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You are here: Home / Stewardship & Financial Development / Our Church's Wider Mission
Stewardship & Financial Development

Our Church's Wider Mission

Church World Service "Gift of the Heart Kits"

 
Links to Global Ministries  

 

ocwm

Our Church’s Wider Mission is:

…Sunday School lessons for kids…. Irrigation pipes in the desert…. Military chaplains in Iraq…. A welcoming approach to the Gospel…. Volunteers reading to the blind…. New ways to worship…. Refugees coming home to their new country…. Christians who take the Bible seriously but not literally.

 

 The United Church of Christ is a strong religious presence in countless communities across the country-thanks above all to faithful people, gifted leaders, and to the quiet steady support of Our Church's Wider Mission.

Our Church's Wider Mission is helping right now to bring the United Church of Christ message to more and more people.

 

Each UCC congregation decides how much of its members' financial support the congregation will contribute to Our Church's Wider Mission for the funding of Conference and national ministries. In turn, each Conference, the regional setting of the church, decides how much of its congregations' financial support it will contribute to Our Church's Wider Mission for the funding of national ministries.

 

OUR CHURCH'S WIDER MISSION HAS TWO COMPONENTS:

 

BASIC SUPPORT: National Basic Support provides for the funding of the core programs of UCC national ministries. The Massachusetts Conference gives 60% of Basic Support to national ministries. For a description of how Basic Support is used by the national setting, click here. For a description of how your gifts are used throughout the UCC - locally, by the Massachusetts Conference, UCC and nationally, click here.

 

SPECIAL SUPPORT: Special Support provides funding for specific mission

opportunities through the four special mission offerings of the UCC. 100% of contributions to Special Support are forwarded on to the national ministries. For a description of the Special Offerings and the work they fund, click here.

 

With your congregation's support, Our Church's Wider Mission can come closer to fulfilling God's mission. And by being a part of Our Church's Wider Mission, your congregation can come closer to being all that God intends it to be, touching lives at home and around the world, in the name of Jesus Christ.

For resources to help educate your congregation about the good news of Our Church's Wider Mission please contact: Andrew Gustafson, Associate Conference Minister for Stewardship and Financial Development.

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What are the Special Mission Offerings?

 

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One Great Hour of Sharing

"Who is my neighbor?" is this year's scripture text from Luke 10:29. The suggested date to receive the offering is March 2, 2008

 

strengthenStrengthen the Church

Come from the four winds, O breath... Strengthen the Church!

The suggested offering date is May 11, 2008. Alternative dates are Thanksgiving, the United Church of Christ Anniversary (June 25) or your church's anniversary.

Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you... As God has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit."  John 20:19b, 21b-22

Through our gifts to Strengthen the Church, we further our commitment to be a multiracial, multicultural church, open and affirming and accessible to all. We strengthen and renew existing congregations. We fund leadership for new congregations. We provide exciting new programs for youth and young adults. We fund leadership development for the whole church. Your Conference and Local Church Ministries each direct half of your generous gifts for these purposes.

 

NIN Neighbors in Need

Another World is Possible

Begin Promotion - October 2007

Neighbors in Need seeks to do both. This offering includes support for the work of the Council for American Indian Ministry, efforts to eradicate hunger, and the promotion of justice, peace, and reconciliation.

 

2004 Christmas Fund: Your Help is Needed: Give Now. The Christmas Fund

Remembering Those Who Serve the Church

December 23, 2007

2005 Year End Figures

2006 Offering

The Magi Project

The Christmas Fund Offering (formerly Veterans of the Cross), is one of four Special Mission Offerings of the United Church of Christ , is an important way of sharing our joy at God's renewing and life-giving grace. The offering, which is administered by The Pension Boards on behalf of the UCC , is an expression of joy and gratitude for those who serve the church. Gifts to the Christmas Fund help provide pension and health premium supplementation to low-income retirees, emergency assistance to clergy families in need and Christmas gift checks to hundreds of annuitants.

Your gifts are needed more than ever to help the growing number of retirees whose low-income annuities make it difficult to meet increasing living costs. This is your opportunity to participate in God's promise of renewal by enabling this ministry of compassion and care.

We have begun a three campaign known as the Magi Project with the goal of doubling the Annual Offering to the Christmas Fund by the year 2010.  2005 was the year in which we began the process of reframing the offering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

© 1996 - 2006, Massachusetts Conference, United Church of Christ.
Main Office: 1 Badger Road, Framingham, MA 01702 • 508-875-5233 fax: 508-875-5485
Area Offices: Haverhill Ludlow Plymouth Waltham Worcester

This web site made possible by contributions to Our Church's Wider Mission Basic Support and Fellowship Dues.

Permission granted to local churches only to copy materials for their own use.
Please direct questions or comments about this site to Tiffany Vail.

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