Choosing your Living is Giving mission focus areas

Some congregations have informal Living is Giving teams which receive Living is Giving information from the Synod, identify mission focus areas or directions that would interest their congregations and help them to make collective decisions. The team can use one of the following options to make sure the whole congregation has a say in which mission focus areas are supported.

Option 1
Hold a special congregational meeting after March Insights arrives. Decide to increase or maintain your congregation’s previous Living is Giving contributions. Then decide which mission focus areas your congregation would like to support.

Option 2
Develop a mission plan for your congregation and a strategy for resourcing that mission, perhaps with the help of a consultant from the Board of Mission. Then develop targets for those Living is Giving areas which extend your congregation’s mission into regional, national or international areas. You may also choose to give part of your contribution as a General Contribution (undesignated). For more information on how the Board of Mission can help your congregation with its mission planning, contact Don Dowling, on (02) 8267 4384 or dond@nsw.uca.org.au.

Option 3
Start with a target amount suggested to you by your presbytery in consultation with your congregation’s treasurer. Determine what part of this you wish to give to which mission focus areas and what part you wish to give as a General Contribution (undesignated).

Option 4
Decide to increase or maintain your congregation’s previous Living is Giving contributions. Give your congregation’s entire contribution to the wider work of the Uniting Church as a General Contribution (undesignated).

Option 5
Some churches have a “Thanksgiving Sunday” early in the year when members and others commit themselves to support their church. These congregations can make support of the Uniting Church’s wider work part of this day through Living is Giving.

To find out more about the variety of ministries on which you can focus your giving, click here.