) We all have a role to play in the Great Commission.

While her family was a part of a core team that planted Eutaw Place Baptist Church in Baltimore, Annie never planted a church. Instead, she was part of a bigger movement of supporting the work of church planting. Even if God hasn’t called you to be a missionary, you still are called to live ‘sent’ and be on mission with God in your job, your workplace, your neighborhood, or wherever God has placed you.

2) The church is the central means and ends for accomplishing the Great Commission.

While Annie was pivotal in the founding of the WMU, a para-church ministry, she mobilized churches to engage in the work of praying, giving, going, and sending. Recognize that as we send, we must do so through the means of a local church, even if it is alongside a mission sending organization. If you are considering a missionary call, consider what it means to be a faithful member of your church and be assessed, equipped, and sent through that local church.

3) Gospel advance requires passion and persistence.

Annie was not allured by pay, she did not seek a platform, and she endured the pains of tragedy both personally and to her city. Yet none of that dwindled her passion nor persistence in seeing the gospel advance. We, too, whether as senders or goers, must let Jesus’s final words be our marching orders until he returns. Will there be setbacks? Yes. But if we surrender to the call and commission of Jesus, we can forge ahead, because we know how the story ends.

So, whether you are a child, a teenager, or an adult, you, too, can “go forward” in making a difference for the gospel throughout North America and around the world. Live out your days as Annie did — desiring to see God’s glory known both near and far.

Annie Armstrong Offering:

Resources – Annie Armstrong Easter Offering

Give – Annie Armstrong Easter Offering

The Mission – Annie Armstrong Easter Offering