United Methodists set record for mission giving

United Methodists set an all-time record for voluntary giving to mission, relief and rehabilitation projects during 1999.

The Rev. William Carter, director of the Advance for Christ and His Church, said contributions to Advance projects totaled $44 million in 1999, compared to $30 million in 1998.  The previous record for annual giving to the Advance was $34 million in 1985.

Established in 1948 as a means of rebuilding a world broken - physically and spiritually - by World War II, the Advance became a regular church program in 1952.  While local churches are called to support the denomination first through World Service and other apportioned funds, the Advance offers individuals, church groups, congregations, districts and annual conferences a way to voluntarily select and support specific ministries.

The record for 1999 was set "because of the sensitivity and caring of United Methodists who went the second mile by responding to disasters," Carter explained.

Donations for domestic and international mission projects remained constant at roughly $4 million and $11 million respectively, but the amount United Methodists designated for relief and rehabilitation projects - chiefly through the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) -- jumped from $15 million in 1998 to nearly $29 million in 1999.

Carter attributes the increase to both media coverage of disasters - whether caused by war, such as the refugee crisis in Kosovo, or by natural occurrence, such as the earthquakes in Turkey - and to the ability or willingness to donate more money because of the booming U.S. economy.

UMCOR's International Disaster Response fund received $7.8 million in 1999, most of which was designated for relief work in Kosovo.  Money also was allocated from the fund for the Colombia earthquake, Mozambique floods, India cyclone, and Venezuela floods and for displaced people in Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and East Timor.

Continuing relief work for damage caused by Hurricanes Mitch and Georges in the Caribbean, Central America and United States, designated as Hurricanes 97/98, drew in $4.8 million. Another $2 million was designated for the earthquakes in Turkey.

Donations of $1.4 million were sent to Spring Storms '99, which covered flood and tornado damage in several states, and $1.3 million to what grew into a churchwide appeal, "Major Storm Devastation '99," for relief work following May tornados in Oklahoma and Kansas and flooding caused by Hurricane Floyd in September.

The nearly $29 million for relief and rehabilitation projects in 1999 also included $1.4 million for "Hope for the Children of Africa," an appeal by the United Methodist Council of Bishops.  That appeal supports projects designed to provide relief and reconciliation to Africans who have suffered from war, to rebuild United Methodist churches and to restore church ministries, particularly those focusing on the physical, social and spiritual well-being of children.

While the relief and rehabilitation projects are important, Carter noted that the domestic and international projects receiving steady funding year after year "are the staples of the denomination."

Domestically, the programs include the work of the Red Bird, Alaska, Oklahoma Indian and Rio Grande missionary conferences, along with support of community centers, urban ministries and other community and institutional ministries.  Although they receive other types of funding, "these are all programs that depend upon the Advance for what you would call the quality of their ministries," he said.

The many current international projects include the re-establishment of congregations and the re-building of churches in Eastern Europe, he added. The Advance also supports missionaries.

Whatever the project, support for the Advance has averaged $100 million per quadrennium since 1979 and already has reached that level for the 1996-2000 quadrennium.

The Advance staff promotes all avenues of giving for the church, and it is Carter's experience that local churches that fulfill their apportionment requirements are more likely to be generous in voluntary support.  "We believe that the churches that do the best in apportioned giving then free up their members to go the second mile in the Advance," he said.

Although Carter doesn't yet have the percentage for 1999, in recent years between 47 and 49 percent of the denomination's 36,000-plus local churches have made donations to the Advance.  He said he would like to see more congregations involved in ongoing mission projects and not just crisis or disaster-related giving.

Last year, the Advance instituted credit-card donations, largely because of requests from non-United Methodists wishing to respond to the burned churches crisis.  About $92,000 of the total funds raised in 1999 was collected by credit card.

The Advance's Partnership in Missions Catalog, which offers information on 2,000 projects, can be ordered from the Board of Global Ministries' Service Center by calling (800) 305-9857. The stock number is 1745.

Information also is available at the board's World Wide Web site: http://gbgm-umc.org/advance.