Other Links

You are in: Our Work > Life and Witness > Act Guide

The report “Growing Up” outlined the idea of a mission programme and issued a challenge to every local church to examine itself using the 5 Marks of Mission as a test. The outcome of such an examination would enable a local congregation to identify how it can share in and create a commitment to God’s mission. The proof of this commitment would be the shaping of the life of the local churches according to the 5 Marks of Mission.

Having identified a specific project for mission – perhaps a particular need in the local community that has not been met by any other activity – the next step is to convert the idea into actions. What work must be undertaken? What resources will be needed, whether people, skills, financial, buildings? What is the timescale? In fact a variety of questions to be identified and then answered.

How can we develop a mission project so that with God’s help our own resources can be used in the most effective way?

Whether a mission project is a small one-off activity with a short time-scale or a major project that may take considerable time for implementation, the same disciplined approach is necessary.

ACT – Acclaim Christ Together – is designed to help in the development of a mission project. It is not a programme which has all the answers, but a guide to enable a mission project to be developed in such a way as to ensure the most effective use of all the available resources, which is the essence of good stewardship.

With God anything is possible.

RESOURCES, STEWARDSHIP AND RELATIONSHIPS

What springs to mind when “Stewardship” is mentioned? – inevitably thoughts turn to money and then some people get annoyed or dismayed that this terrible subject of money is raising its head in Church.

Sometimes people get agitated when money is mentioned in Church, most times it is because people’s purse strings are directly attached to their heart strings.

Mention money and now we are getting just too close for comfort.

But Jesus did not avoid the subject of money:

Scriptures deal with MONEY MATTERS because MONEY MATTERS!

More than just Money is involved in Stewardship:

In the Christian concept with respect to the Bible, God is a Trinity and the Christian community is one of sharing relationships – giving and caring. These relationships can be seen in 3 ways:

God has created us yet out of love shares with us the world, having given us dominion and oversight over it. In His relationships with us God has shown that He gives to us and cares for us.

Our response must then surely be to love and to worship God – true worship which includes the giving of ourselves (Romans 12:1). This giving of ourselves is to be in both a spiritual and practical way. Just as God is at work in our lives in many ways, as we respond we should learn to give of ourselves in different ways as we express our love for God – a love which is expressed through obedience.

Love is our response to God’s initiating acts of saving love. God initiates and humanity responds in obedience – but how? We look to the Old Testament for an answer – as God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, so God needed to establish a relationship with them.

The Book of Leviticus is based on communion with and access to God. In it we read of practical ways for the people to come to know God, ways to express their love and trust for God as Lord, Father and Provider.

In Deuteronomy 14:22-23 and Numbers 18:21-26 we also find the concept of the tithe, one tenth of everything belonging to the Lord. These tithes were not to be seen as a burden on the people but rather to express love and trust for God. Giving was not to be seen as threat but showed instead confidence that God would make the land produce, that as we give so shall we be blessed. The principle was established that only in giving do we receive. It was for this reason that Malachi spoke to a struggling generation that withheld the payment of the tithe – “Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “And see if I will throw open the floodgates of heaven and outpour so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it”.

(Malachi 3:10)

We must not however think that the tithe was the only means of giving. If we look at Deuteronomy 14:22-29 we see there are 2 tithes:

In fact there was also a third giving that went beyond the tithe. This was the freewill offering, a voluntary contribution that expressed devotion to the Lord and not given out of a sense of duty or to win blessings. Because God is concerned with the attitude in the heart of worshippers, the grateful believers could express their devotion through the freewill offering as well. In total this meant the average giving by the Old Testament Israelites was 23⅓%!

The Old Testament commands associate love for God with love for each other. This is carried over to the New Testament where the Church is the new community of faith and where people experience the reality of a bond created with faith in Christ, which results in a bonding to God and to those who belong to God.

In this situation there is a sharing and a fellowship, as described in Acts 4:32-37. This does not suggest an organised social programme or shared ownership of property but a sensitive concern for others and a spontaneous willingness to share material things with those in need. Again it points to the fact that Stewardship is Relationship.

