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Foundations - 2004 Foundations - 2001 Make A Donation Hope for the Children of Africa A Church for All
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Introduction | Guidelines | Checklist | Resources | Reporting Form | PDF Format INVITATION The Bishop's Initiative on Children and Poverty invites all United Methodist congregations to respond to the needs and receive the gifts of children and the poor. Becoming "A Church for All God's Children" is on important and joyful way local congregations can respond in faithful discipleship.
Becoming "A Church for All God's Children" represents a significant commitment of time and energy on the part of the congregation and its leadership. Therefore, the idea should be presented to the Church Council for discussion and action. OVERSIGHT A small group of persons should be named by the Church Council to oversee the process of selecting appropriate activities from the list and coordination their completion. While some churches may find it helpful to assign this task to an already-existing committee, others will want to name a task force specifically for this purpose. Consider naming one of more children to the committee. Regular progress reports to the Church Council will keep them informed and involved. BUDGET While many, indeed most, of the activities on the checklist will require little or no expenditure of funds, the committee may need a modest budget, mainly for purchase of resources that relate to certain of the activities. Some of the optional activities involve development of new programs. These would of course have to go through the regular program approval process of the church and any required budget would be part of the consideration at that point. TIMELINE The activities on the checklist are comprehensive and most will require considerable effort over an extended period of time. Do not expect to "zip" through the process quickly. The impact on the life of your church and community will be deeper and more long lasting if this effort is approached with care and time is taken to be thorough. Participating annual conferences will probably be recognizing "Churches for All God's Children" once a year. They will provide you with a date by which they should have your reporting form in hand. You will be wise to give your church at least a year to work toward completion of the required activities. PARTICIPATION The more adults, youth, and children from your church who are involved in the process, the better your chances that this effort will be fruitful. You will find that a number of the activities, some of the mandatory ones as well as some of the optional ones, call for the establishment of committees or task forces to coordinate specific pieces of work. While it may seem more efficient to have one or a few groups do all of these tasks, and while smaller congregations may find that necessary, remember that this is about commitment and involvement more than it is about efficiency. There is value in spreading the work around and having as many people as possible share the joy of making your church child-friendly and hospitable to poor families. RESOURCES Throughout the checklist, you will find references to print and audio-visual resources as well as to organizations and programs. While some addresses and phone numbers are included in the checklist, all are listed in the resources section. GETTING STARTED Once the decision to undertake this effort is name and an oversight committee of risk forces is appointed, make copies of the Checklist for each member. Among the tasks that the oversight group will want to undertake in the early stages are: a. An unhurried discussion of the concept, in order for everyone to feel informed; b. Initial selection of activities to be undertaken, recognizing that some changes may have to be made once the process is underway; c. Identification of persons in the church and the community who need to be consulted; d. Plans for keeping the Church Council and the congregation informed of progress. DISCERNMENT All activities will note be appropriate for all churches. If an optional activity is clearly beyond your church's means or irrelevant to your church's means or irrelevant to your church's situation, go on to another alternative. (At the same time, do not dismiss any possibility to quickly or simply because it will present a challenge - this may be precisely the act of witness or discipleship your church is being called to undertake!) If a mandatory activity is for some reason not possible for your church, undertake an activity as close in intent as possible to the original, and attack to your report form an explanation of why the substitution was necessary. You will note that there is an "other" category in each section. It is placed there to accommodate the situations described earlier in this paragraph, and as acknowledgement that local situations vary widely and that wisdom and creativity are abundant among local churches. It is assumed that use of the "other" category, either in place of or in addition to fulfillment of the required number of listed activities, will be consistent with the stated goal of the section and will represent a new activity of the congregation. DOCUMENTATION Since the Reporting Form requires that documentation of each activity be attached, the oversight group will need to keep careful records and preserve copies of minutes, articles in the bulletin and newsletters, flyers, photographs, newspaper clippings, etc. Consider naming one member as keeper of the official list, records, minutes, etc. REPORTING Your annual conference will establish a date by which you need to report in order to be recognized as "A Church for All God's Children." This packet should be accompanied by a letter from your Bishop, giving that (those) date(s) and letting you know where and to whom the reporting form and accompanying documentation should be sent. If you do not have that information, call the Bishop's office, or ask your District Superintendent to help you find out. The enclosed Reporting Form should be used unless your Bishop or annual conference has indicated otherwise. Make certain that you have attached a brief description of your church's response to each activity you marked as completed and any supporting materials as indicated in the instructions on the Reporting Form. RECOGNITION Your annual conference is responsible for determining if your church has qualified to be recognizing as "A Church for All God's Children" and for deciding where and how recognition will take place. If the recognition happens at a session of the Annual Conference or another event away from your church, the delegation accepting the recognition should include at least one child. CONTINUATION This endeavor is inteded to help you transform your congregation into a more "child-friendly" place, one that welcomes and stands with"the least of these." It is not something that can be done once and for all; it must receive ongoing attention. Once initial recognition has been achieved, you will want to establish a process by which you will continually evaluate, update and expand your church's ministry with children in the church and the community. You may choose to disband any special task force that was established to guide the process and transfer the ongoing responsibility to as standing committe, or you may choose to continue the task force. Watch your mail and church publications for information about ways to share updates about your ongoing activities. |
CHURCH COUNCIL APPROVAL