Mission Statement
The Mission and Social Action Commission seeks to empower the people of the church in spreading the reign of God in all the earth and to help others in experiencing first-hand what God's heaven is like. We reach out to those places where sin, darkness and poverty (of spirit as well as of body) have a strong grip. Through activities such as prayer, hands-on work, fund raising, letter writing, etc, we are invested in work such as the following:
 |
Feeding hungry people. |
|
Supporting groups that help alcoholics stay sober. |
|
Helping a Third World peasant start a business. |
|
Lobbying government officials to design effective environmental policy. |
|
Sending Bibles and missionaries to far-away places. |
|
Connecting our own people with opportunities to be involved in active service. |
We affirm through our activities that "the Kingdom of Heaven has come near" (Mt. 10:7), that it is not only something someone enters upon death but is meant to be experienced in the here and now. We seek to spread the good news that God's abundant, eternal life bursts into the present reality, not just for humans but for all of God’s good creation.
Special Fundraising Endeavors
|
Food Collection for the Grant / Newaygo Emergency Food Pantry: This food pantry is a cooperative effort of a number of the churches in the Grant and Newaygo school districts. It distributes a couple days’ worth of food to needy families no more than once per month. |
|
Neighbors in Need: In October we take a special collection of monies for the United Church of Christ's Neighbors in Need program. This money is used for |
|
Christmas Fund: This collection helps support UCC pastors who have retired without any retirement fund available to them. |
|
School Supplies: In late August we collect school supplies for needy school children. Backpacks are made up with these supplies and distributed by Newaygo County Community Services. |
|
CROP Walk: During September or October, people walk up to 5 miles to raise funds to help stop hunger, locally and globally. One fourth of the proceeds go to our local food pantry and the rest goes to Church World Service, which helps the needy in a variety of ways around the world. |
|
Christmas Food and Gift Distribution and Hat and Mitten Tree: Members of the congregation sign up to buy Christmas presents for needy people. We also collect food, hats, and mittens. The Sunday before Christmas the food and gifts are taken to the needy families. There is usually enough food for about a week of meals. |
|
Bowl for Kids' Sake: Participants gather sponsors and bowl to help Newaygo County Community Service’s Big Brother / Big Sister program. This fundraiser is held in early spring (February / March). |
|
One Great Hour of Sharing: This program, in March, raises money using a variety of tactics. One year members and friends took seed money to use in developing items to sell. Food, crafts, services, etc. were sold, and more than $400 was raised. This money goes to ??, who uses it for . |
|
Camperships: We seek to help make summer camp experiences at Camp Talahi available to any children (and adults, too!) who wish to attend camp. Moneys are raised in the spring to be available that summer. |
|
Blanket Sunday: We collect money to buy blankets, which are distributed. This collection is taken in May. |
Other Mission Endeavors
As part of our mission to the community, we make our building available rent free to organizations that help those in need. For example, NCCS operates a mobile food pantry in our fellowship hall once a month. The Friendship Club, a Christian program for developmentally disabled persons, uses our building Monday evenings during the school year.
Mission Experience
We work on making mission not simply something we do through people in other places by writing a checkbook but also something we personally do locally and globally in hands-on experiences. This might take the form of volunteering at the Grant/Newaygo Emergency Food Pantry, working at Vacation Bible School, mentoring a youngster through Big Brothers/Big Sisters, or traveling to South Dakota to work at an Indian Reservation for a week.
Philips Fund
In 1970 Maude Philips left part of her estate to the church, an amount at the time of about $50,000 without any stipulations regarding the use of the money. The Philips Fund was established, setting aside the money for use by the church in its work, mostly for mission endeavors. Over the years tens of thousands have been disbursed to various organizations like International Aid, Bread for the World, UCC Seminaries, Mel Trotter Mission, Habitat for Humanity etc., as well as for local work like sending kids to camp, scholarships for college students, replacing windows on the church, etc. The fund has also grown considerably and is now worth multiple times its initial value.