If Stewardship is about relationships and sharing with each other how does it fit in with the Church? How do we measure Stewardship with respect to “giving” in the Church and the support of Mission?

In the New Testament’s noteworthy passage on giving, II Corinthians 8:9, Paul highlights the principle for “giving as sharing” – it is to relieve the needs of the people.

Elsewhere in the New Testament we see “giving” portrayed as:

Although the New Testament does not make tithing a binding principle with respect to giving, it does present the idea of Systematic Giving. Paul exhorts one Church to give by setting aside weekly “a sum of money in keeping with….income”.

(I Corinthians 16:2).

But how is that sum to be determined? Instead of suggesting the tithe as a principle Paul gives some principles for guidance – II Corinthians 8 & 9:

The Church cannot prescribe with respect to contributions, but we must remember that the church’s only income is through the gracious giving of the congregation. Just as any family needs to budget to live and achieve goals, so too the Church as the Family of God must budget for expenses and for aspects of how it will function. If the only income is from all those people associated with the church then it is only fitting that they give an indication of what they can contribute.

Just as members are to give so the church must also give of what it receives in order that glory might be given to God as we help in the work of wider ministry and the sharing of the Good News with others.

So in conclusion there are two key issues which we must bear in mind:

The New Testament principles for cheerful giving need our careful consideration – we must look at our attitude with respect to material things, measure our needs and the needs of others. Just as money can be used as a symbol of our relationship with God so money can often come between us and God and break that relationship. What is also wrong is the attitude of expecting something for money given – the church is not a shop so we cannot expect value for money, rather what we can give is glory to God.

We must remember that Stewardship is about relationships. Primarily it is about our relationship with God and our relationships with others. We can show our devotion to god through our freewill offerings. This does not mean buying “god”, rather it can be seen as a practical expression of our love, worship and trust in God. The New Testament principles of giving still apply, each person is responsible for using possessions in ways that honour God. We must remain sensitive to others and commit ourselves to giving generously for those needs we believe to be closest to God’s heart.

Our giving is a response to God’s giving in order that the church might have the resources for its mission. The Mission of the church is simply what the church does (our ought to do) as a church.

The “Growing Up” report was adopted as a basis for the URC’s mission strategy at the 1999 General Assembly. One of the tools identified for turning ideas into reality was The Five Marks of Mission. These can be summarised as:

How do we support the work which enables the implementation of the 5 Marks of Mission?

How do we identify the resources needed to ensure the work can be undertaken?

How do we ensure that those necessary resources are available?

Mission should not be seen in isolation as if it were a “negotiable” aspect of church life or an “appendix” to the life of the church. As Emile Brunner stated it “The Church exists by mission as a fire exists by burning”.

The mission of the church is to be seen in the light of D. Bosch’s definition: “Mission is the good news of God’s love incarnated in the witness of a community for the sake of the world”.

The “elements” (or ministries) are distinguishable but they are not separate. This means that we should not see any one (or even group) of the “elements” as having priority over the others; mission needs to be an integration and c0-ordination of all the ministries to achieve the full mission potential of the church.

We have to seek to ensure that the activities within the life of the Church reflect the 5 Marks of Mission. It may well mean that in carrying out a stewardship programme such activities will be a pointer for the responses and resources that we are seeking to move the Church forward into mission.

The following activities are some of those readily recognised as reflecting the 5 Marks of Mission in Church life.

Tell: - lay preaching, formation of worship groups and teams, more congregational involvement in worship, worship style changes, alpha courses.

Teach – Junior Church work, all age worship groups, Elders Training Courses, Bible Study groups, House Groups, Seminars, Retreats and Away Days.

Tend - Development of Pastoral Teams, Community Work, Day Centres, and Counselling.

Treasure – Church Energy Management, Recycling events, supporting charity and other environmental causes, ethical investment.

Transform – Commitment for Life, Christian Aid and other agency support, community projects and social justice campaigns, support FairTrade goods.

