wfn.org | Congregations add creative touches to increase mission

[BethAH@mbm.org]

giving
September 6, 2000
Beth Hawn
Mennonite Board of Missions
(219) 294-7523
<NEWS@MBM.org>

Congregations add creative touches to increase mission giving

ELKHART, Ind. (MBM) – Innovative congregations across North
America are discovering more dynamic ways to support mission,
recovering the connection between congregations and workers that
is lost when mission giving becomes just another line item in the
annual budget.
Whether auctions and community events, or a special focus in
Sunday-morning worship, churches are discovering a variety of
successful possibilities.

Members of Aurora (Ohio) Mennonite Church enjoyed raising mission
funds at their 18th annual auction on June 17.  This year, the
biggest ever, brought 250 attendees and more than $13,000 for
Mennonite Board of Missions.  Aurora averages 100 in
Sunday-morning attendance.

Although a percentage of the congregation’s budget is already
designated for mission, the auction is “one way we can all work
together to send in extra,” said Verda Troyer, a member of the
mission auction committee.

The event provides camaraderie and fun, Troyer said, when
everyone sees what needs to be done and takes on a job to put the
whole thing together.

On the sale day, an auctioneer presides over a large tent in
front of the church, where Aurora’s women’s group presents quilts
and wall hangings made in the past year.  Other members handcraft
wood furniture, donate antiques or baseball tickets, and solicit
sponsors.
Aurora’s small groups and Sunday-school classes sponsor booths
selling soda, apple dumplings, homemade egg rolls, and the famous
trail bologna and Swiss cheese from Millersburg, Ohio.

The auction’s outreach to the community begins before the sale,
when Aurora members cook and serve two community dinners to pay
for upfront auction expenses.
With a different fund-raising strategy, Washington (Iowa)
Mennonite Church uses its dramatic talent to support mission at
its annual spring dinner theater.  In one weekend in 1999, the
125-member congregation raised $4,000 for MBM and the
Iowa-Nebraska Mennonite Conference’s mission commission.

Pastor Tim Detweiler said the theater is a rewarding way to
bolster mission giving.  “[Mission] always ended up being the
line item cut at the end of the year, and the congregation didn’t
feel good about that,” he said.

The dinner theater features valet parking, a full-course meal,
music by a youth band, and humorous and provocative skits on a
scriptural theme.  Detweiler said the event is an enjoyable
project that involves almost everyone in the congregation.

Liz Widmer, director of the drama, said the mission focus “makes
people a lot more willing to help.”  In March, she coordinated a
cast of 30 to 40 youth and adults to perform three shows.
Widmer said the event also exposes Washington community members
to Crooked Creek Christian Camp, a local Mennonite facility that
helps the congregation host the dinner theater.

This year’s audience reached nearly 300, about half of whom were
non-Christians and Christians of other denominations, said
Widmer.

In Burr Oak, Mich., Locust Grove Mennonite Church raised $500 for
mission at its annual picnic and hog roast on July 23.

At a similar picnic three years ago, the 240-member congregation
raised more than enough to finance a house for a family in
Brazil.  It decided to continue a successful tradition.

The event, held at Amigo Park in Sturgis, Mich., is a wonderful
way to build on the mission commission’s budget line, said Diana
Yeager of the commission.

This year’s funds will allow them to begin a local edition of
Together magazine, a quarterly paper published by Shalom
Foundation, Inc., containing stories from the congregation.  It
will be delivered to all the homes in the Burr Oak area,
welcoming people to the church.

Millersburg (Ohio) Mennonite Church nearly doubled its mission
giving when it began observing quarterly mission-focus Sundays
two years ago.

“We’ve had an increase in giving because of the increase in focus
and in people’s minds,” said pastor Tom Michaels.

Although the congregation had previously collected a mission
offering every other month, focusing the entire worship service
on mission brings a closer connection to the mission front, and
heightens awareness of continuing needs, Michaels said.

On “Missions Sunday”, Millersburg invites speakers from the
field, both local and international, and adds music and visuals
to aid the atmosphere of worship and outreach.  The entire
offering is split between MBM and local outreach organizations,
unless contributions are otherwise designated.

Millersburg Mennonite Church, which averages 125 in worship
attendance, increased its giving to MBM from $5,000 in 1997 to
about $9,000 in 1999.

The 200 members at Sharon Mennonite Church have found that
connection, celebration and fun are the keys to generosity in
Plain City, Ohio.

Sharon Mennonite Church celebrates giving with flair, piling food
for Russia and health kits for Venezuela at the front of the
sanctuary.  It took children and adults about eight weeks to
collect $800 of loose change in jugs for the Ohio MCC relief
sale.

The congregation operates without a budget, instead designating
one offering per month for missions and three for general
operating and building funds.

The Missions Sunday offering always includes a short presentation
about an overseas project or cause.  Sharon Mennonite Church also
keeps copies of the Directory of Mennonite Missions in the pews,
praying every week for designated workers pictured in the book.

“A specific project gets people galvanized,” said pastor Howard
Schmitt.  “They rally to that much better than a general
request.”
Mennonite Board of Missions extends the whole gospel to a broken
world by building holistic communities of faith in 46 countries.
* * *

Anne Horst