|
You can donate online using your credit card, debit card, or PayPal account. Just click the "Donate" button above.
|
|
What are the Ministries and Operations, Missions and Building Funds?
The Ministries and Operations Fund covers the cost of local ministry and operating our church. It includes programs such as Super Seniors, Youth and Church Family Life, the Children’s, Sanctuary, and Handbell Choirs, and the TV ministry. It also includes operating costs like utilities, insurance, and taxes, salaries and supplies. The Missions Fund is our mission support fund. It includes Mission Share apportionments, the UM method of supporting the entire denomination. It also supports ministries directly. These ministries are as varied as Wesbury (the UM nursing home in Meadville), and the UM Committee on Relief (UMCOR - our denomination’s disaster relief agency). We support missions on the West Bank, in Guatemala, Mexico, Sierra Leone, Scotland, China and Russia. Locally, we support the Salvation Army, Youth for Christ, Wesley Woods, and the ABC Life Center. The Building Fund pays for repairs and improvements to the church building and parsonage. You may designate your gifts to any one, two or all three of these Funds. Simply indicate your desires on the Stewardship Card. You can also indicate your designation using your weekly giving envelope. The Financial Secretary directs your giving to the Funds you select. If you make no designation among the Funds on your Stewardship Card or your offering envelope, the Administrative Council’s policy directs 3/4 of your gift to Ministries and Operations, and 1/4 to Missions. Generosity is Measured By What We Have, Not By What We Don't Have... That's what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 8:12. What he means is, for a family with limited income a small gift, in keeping with their income, is much more generous, and larger in God's eyes, than the fanatically larger gift of another that has lots of money. The reason is that a gift out of a small income leaves the giver with much less than a gift from a large income. There is the old story that late in life J. D. Rockefeller passed out dimes to children. The kids loved it. They could buy candy or even help their family with needed income from that dime. But to Rockefeller, one of the richest men in the early 20th century, a dime meant nothing. He didn't miss it one bit. He still lived exactly the lavish lifestyle he wanted. So, if your income is small and you are not able to give large amounts to your church, be encouraged. God sees the gift you are able to give, when given with joy, as bigger than the gifts of old J. D. |
|