Many churches in the United Reformed Church already have links with the support agencies and often there are Mission Committees established in the life of the Church.

The Stewardship Programme seeks to raise awareness in the Church Family to the whole concept of mission as a facet of church life and the following section demonstrates that in practice almost every activity undertaken by the fellowship contributes to the ‘mission’ of the Church.
(if an activity doesn’t contribute to the mission of the church, it should!)

If we accept that the ‘mission’ of the church is the whole life of the church, then this ‘life and work’ can be ascribed to aspects of:

Tell, Teach: Worship and proclamation

Tend, Transform Outreach and Service ‘Mission’

Tend, Treasure Fellowship and Pastoral Care

It is useful to see that the ‘ordained ministry’ (i.e. ministers and suitably trained elders) has a direct bearing and influence in the three intersections of the circles in the above diagram. In particular it shows the emphasis that should be placed on discipleship and ‘Christian nurture/formation’ in order for church to be what it is meant to be (as opposed to simply doing).

If the ‘calling’ to ministry (especially with regard to the ‘ordained ministers’) is about “Word and Sacrament” then it is in these ‘intersections’ that the empowering and enabling of the church is made a vital reality and allows the church to become ‘incarnate’ in the life of the local community.

Due to the inevitable overlap of certain aspects of the life and work of the church, it is necessary to review the different aspects of the church’s life. To facilitate such a review it would be useful to analyse the congregation from two aspects:

A SWOT analysis can be undertaken as follows:

Draw two lines on a flip chart page to divide the page into quarters. Write the titles in each quarter, and at a meeting discuss what should be written in each.

In the top Left write a list of what you consider to be the Strengths of your church – e.g. position, number of rooms, enthusiasm of members, etc.

In the top right, list what you consider to be the Weaknesses of your church – the areas in which you could do with some help, e.g. state of buildings, number of members.

The Bottom left corner is for the list of Opportunities – these are things that could be done (given the resources) in, from or around your church e.g. drop in coffee morning, mums ‘n’ tots, visit Nursing home, School.

Final corner is for a list of Threats – things that conspire against you doing things. E.g no one lives nearby, age of members, gangs of youth etc.

Note: The examples given are intended as guides only.
Under normal circumstances all activities should fit into one of these categories, and some may fit into two depending on their focus.

For any project to be viable its benefits must outweigh its costs in time, effort money and other resources.

Key Questions should be asked. These questions give us a judgment of worth and enable us to weigh this proposal against other priorities demanding our time and resource.

A procedure is a plan that is used repeatedly. Once proved and adjusted in practice it remains more or less fixed and indicates things to be done in order to achieve some particular result, time after time. As with other things connected with projects the procedures required will depend upon the particular circumstances of the case but the following check list should provide a general guide and starting point.

Procedures are required for:

If your mission project it going to succeed, you need to prepare a plan. These are the key steps in any planning process:

The end result is a plan which has taken into account the relevant fact and assumptions, and is clearly focused on the objectives that are to be achieved.

Planning tends to be a continuous process, but it is appropriate to assume as a starting point the Basic Mission Objectives on which the church has focused. Unless there is a clear objective a coherent plan cannot be prepared.

The Guidelines and Policies reflect the way in which the church will undertake the work. Apart from a Christian belief there may be, for example statements on social responsibility, equal opportunity, etc.

The critical features of the Information Base include reviews of the past and present circumstances in which the church is set – the locality, the population mix, other churches, ecumenical activities. In addition there will be assessments of how these are forecast to change in the short, medium and long term, important information since this may well have implications for the future.

Although information may have been gathered and forecasts made, there are usually items which are almost impossible to assess reliably. Assumptions about them are therefore made on the best possible basis – and must be clearly identified as assumptions since they may change as information does become available.

The Objectives are those identified in the Mission Project. The strategies are the working methods to be employed. A Strategy is, in effect, a process of identifying alternative means of reaching objectives, evaluating them and then making decisions.

