By Michael White, Lead Pastor, Harbor Covenant Church

“Money follows mission.”  I’m sure lots of people have said it, but I first heard it from Walter Contreras.  It gave me a lot to think about.  The churches I have served, like many others, always struggled with finances.  There was far more ministry than there was money.  “Money follows mission.”  I rolled it around in my head for weeks.  And I began to ask myself and my staff and our leaders about whether or not we really had a vision for mission or we were just trying to keep our doors open.  It was brutal when I saw that we had not, ok, I’ll take responsibility, I had not cast an effective vision for the mission to which I believed God was calling us. People were not motivated to give, because we hadn’t really given them something to give to.

Over the next couple of years, we worked really hard to figure out what it was that God called us to do, to do that, and to communicate effectively what we had done.  As we did that, money began to follow mission.  I was a bit of a late convert to this idea.  I always felt that people should give money simply because they love God. And they do.  But, they get more excited and they give more when they see the impact that there giving is making.

Two years ago, we decided that we were going to have a capital campaign to pay off our mortgage.  We were driven by the possibilities we would have if we could free up over $50,000 per year for ministry instead of debt service.  We decided that as a part of the campaign we would tithe to something outside of our walls.  The tithe ended up being about $75,000.  We made some plans for what we were going to do with that money.  They were good plans.  We donated about $25,000 to fund those plans.  And then the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

When we began to get some scope of the need created by the pandemic, we began to ask ourselves, “How can we help and make an impact in our community?”  Someone came up with the idea that we buy grocery gift cards and distribute them to local restaurant workers who had lost their jobs.  Over the first few weeks of the pandemic, we distributed nearly $50,000 worth of grocery cards.  The thank you notes we received back were so touching.  We also sent money to a collective in the Philippines and to villages in India.  Our congregation was thrilled that we were able to help so many people.  Then, the money was gone, but the need wasn’t.

We began to pray about what was next.  Then one day, I got a call on my cell phone from some town in the Midwest that I had never heard of.  It had to be a robocall, so I didn’t get it.  They didn’t leave a message.  A couple days later, same number calls again.  This time they left a voice mail.  It went something like this, “I represent a family foundation that has heard about what your church is doing and we would like to talk with you about giving you a grant.”  Color me skeptical, but this sounded too good to be true.  Then I remembered a passing comment that someone had made to me a few weeks before, “You might be getting a phone call from someone who would like to help our church out.”  Hmmmm.  Maybe this was real.

With hope overcoming my skepticism, I called the guy back.  He asked a few questions about what we had done with the money that we had had.   I told him about our heart for the Philippines and India and our desire to help people who were food insecure in our area with hopes of eventually sharing the gospel with them.  After he listened he said, “That’s exactly the type of thing we would like to support.”  He asked me to come up with an informal pitch and we scheduled a phone call for the next week. 

When we talked next, I shared what I thought God was calling us to:  More money for the Philippines to keep people employed, more money for villages in India to help feed hungry people and more money to help people experiencing food insecurity at home.  Then he said two things that blew me away.  “In this round of grants, you are the only organization that wants money to do something outside of their own walls.  What if we make it $100,000?”

100 Grand?!  You bet I’ll take 100 Grand!  5 or 6 years ago, we would have been one of those organizations looking for grant money to keep our doors open.  But because we believed that money follows mission, we are in a position to make a difference for the kingdom of God in our community and our world. 

We are currently in the process of disbursing the money.  We will give to some of the organizations that we gave to in the past.  We are expanding into partnerships with other ministries.  Perhaps the most exciting thing is that we have enlisted our congregation. They can get 3-5 gift cards (or more!) to disburse to people who have need within their spheres of influence.  We have asked them to tell us to whom they will give the cards and why.  Then we’ve asked that they tell us what the response to the cards was.  It’s been so encouraging to see the number of our people who have deep enough relationships in the community that they know what the needs are.  Our desire is that the gift from the church will open up deeper level of conversations so that our people have a chance to share the hope that lies within them to people who are having a rough go of it during these chaotic times.  We are thankful that more money has followed our pursuit of mission.

[Click Here] to visit the Harbor Covenant Church Website

Three years go our conference passed a budget that included $15,000 seed money to support the brand new global mission region the Serve Globally Priority of the Evangelical Covenant was beginning in the Middle East/North Africa (MENA).  The ministry focuses on refugees, religious persecution, peace and reconciliation, and Muslim engagement. 

Pastor Jim Sequeira (Cascades View Cov, Vancouver, WA), who serves as the chair of our executive board, recently wrote to the MENA staff:

We believe that anytime new global ministry opportunities arise that we as Christ followers have a palpable, reflexive response of excitement and eagerness.  For the Pacific Northwest Conference, we recognized that the Covenant’s new global ministry region in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is one that contains our Christian roots, many U.S. tensions, and great challenges/opportunities for the Church.  When our superintendent, Greg Yee, shared the new work you would be doing in the region and the fact you did not have a full budget to start with, our Pacific Northwest Conference Executive Board wanted to communicate as a conference our belief and support in this new work.  In addition, many of us are familiar with Nancy Jo Hoover and Andy Larsen’s longstanding and faithful ministry abroad and the deep and significant relationship they have nurtured in our conference (I personally consider both good friends) helped in making this an easy decision.

We decided to use our shared conference resources toward this ministry because we believe it directly affects us in the Pacific Northwest.  We have significant populations of people from the MENA region that are our neighbors right here. We believe that this work is not just abroad, but right here.  We know first hand that God is a God of miracles and that he is actively working in both places.  We’re thrilled that we be a part of this good work together. 

