|
APRIL
MISSION
SHARED
MINISTRY FUNDS
OUR
CHURCH APPORTIONMENT
Here
at
St. Paul
’s we are not just a small church family, as a United Methodist
congregation, we are joined to every other United Methodist
congregation in the country.
As
individual congregations the scope of what we can accomplish in the
world and in our communities is pretty small – but through our
connected congregations, we can accomplish what no single church,
district, or annual conference ever could hope to do.
Robert
Costello, the Coordinator of Stewardship Education and Development
for the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference puts it like this:
“We
have sent missionaries across the world. We have opened churches,
Sunday Schools, medical clinics, health care programs, legal
services, schools, colleges, seminaries, hospitals, orphanages,
homes, food distribution, clothing distribution, job training, Bible
studies, justice lobbies, and training events of untold proportion.
To continue and expand this work requires ongoing contributions of
time, talent, and treasure.”
The
primary way this is accomplished is through apportioned funds, a
method of giving that proportionally allocates the general church
budget to conferences (which subsequently apportion to local
churches like ours). In this way, each individual, each family, and
each congregation gives a fair share for the church's work.
This
is called First Mile giving, any other giving we choose to do as a
congregation is considered Second Mile Giving.
The funds we raise for our sister congregation in
Lithuania
, for St. Gregory’s Pantry, for disaster relief, and so on, are
all examples of Second Mile Giving.
The
apportionment amount is included in our annual budget, which is
approved by our Church Council.
Bishop Sudarshana Devadhar has decreed First Mile First
giving a priority for all of the churches in our conference.
A budget shortfall, like the one we are currently
experiencing, makes it difficult to fulfill our apportionment
obligations. This month, your "
Mission
" envelopes go to support our General Fund, which in turn
supports our Shared Ministries around the world.
If
you have not yet made a financial tithe or other pledge to our
General Ministry Fund for 2006, won't you please do so?
It is only through the efforts of members who have promised
to support the ministries of
St. Paul
's that we are able to serve God's people all around the world. |
