Mission Celebration: Help All Ages Go Into Service!

At the Roswell UMC mission event Sunday they had a nice feature during worship to emphasize people going into service. Often in a church it can be a challenge to move beyond talk into action! Many churches use a system where they offset the cost of a mission experience so that it is based on more than participant fees and has a certain amount of church "buy in" to the trip. This broadens the engagement and ownership so that it is more than merely an experience for the "away" team.

Roswell added a nice feature to their Sunday morning as they emphasized the "go" nature of outreach and offered incentives for children, youth, and adults to be involved during the week of the mission celebration and to participate in trips during the year.

Here's some of the script that pastors Mike Long and Nancy Lane used Sunday in worship:

"Over the years we’ve learned that those who go are changed.  I am excited to announce today that the global team has designated $_____ to help people from this congregation go on mission experiences. Friday night we gave away three $500 mission experience credits to be used this year. 
Today, our children and youth who participated in Great Day of Service and worship this morning are receiving a $50.00 mission experience credit to be used for our mission camp or mission trips through RUMC this summer. If you are a child or youth who participated Great Day of Service please bring your card forward and exchange it for a your mission credit certificate."

"And now, we are excited to share that three additional people will have the opportunity to GO as we share paid ground expenses to Peru, Kenya and Honduras."

There are some of the many great ideas to help churches launch into exciting, transformational mission!