End of Year Mission Ideas

End of Year Mission Ideas

by | Dec 11, 2018 | Missions Mobilization

Dear Pastors and Mission Leaders,

Greetings in Christ.  How should a mission team end their fiscal calendar year?  Here are some ideas to consider during the month of December.  Many churches fiscal calendars operate on the calendar year.  In many cases this means that the mission budget ends as well.  What are some ways that your church can be a blessing with any mission funds that remain in your mission budget at the end of the year?  Here are a few ideas:

  • Go to a nursing home and find out the needs of residents there. One church that we just visited goes to a Christian nursing home and brings gifts to each of the residents.  Some of the gift requests that I saw included a new shaver, a winter scarf, with many people asking for nice socks.  What a great idea to visit residents and bring a small gift.
  • Visit your local law-enforcement office and bring a fruit gift basket. Our church gives a $50 basket to the local police department and a $50 basket to the sheriff’s department.  We also include a card from our church with many people signing it.
  • Give a personal Christmas gift to your supported missionaries. Our church gives a $100 personal gift to our long-term supported missionaries each year.
  • Give one-time gifts to your missionaries, who lack full-support.
  • If you have a short-term fund, maybe you can also add dollars for future teams what will be going out from your church. Consider funding for crisis-response teams for 2019 that might go out from your church.  Consider giving a one-time gift to any crisis-response staff, who are lacking full-support.
  • Give a one-time gift to EFCA Crisis response needs. Go to this site for Hurricane Florence.  https://give.efca.org/hurricane-florence-response. Their goal is to raise $250,000, one dollar for each of the 250,000 homes affected.  You can also give for the Paradise CA Fire Response.  Acct #21709-39286.  Go to efca.org for more information.
  • What are other needs/ministries in your community? Food shelf, homeless shelters, Salvation Army and ministries to immigrants.
  • Christian camps in your district.
  • Funds for future youth teams.
  • What are other needs outside of your community that your church has an interest in? Persecuted Christians, national mission partnerships, GlobalFingerprints, Asia Justice Initiatives.

May God make your church a blessing to others this Christmas season.

In Christ,
Steve Austvold