Disciples Together
June 16, 2014

Why do an annual campaign?

by Rev. Bruce Barkhauer, Center for Faith and Giving

faith and giving logo with vision  

There are many reasons for doing an annual campaign emphasis in your congregation. The most obvious is practical and self-serving - and that is the fact that congregations running annual campaigns are estimated to receive up to three times more resources for ministry and mission than those that do not.  It is simple arithmetic - it pays for the time and energy needed to make the effort.

 

But there are more reasons. An annual emphasis allows you tell your ministry story and to connect the dots between money and mission with a "narrative budget" that shows how the offering tray contents become real ministry. 

 

The annual campaign allows you to focus on your vision as a congregation. In order to ask people to provide dollars (or their time, for that matter) you need to articulate who you are as a church and what God has called you to do.  You have to "make a case" each year as to why the people in your pews should make you their charity of choice. Besides the positive financial impact, doing this annually can keep your congregation healthy, fresh, and passionate for the cause of Christ.

 

This process can also provide clarity to evaluate how resources are currently being used. Assessment of expenses against the vision and mission can help make tough decisions about allocation. 

 

Prayer is a foundation in matters of commitment and faithful sharing of our gifts (Spiritual and financial).  Focused time in conversation with God is the biblical precursor to the Spirit unleashing tremendous and transformational power. 

 

When you connect the process of creating a budget to the case for its support, there is also a reality check about support for your defined missions; and whether or not you are fairly compensating your staff. 

 

One of the great gifts the annual campaign provides is an opportunity for stewardship education - linking stewardship to spiritual discipline and faith formation, not simply giving money.  It is a time for value realignment and growing in our walk with Christ.  Stewardship education should be a year-round practice, but the annual campaign encourages us to bring financial stewardship to the forefront for a season.

 

Another important benefit: the active participation of every member of the congregation. A solid annual campaign will find a way to engage leaders and reach each person connected with your congregation. Mission partners can tell their stories.  Members can hear how God is using your church to minister to others. You can celebrate!  Who doesn't like a party??  And you can say "Thank you" to all those who have made the work of the congregation possible through gifts great and small.

 

The From Bread & Wine to Faith & Giving resource from the Center for Faith and Giving is designed to help you and your leadership succeed in gathering the support you need to do the ministry God has called your church to do. For more information, and for other stewardship resources, visit the Center for Faith and Giving website or call Minister for Faith and Giving Bruce Barkhauer at 317-713-2404.

                            

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Disciples Leadership Institute applications due June 30 for 2014 conference 

The Disciples Leadership Institute is sponsored by HELM and Reconciliation Ministries to increase interaction of young leaders across the barriers of race, language, culture.

 

From September 14-19, DLI will gather a group of emerging leaders with approximately equal

Reconciliation Ministry

 numbers of African American, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, Anglo and Haitian Disciples at Wasatch Retreat and Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. Participants will arrive on Monday, September 14 and depart on Friday, September 19. There is no registration fee for participants.  Meals and lodging are provided, and also a significant subsidy for the cost of travel.

 

The DLI experience assumes that faith deepens and becomes more powerful when it is shared and that relationships deepen through faith-sharing. A steering committee of participants oversees a process of "testimony and response" in which participant volunteers talk about their individual faith journeys, their communities of faith, and how they have come to understand basic elements of the Christian faith - God, Christ, Spirit, community. Other participants have the opportunity to respond to this testimony with appreciation, questions and challenges.

 

Participants covenant to maintain relationship through any misunderstandings that arise and spend the entire week together sharing worship, meals, and recreation as well as conversations. DLI is fully participant- led. The Steering Committee that created DLI summarized it this way:

 

"DLI engages leaders in a model of community that deepens understanding and develops relationships across the perceived boundaries of race, culture and language. We entrust the Holy Spirit to create a place where we can share deeply and authentically about our experience of God. We do this to increase our effectiveness in building up the Body of Christ and sharing the Gospel."

 

Those interested in participating in DLI 2014, should complete the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3NX3TL7  by June 30, 2014.  Contact Eli Rolon at [email protected] with any questions. 

 

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Sharon Watkins' book Whole: A Call to Unity in Our Fragmented World to debut at Quadrennial

Chalice Press will release Sharon Watkins' first book, Whole: A Call to Unity in Our Fragmented World, in late June. It is available for purchase online and at upcoming events such as Quadrennial Assembly and the Wild Goose Festival.


Filled with stories and illustrations from her decades-long ministry in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Whole is Sharon's hope-filled manifesto for unity, which establishes her once again as an important global Christian leader for our time.

As W
atkins explains in the introduction, "I write in part for the Disciples Church itself, to help pull the meaning of our identity statement out from the inarticulate muscle memory of our community that causes us to act in particular ways without always knowing quite why. I argue that we are a community of faith that makes particular sense for the twenty-first century - a church whose time has come - with a message and a way of being that can work for this time. I also point out that, for the message to resonate fully, we need to clean up our act.


"I write in part to non-Disciples to introduce a branch of the Christian family that is not as well known as some others.

"And I write for anyone who might be interested in a way of being in the world that involves deep spirituality, true community, and a passion for justice for the sake of the world and its future. I write for those seeking hope that humanity can live together with our diversity as a cherished gift. In a word, I write for those seeking wholeness."

Chalice Press is offering Whole: A Call to Unity in Our Fragmented World for 20 percent off if you order online now.  
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Clergy continuing education grant application period Sept. 1-Oct. 31

The period of application for clergy continuing education grants awarded by Disciples Home Missions for the 2015 calendar year will be between September 1 and October 31, 2014. This is a change from last year's application period, and is meant to facilitate application requests for events earlier in the calendar year.  

 

If you would like to be considered for a DHM Clergy Continuing Education Grant next year (2015), you must apply during the application window. More info

 

Resources and continuing ed

  

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Take a few days to rest, recharge and reconnect
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Among new resources added to the identity page "preaching" tab: a wholeness worship service that includes a readers' theater

 

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Christian Church Foundation North Central Zone 
new address 
(Countryside Christian Church)

Kirby Hughes Gould, VP

Christian Church Foundation

6101 Nall Avenue

Mission, KS  66202

800-668-8016

913-262-1025 fax

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Find out more about THE JOURNEY from Hope Partnership for Missional Transformation

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General Ministries
  
Racial/Ethnic Ministries
  
Other resources

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Challenged by trying to explain Disciples Mission Fund?
 
You can download this video and get other information at www.disciplesmissionfund.org
How Your Offerings to DMF Support Mission in the Church
How Your Offerings to DMF Support Mission in the Church

Office of General Minister and President
 
Free pre-event by the Christian Church Foundation, reception by Center for Faith and Giving and 
0.6 CEUs 
for no additional cost!