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Highlight Mission:Dignity is the heart of GuideStone® and has been at the center of our work since we started more than 100 years ago.
Mission:Dignity is the heart of GuideStone® and has been at the center of our work since we started more than 100 years ago.
Widow and poet, served alongside her husband, Dial, who pastored in South Carolina for more than 30 years.
Through this ministry, more than $11 million is distributed annually to help retirement-aged Southern Baptist ministers, workers and their widows whose income is insufficient to meet their needs. These men and women have faithfully served God’s people and now find themselves struggling to meet even basic needs. Many served small, rural churches that paid only modest salaries and couldn’t afford to contribute to their pastor’s retirement.
Served the Lord together in Texas for more than 50 years.
Much of the funding for our ministry comes from the direct gifts of individuals, groups and churches in our Southern Baptist family. Through these gifts, recipients can buy groceries, pay a utility bill, or get prescriptions and medical care.
It’s more than just the money. We are called to serve those who served us.
The elders who are good leaders are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. (1 Tim. 5:17, CSB).
An established endowment funds the operating expenses of Mission:Dignity. This covers staff salaries, printing, postage and other expenses. Every dollar of current Mission:Dignity annual gifts is used for monthly distributions to retirement-age SBC ministers, workers and widows in need.
For tax purposes, you cannot designate a recipient. If you know of someone who may need assistance, we’ll be glad to contact them and see if they might qualify for Mission:Dignity. Call us at 1-877-888-9409 with their name and address, and we’ll contact them.
Many of our recipients have given us permission to share their names by way of a prayer card. We will be glad to provide you with the name, address and birthday of a retirement-age pastor or widow so you can pray for and communicate with them. You may even find an opportunity for a service project or meeting a particular need if the person is local to your area.
More than 2,800 individuals receive assistance each year. Approximately 60% of the recipients are widows. One out of four recipients is a pastor’s widow age 85 or older.
Individuals can qualify for $275 each month. Married couples are eligible for $375. For the neediest persons with at least 25 years of ministerial service and much lower (poverty-level) income limits, these amounts may be doubled to $550 and $750, respectively.