Ask your church to launch or renew a covenant relationship with a General Board of Global Ministries' missionary. In addition to a financial commitment:
Pray for the missionary's ministry in worship.
Celebrate the missionary's birthday with a special offering.
- Invite the missionary to visit the church or to Skype with the congregation.
Alternative Giving
Ask that birthday or Christmas gifts be a donation made in your name to your favorite Advance project.
Identify projects and missionaries that have special meaning to the people on your Christmas list and give in their honor. If you still want a wrapped gift, accompany the notification with a token representation of the project (a framed map of the region, a water bottle for a water project or a hammer for a construction project.). Or design or purchase a card that reflects the project theme.
- Hold an alternative gift fair or booth at your church. Offer a list of projects with photos from different ministries.
Incorporate prayers and support into your seasonal Bible study or other small-group gatherings and receive a collection for a related project.
During Advent or Lent, feature missionaries and projects in Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
In autumn, lift up agricultural/harvest projects and missionaries.
Other Ideas
Invite the community to a fundraiser. People will be happy to know that 100 percent of their donation will go to the designated project. Working with an In Mission Together coordinator, build a relationship with a new worship community mission initiative in another country.
Sponsor a community program about HIV/AIDS around World AIDS Day (Dec. 1) with the admission fee benefiting HIV/AIDS projects.
Host a mission celebration focused on supporting mission through The Advance.
Tweet, Facebook or use other social media to tell about projects you support.
Introduce children to Advance projects during children's sermons.
Take a "noisy offering" in soup pots to support a hunger and poverty Advance project.
- Collect money in a "wishing well" to send to a water project or in a garden pot for an agricultural project.
General Board of Global Ministries