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2024 Christmas Project: Fundraising Ideas For Your Church

aheckman — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 18:54:04 +0000

2024 Christmas Project: Fundraising Ideas For Your Church aheckman Wed, 11/27/2024 - 18:54

2024 Christmas Project: Fundraising Ideas For Your Church

Gender inequality is a significant driver of global poverty rates, denying women and girls of their inherent, God-given dignity. In many cultures, women face barriers—even in their own homes—that limit their opportunities to learn and support themselves and their families. At least 60 percent of individuals living with chronic, extreme hunger are women and girls. In countries impacted by fragility, conflict, and violence, girls are 2.5 times more likely to be out of school than boys. Women make up more than two-thirds of the world’s illiterate population.

Empowering women to earn an income and support their families helps close these and other gender gaps. Education and employment lead to widespread benefits, including improved child nutrition, better health, and opportunities like small business ownership.

Nazarene Compassionate Ministries is working in partnership with local Nazarene churches in Ethiopia, Liberia, and Ghana to support the empowerment and dignity of women and girls. Through projects that open doors to education alongside vocational training and job placement assistance, women and their families are finding hope for a better and more secure future.

When you give to the 2024 NCM Christmas Project, you will help unlock the skills and resources women need to transform lives and communities.

Read on for creative church-based fundraising ideas you can use to gather support for the Christmas Project this holiday season.

Women’s Tea Fundraiser

Because this year’s project supports women and girls, your church could host a women’s tea, open to girls and women of all ages. Invite the men of the church to host and serve the event. Ticket sales can directly go to the Christmas Project.

Dessert Auction

Round up your church’s best bakers and auction off cakes, pies, cookies, and more to the top bidders. Or, combine an auction with the women’s tea idea listed above, for an event with double the fundraising power!

Christmas Craft Fair or Market

Organize a holiday craft fair or market where church members and local crafters can sell handmade goods, crafts, and baked goods. The proceeds from the sales are combined to support the Christmas Project.

Christmas Caroling for a Cause

Organize a group of church members or students from your youth group to go caroling around the neighborhood or to local businesses, asking for donations to the Christmas Project in exchange for a performance.

Giving Tree

Set up a Christmas tree in your church lobby or foyer and place tags with varying donations on the tree. Encourage members to pick a tag and donate that amount to the Christmas Project.

"Walk for Women" Fundraising Walk or Run

Organize a fundraising walk or run event where church members walk or run in exchange for pledges or donations to the Christmas Project. You could set a specific distance (e.g., 5K) and invite participants to gather sponsorships from friends, family, and church members.

Christmas "Photo Booth" Fundraiser

Set up a festive Christmas photo booth at your church service or event, complete with holiday props. Ask for a donation to the Christmas Project for families or individuals to take professional or fun pictures in the booth.

Christmas Project Sunday

One Sunday in December, tell your congregation about this year’s project. Share the video and bulletin available at ncm.org/christmas, and take an offering to support the project.

We hope these ideas help fuel your creativity as you consider how your church can partner with the Christmas Project to make a difference this Christmas season.

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Church

Compassionate Lifestyle in Your Community

aheckman — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 19:16:23 +0000

Compassionate Lifestyle in Your Community aheckman Wed, 04/13/2022 - 19:16

Compassionate Lifestyle in Your Community

APRIL 13, 2022 · NELL BECKER SWEEDEN

This article originally appeared in Holiness Today in 2009. Any facts and figures were accurate at the time of publication. Reprinted with permission. Read the original article here.

Tom Nees, former Nazarene Compassionate Ministries and USA/Canada Mission/Evangelism director, was once asked, "How did you know that God was calling you to start Community of Hope?" Nees simply responded: "I couldn't not do it."

In the 1970s, Nees began Community of Hope, an urban church in Washington, D.C., as a gathering place for people in need. From a small group of people listening to the concerns of their neighbors and working to create decent affordable housing in the neighborhood, the ministry soon expanded. Eventually it would include health and social services, legal aid, youth and children's activities, emergency assistance, and counseling.

Beginning with a compassionate conscience, Community of Hope became a compassionate ministry center. In reflecting on the compelling urge Nees felt to begin an inner city ministry, one discovers that a church congregation seeking to live compassionately in its community discerns this same motivation—we can't not do it.

We can't not do it because we are compelled by God's love for us to show this same love to others.

This simple beginning can soon become an eruption of compassion. Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (NCM) seeks to come alongside such congregations and help provide them with guidance, partnership, resources, and training to live compassionately in their neighborhoods. A congregation can begin to address community needs by assessing its local community and church family.

Beginning steps:

Pray. Begin a prayer team and do prayer walks in your community asking God to lead you in how to respond to the concerns of your neighbors.
Map the community. Who resides nearby? What needs are in the community? What might be causing some of those needs?
Survey what services already exist in your surrounding area. Look online or in the phone book for local food banks, rescue homes, social services, and so on.
Assess possible local partners and resources. Visit and volunteer. Get to know other service organizations nearby.
Look for resources and skills within your congregation. For example, who is willing and able to volunteer? Does your church put on a great potluck? Do any people in your church have basic construction skills? Do you have a gym or classrooms that aren't being used throughout the week?

All of these are assets, resources, and skills that can be used in living out compassion in your community. The goal is to start simply. Your compassionate outreach could be as basic as setting up a team of volunteers and a schedule to visit a local nursing home, or to serve food at a soup kitchen once a week. The opportunities are endless.

Compelled by God's love, a congregation cannot help but seek every avenue, form, and partnership to reach out to others and so transform them by the love of Christ. A compassionate lifestyle is a lifestyle of gospel reflection and transformation. As God's children, we can't not do it.

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Nell Becker Sweeden is the director of Nazarene Compassionate Ministries.

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