This Sunday, January 2 is the last Sunday we will be taking up our Christmas Offering. All money received through this offering goes toward helping Trinity pay annual apportionments to the greater United Methodist Church.
From the General Council on Finance and Administration: The United Methodist Church’s website:
How do United Methodist apportionments make a difference? Do they change lives, create missions, feed the homeless, build churches? The practical response goes to the heart of stewardship within The United Methodist Church.
From our earliest days, the people known as United Methodists have understood our life together as connectional. Whether parts of an urban congregation, a weekly gathering at a rural crossroads, or making a new church start become a reality, United Methodists are all interconnected. The gospel comes alive in the ministries in our individual settings, but we also know that we are called to witness in a larger, interconnected world.
That shared understanding empowers us to financially support outreach that no single congregation could do on its own. The connection allows us to effectively share programs that really work in our local area throughout the country and globally so that we can enhance the power of our witness everywhere. Our very existence as United Methodists engages us at the local, annual conference and worldwide level in ministries made possible by our shared commitments. For that reason, local congregations support annual conference budgets, and the annual conferences support the general church.
The 2008 General Conference affirmed that the Four Areas of Focus for this quadrennium would be: •
- Combating the diseases of poverty by improving health globally.
- Creating new places for new people and revitalizing existing congregations.
- Developing principled Christian leaders for the church and the world.
- Engaging in ministry with the poor.
Each day, local churches, conferences, individuals, and Church agencies are working to impact the world in one of these four – and many other – areas.
Learn more about apportionments at www.umcgiving.org.