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A Faith-Promise Testimonial
Ron Cook
Pastor, Salem UB
Chambersburg, Pa.
The Salem UB church in Chambersburg, Pa., is among the UB churches that use Faith Promise.
Salem has always been interested in missions, and has had a history of giving to missions through WMF and MMI. So this emphasis was nothing new to Salem. However, the missions emphasis was usually periodic--when there was a special appeal through Thank Offering, Self-Denial, etc. The WMF ladies were faithful in giving, but that included just a few ladies in the church. One of my goals was to broaden the congregation's vision of missions and giving by using a missions conference and Faith Promise.
Our first missions conference, in 2003, did not include Faith Promise. The people wanted to see what a conference looked like. People had many questions and uncertainties as we approached the first conference. However, the conference went well and many people participated. Our main speaker, Glenn Osborne of China Outreach Ministries, challenged the church by giving us a broad scope of world missions.
The Missions Commission decided to include in our 2004 missions conference an opportunity for people to make Faith Promise commitments. We set a goal of $40,000 to be met in two ways. First, the administrative board voted to tithe our monthly general income. Second, we would challenge people to give beyond their normal giving through Faith Promise.
The Sunday prior to our Mission Conference, I preached from 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 about faith giving. I explained Faith Promise giving and let people know that they would have the opportunity to make Faith Promise commitments as part of our missions conference. On Sunday morning, March 28, to conclude our missions conference, we passed out Faith Promise cards after the message.
When we tallied the Faith Promise cards with the general offering tithe, our 2004 missions commitment totaled over $59,000! This compares to the $25,000 given to missions in 2003.
Posted August 9, 2004
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