The Action Programmes are amongst the most important statements in the plan since they identify who is responsible for the particular piece of work, what has to be done and when, how the results of the effort will be determined and the associated costs.

Budgets and Control contains a summary of the planned activities in terms of figures, the budget. Budgets serve for comparison and for control during the life of the plan so it is essential that they are based on well-documented versions of the earlier phases of planning – changes must be recorded at the time and the associated impact on budgets assessed and recorded.

The Current Snapshot that you compile as part of the vision review process will enable you to judge whereabouts on the chart your Church is currently placed as you compare your position with the various criteria listed.

Remember this is simply a guide to finding a vision for the church that embraces all aspects and motivates the church towards MISSION.

Once you have decide what you want to do, how do you go about actually doing it? Here are some guidelines

These notes set out the activities and timescales that would be envisaged in the life of a church carrying out a Christian stewardship programme to support a major project or Mission initiative.

The elements are based on the experience gained from churches that have already undertaken such a programme as TRIO and they may be adopted in full or in part as appropriate.

Because more than just MONEY is involved in Christian Stewardship, in particular when a major project or Mission initiative is being supported, the programme has a broader base than the TRIO material. Whilst the programme does place an emphasis on the money that is necessary to meet the specific requirements of a Church, it also seeks to raise the total resources for the work to which God has called his body the Church. It is for this reason that the programme addresses resources both in terms of time (manpower) talents (skills) and treasure (finance).

Fundraising is often a major activity of many of our individual churches and although the church cannot prescribe with respect to contributions, it is only through the gracious giving of the congregation in terms of time, talent and treasure that both budgets and objectives can be reconciled. This programme seeks to challenge individuals to reconsider their present contribution and in gratitude for all that God does in their lives increase it.

The Minister, Elders and the Mission Planning Team decide the duration of the programme and in particular the target dates for Church Meeting/Council approval, for issuing invitations, for the presentation to the whole church and for the issue and return of response forms i.e. Response Sunday.

The timing of the major project or Mission initiative is of significance in setting the dates for the programme. But equally, timing the programme to coincide with events in the church year can be of great help. For example, a stewardship programme can be planned over a period to culminate with the responses being made at Easter, so that the whole concept of resurrection and new life can be brought into the build up to the programme. (NB: It is equally as effective for the responses to be made at Pentecost when the power of the Holy Spirit can be included in the programme material).

The proposals for the stewardship programme to support the major project or Mission initiative are put before the church members by way of a presentation at a Church Meeting/Council. Firstly, in order to gain approval in principle to introducing the programme into the life of the church, and secondly, to get enable the Planning Team Members to show how the programme will support the proposed work.

The Minister should clearly identify with the stewardship programme through membership of the Planning Team, not necessarily as leader, but at least in an ex-officio capacity. If the Church Meeting approves the whole concept of a stewardship programme then the detail can be circulated in the Church and the church organisations/groups encouraged to assess their own contribution to the major project or Mission initiative and to include speakers on the subject ‘Christian stewardship’ in their programme.

If, for example, Easter is to be the target date for completion of the stewardship programme then the Planning Team, having been appointed by the Elders and Church Meeting/Council, will need to commence their work in the autumn when the Church members and organisations usually commence meeting again after the summer holidays.

The Planning Team meets in September and appoints a leader or Convenor if Church Meeting /Council has not already confirmed such an appointment.

The major project or Mission initiative will determine the theme and title for the stewardship programme. It is essential that the theme can be understood by all ages and clearly portrays to the members and friends of the Church the objectives of the stewardship.

Once the theme and title have been agreed, they should be announced to the Church, and the preaching in the period prior to the presentation to the whole gathered church should embody the ‘stewardship’ theme as far as possible. The whole emphasis should be on the vision of the church for the future and how the major project or Mission initiative is a part of this vision.