The MENA staff responded with this report:

Dear PACNWC Executive Board,

As a team, we who make up the Serve Globally MENA region want to thank you for your willingness to invest in the planning of a new global ministry region. This investment has come in the form of PACNWC churches who have welcomed and supported individual members of our team, allowing communication from our team to spread through your network and through the generous three-year annual contribution of $5000. We are writing to report on how we utilized your funds during the last year.

As originally determined in a conversation with Superintendent Yee the funds were put into our “development fund” as opposed to going toward the support of team members. This decision has given our team important flexibility to develop new and deeper partnerships both in the MENA region and also within our ECC family. Here is a list of some of the ways these funds were specifically used:

• Meeting and recruiting volunteers to serve as Guest House Hosts at Bethlehem Bible College
• Supporting the work of a devoted Christian couple in Lebanon who relationally and practically serve Syrian refugee settlements. Through these relationships a couple of the women have asked for more information about Jesus and are open to attending a small Christian gathering.
• Providing a chance for pastors and leaders attending the NPTS Symposium on the Holy Land to meet for lunch with some MENA partners that were involved in the Symposium.
• Covering the 10% administration fee and wire costs charged by the ECC for project donations. For example, we raised around $12,000 to provide high capacity/high quality replacement water filters to 27 communities in Egypt. Because of your donation we were able to distribute the full amount raised which will provide over a years’ worth of filters impacting hundreds of people!
• Funding for four individuals representing three partners from local MENA ministries to attend a 12-week online course on fundraising. This course is put on by an organization with deep ties to the MENA region to provide practical capacity building.

Thank you again for your partnership. We look forward to utilizing the funds you will invest in the final year of your commitment.

As we continue to commit to our shared mission together, we are filled with joy to be able to help MENA get launched.  If you or your church would like to support MENA’s ongoing work, find more information including giving link here.   Join Serve Globally’s Facebook group here. 

[Click Here] to follow MENA through their Facebook Page

[Click Here] to give directly to MENA

[Click Here] to follow Serve Globally through their Facebook Group

By Angela McCann, Children’s Pastor, Cascade Covenant Church

I first saw Justice Journey several years ago at Legacy, the MidWinter pre-conference event for children’s workers. I knew right away that I wanted to start Justice Journey at my church as soon as I got home, but it was a matter of timing. The calendar for children’s ministry was full for the rest of the year, as was the church calendar. Lent and Easter were around the corner, followed by summer events, which were then followed by Fall planning, recruiting, and volunteer training. Before I knew it, Advent had come and gone, and I was back at the MidWinter conference wondering why I hadn’t done Justice Journey yet. I knew it was a matter of capacity for me and for my church. I knew I had to hold off on planning anything new for a while. I waited and I trusted that when the time came I would have the capacity too.

As it turns out, that time was in the middle of a pandemic. In terms of timing, I didn’t have extra time on on my hands; I was in the middle of on the job training for a job I’ve had for over twelve years! In terms of capacity, well, I had writers cramp from all the postcards, a major case of zoom fatigue, and a little grocery store anxiety. On so many levels there did not seem to be capacity for something new. Neither was the timing right, because in person events were allowed. So, I wondered why it seemed as if God was opening this door now.

This summer, the racial pandemic was exposed for what it is, and for what has always been. Like so many others, I grieved for Ahmed Aubrey, and for George Floyd, and their families. I grieved for my friends of color who have known this grief far longer and much deeper than I could ever know. I thought about the children and families of my church who were trying to make sense of things and trying to figure out how to talk about current events from a faith perspective. I thought about Justice Journey again and imagined how it could equip parents to have conversations about racism and prejudice with their kids. Then I began to think about how an in person event for kids could become an online event for families.

If I was going to do Justice Journey, I knew it had to involve parents. Equipping them to speak God’s truth into what was happening all around the country was part of the vision, but it was also the catalyst for considering a new program, now of all times. I also knew I had to adapt the curriculum for a Zoom format, and it had to be shorter, because I didn’t want to cause Zoom fatigue.  Suddenly, I had something to plan, lessons to go over, and activities and supplies to consider. I knew how to do these things! Plus, I was going to teach almost face to face again. All these things thrilled me; I had missed this part of my job and suddenly capacity wasn’t an issue anymore.

As I began to adapt Justice Journey, I started to reconsider the timing, and I realized it might be the best timing for several reasons. It can be hard to have meaningful conversations with kids about racism in kid’s church. First, parents aren’t present, and from my perspective, they should be for this kind of conversation. Second, there isn’t enough time on Sunday mornings; fifty minutes goes by quickly, and not every child comes every week. Of course, there are all kinds of ways to make it work when we meet in person again, but the other reason now is the time has to do with families. They aren’t as busy with all the extra after school activities, so they have space in their calendars and they have the capacity to do this together in a way they won’t when we meet in person again. This timing isn’t just right for families, though, I think now is the best time for the children.

Children are more savvy than they were ten years ago. They know what is happening, and if we want Jesus to be real to them then they need to hear what Jesus thinks about racism. And they need to hear it from us. If we are silent on racial issues then that silence will speak volumes to the children in our ministries. To be clear, our silence won’t reflect on us; many of the kids we see won’t even remember us. No, our silence will speak volumes to them about Jesus, and it will follow them through the years to come. If we stay silent about racism and injustice, I fear for the message that will send to children about Jesus.

Truthfully, I don’t feel adequate when it comes to teaching kids about racism and injustice. I still have growing to do and I’m afraid I’ll say the wrong thing but I don’t want my fear or my insecurities or my privilege to stand in the way of a child, any child, knowing in the deepest part of their being that they are deeply loved by God. I want them to know this forever and I want them to know that every person they will ever meet is made in Gods’ image and deeply loved by Him. I want this for kids so much that I’m willing to get out of my comfort zone for it.

[Click Here] to visit the Cascade Covenant Church web page