BGMC celebrates its 60th birthday — 1949-2009
By Mary Boyd
In 2009, BGMC celebrates 60 years of meeting critical needs around the world, and 60 years of teaching kids to have a heart of compassion to reach the world through missions.
How did it start?
In the late 1940s, executives of the Assemblies of God, staff in the Foreign Missions Department (now AG World Missions/AGWM) and personnel in the Sunday School Department discussed the development of a missions education program for boys and girls 12 years of age and younger.
In 1949, someone in the national Sunday School Department said something sensational. In essence, they said, “If children are to grow up to be adults concerned about missions, then they must be taught about missions in their formative years.” And so the basis for a new children’s missions education program — Boys and Girls Missionary Crusade — was established. The national Sunday School Department realized that “the not too distant future of our missionary work depends upon the vision of our children of this generation.”
In October 1949, the BGMC program was launched because of a need — the need that missionaries all over the world had for literature that could be used for distribution, for translation work and for study material. Another need was for the disposal of the backdated literature in Gospel Publishing House. At the Seventh National Sunday School Convention held in Springfield, Missouri, these two needs were brought together, and BGMC was formed as the agent. The initial purpose of BGMC was to raise money through the Sunday Schools for the literature program. The first task undertaken by the new BGMC program was to raise funds for shipping these materials to the mission fields.
It was also decided that a child’s training must be accompanied by an opportunity for him/her to personally invest in missions. AGWM had indicated that the missionaries’ current greatest need was for gospel literature. The Assemblies of God had printing plants in South Africa, Brazil, Peru, the Gold Coast and other fields. Yet funds for translation and printing were limited. It was to be understood that all the money received by BGMC would be used entirely in the translation and production of gospel literature for foreign fields.
BGMC is introduced
BGMC was first introduced at the General Council meeting in Seattle, Washington, in September 1949. About the same time, a general letter was sent out to all churches. Immediately, 145 churches joined the BGMC program that same month. The number increased to 229 total charter members.
Wooden barrel banks were chosen as the collection containers since everything sent to the foreign field at that time was packed in sturdy barrels. This evolved into Buddy Barrel becoming the mascot or symbol for BGMC.
It was also decided that the small wooden barrel banks would be given to all the children in Sunday Schools. The child was to take the barrel home and each day place a penny, nickel, dime or more in it. Once a month on the designated Sunday, each pupil would return his/her barrel to Sunday School.
The first BGMC offering
The first BGMC offering was received in October 1949 in the amount of $9.35. It came from the New York-New Jersey District. It did not lie idle — immediately packages of backdated literature were sent to Honduras and Jamaica. Enough literature was sent to use up the $9.35 that had been received. That first year, a total of $1,290.39 was given to BGMC. Back then, no one could have imagined how BGMC funds would grow and how they would be such a significant help to AG missionaries.
The purpose of BGMC
From the beginning, BGMC had two avowed aims. The first was to furnish needed literature for the mission fields. The second was to instill within the heart of every Pentecostal boy and girl the missionary vision. A slogan was created to accurately describe the ministry of BGMC. That slogan was “The Word for the World.”
BGMC today
In 1999, BGMC became a part of the newly created national Children’s Ministries Agency. The Executive Presbytery of the Assemblies of God voted in June 2001 that BGMC would be the children’s missions education program for all Assemblies of God kids. This same year, Royal Rangers, Missionettes (now Girls Ministries) and Christian Schools adopted BGMC as their missions program. In 2007, BGMC became its own department. Also in 2007, BGMC changed its name to “Boys and Girls Missionary Challenge.”
The use of BGMC funds has expanded considerably. BGMC is the program that allows AG missionaries to get whatever supplies they need in order to spread the gospel and reach the world. BGMC is the only program that gives AG missionaries the freedom to buy such things as puppets, clown outfits, costume animals, Bibles, tracts, Sunday School literature, computers, videotapes, CDs, training manuals and more. BGMC is the program that provides whatever a missionary needs — where they need it and when they need it. Missionaries love BGMC, and many would be at a loss without it.
BGMC not only helps individual missionaries, but it also helps fund various missions organizations, such as International Media Ministries, Global University (formerly International Correspondence Institute), Life Publishers, Resource and Development Ministries (RDM), Latin America Radio, Global Initiative: Reaching Muslim Peoples, Healthcare Ministries and Teen Challenge International.
BGMC also provides supplies to AG U.S. missionaries and missions organizations that we have here in America. BGMC helps Chi Alpha Campus Ministries, Institutional/Occupational Chaplaincy, Intercultural Ministries, the Military Chaplaincy, Teen Challenge and Church Planting. A percentage of BGMC funds are also given back to the districts to use for missions projects in their own districts. It’s not difficult to see BGMC is greatly used and greatly needed by AG missionaries.
BGMC especially tries to target the children of the world by providing for street kids, orphanages, feeding programs, water wells, school supplies, sending kids to camps, the making of children’s TV programs and videos and much more!
BGMC also pays to have materials translated into different languages so people can read literature in their own languages. BGMC has had the Junior Bible Quiz (JBQ) program, Royal Rangers, Girls Ministries clubs, kids’ church curriculum and Sunday School lessons translated into many different languages around the world.
Few would have imagined that the idea to involve kids in missions started in 1949 could grow into such a powerful agency — an agency that is changing the world for Jesus. In 2008, BGMC had another record year of giving, as $5,765,476.33 was given. Since 1949, a total of $90,086,483.36 has been given to the work of missions by kids.
Only God can call someone into missions, but statistics reveal that a majority of AG missionaries were involved with BGMC when they were young, yet only one-third of AG churches were participating in BGMC. Kids being exposed to missions creates an open heart to the call of missions. After 60 years, the vision of the founders of BGMC is being fulfilled!