The following task areas are allocated to planning team members:

As soon as practical draft out the Personal Prayer Card Invitation and determine from the ‘Family Roll’ the number that will be required from the printers. Arrange for the stewardship theme, with a focus on the major project or Mission initiative, to be part of the preaching for at least one Sunday a month during the period up to the presentation.

Arrange for members of the Planning Team to meet with all the leaders/secretaries of organisations and groups within the church including Elders. The meetings will be used to promote the stewardship programme theme and seek to identify their aspirations, visions and needs for the coming year in terms of manpower, skills and finance within the context of the major project or Mission initiative. These answers will be used to structure the response form details.

Start preparing for the stewardship presentation by deciding who will make the presentation to the gathered Church; secondly collect together the information required for the slides that will be used to convey information to the Church. Some of this information will be available from the first presentation to the Church Meeting but may have to be updated by the Planning Team in view of their deliberations and meeting with others in the life of the church. It is useful to encourage the various organisations and groups within the life of the church that use speakers at their meetings to include someone during this period that will talk about ‘Christian stewardship’ in its widest sense and not merely the financial contribution.

The hopes and dreams of the church are important, so the team needs to be clear before the presentation to the whole church on the following aspects:

FURTHER ACTIONS

As the team approve the script for the presentation to the gathered church, prepare addressed envelopes and personal prayer card invitations to all on the family roll. They must agree how they will be delivered, for example by Elders to their lists, or initially after Sunday worship, or via organisation Secretaries for those not on Elders lists, perhaps by volunteers from the membership. It is essential that everything is delivered in good time - for example, if a stewardship presentation is to be on a date in late March ensure that all are delivered by the end of February.

Fundamental decisions need to be made before issuing the letter with the Prayer Card:

When and where is the stewardship presentation to be made?

Only you will know which is the most likely to be well attended. You will need to ensure an adequate room and the equipment necessary to make the presentation (e.g. overhead or other projector and screen).

Once ‘Response’ Sunday has been identified and announced to the Church, then immediately following the stewardship presentation to the invited church, an envelope containing the Stewardship literature should be given out, firstly to those who attended the presentation and secondly by Visitors to all those who do not attend the presentation but are on the Family Roll. Again this can follow the same pattern as the Prayer Card invitations but is more likely to be successful if taken out by Planning Team members or trained visitors who are able to explain the stewardship programme and the Response Form.

Response Forms can be returned in the Confidential Envelope direct to the designated person from the Planning Team, but preferably returned at the ‘Response’ Sunday worship when they will be recorded afterwards. All responses will be gathered and placed on the offertory plates and dedicated to God in celebration during the worship. Those received previously will also be put onto the plates and placed on the Communion Table with the others.

The Planning Team should attempt to identify any missing response forms and endeavour to collect the form by an informal visit or at least encourage (perhaps by announcement) the return of the form during worship on subsequent Sundays. Any returned on subsequent Sundays will be collected with the usual offertory before being passed onto the designated person from the Planning Team.

Immediately following ‘Response’ Sunday the team collates the responses in terms of TIME, TALENT and FINANCE and will have a brief letter signed by the Team Leader and Minister available ready to send to everyone who has returned a response form.

The letter simply says:

The follow-up of every response is vital.

The Planning Team must sit down with the Elders and ensure that every offer of help is taken up. The organisations and groups will normally be able to do this for people offering time and talent in their area, but the Minister should quickly acknowledge responses in areas such as ministry, membership, worship leadership, bible study etc. The Treasurer and Gift Aid Secretary MUST quickly acknowledge and deal with any requests for planned giving envelopes or gift aid declarations as well as being enthusiastic about increased giving as a result of the programme.

Make sure a full ‘enthusiastic’ report is given to the next church meeting and wherever possible in worship on the Sunday following ‘Response’ Sunday, emphasising especially the value of the financial result (if everyone meets his or her promises). Interest can wane very quickly if no reaction is shown by the Church and it is a priority of the team to acknowledge offers of time and skill, as well as money, which will enable the church to achieve the goals of its major project or Mission Initiative in terms of the Five Marks Of Mission, namely:

top