Nobody likes to say the “R” word. It’s the dirty word that sparks fear in the hearts of government officials, economists, CEO’s of large companies, owners of small businesses and last but not least the rest of us. During these economic hard times we need to pray for extra wisdom on how to be better stewards of our money, our church’s budget, the budget of the people in our congregations (especially parents) and pray and seek out ways God will use us to bless our community (glocally: both locally and globally)
Helping your community
I hope during these times you will seek out ways to be a blessing to the community your church is physically located. You can do small things and as a ministry like pick up an Angel Tree card or contact a local group that helps with the holidays (like the Salvation Army) and pull your money together to make a child’s Christmas a little brighter. You can volunteer in soup kitchens, food distribution programs (like Angel Food Ministry) or your own church’s food pantry and help serve people and make sure they have food during these hard times so they can use that money to pay other rising bills. You can do a food drive and ask that people only bring 2 or 3 items (so you don’t put stress on their budgets), that way these food pantry’s shelves are not going bear during heavily used times like these. Youth Ministers and volunteers are very creative, all people are creative we just have to be challenged to use it. Now is the time to be creative and find ways you can bless your community today.
We, American’s are not the only ones who’s are having financial problems. With staple food items like rice, corn and grain prices going through the roof around the world we need to find ways we can also bless those who seriously cannot afford rising food costs. Maybe you can have a rice drive at your church and collect bags of rice. We recently received a gift catalog from World Vision where you can buy goats, chickens, vegetable seeds and fertilizer and the likes. Take up a special collections and buy a goat for $35 dollars or throw in two chickens for $40.
Think Glocally!
Helping your teens and their parents
With budgets tightening in the homes of our teens we need to find low cost/ no cost events for our ministry. What about game night at the church or home (of a willing host)? You could have people bring their favorite board games, you could find group games on line or have a few of the bring their game system and a bunch of controllers (non-violent games of course). Have everyone one bring a two liter of soda and the adults volunteers can bring a bag of chips or box of microwave popcorn. If you don’t have room for big groups you could have “Party of 5″ dinners at your house once or twice a month (so everyone gets invited or signed up in a reasonable time frame so feelings don’t get hurt). Create a sign up sheet for the date and time with five blanks for names and then for dinner have something incredibly cheap that won’t break your budget. For us that’s spaghetti, we love it and could add enough for 5 more hungry mouths for a few dollars. You could also make pizza pretty cheap. Again you are creative and can come up with low cost/ no cost events for your ministry?
You can also take this idea (Part of 5 or 6 for an even number) and rework it for a away to get to know parents.
Helping your church budget Finally I hope you are finding ways to lighten the load on your ministry budget. Now I’m not saying going without necessities like curriculum (though you could write your own) but now isn’t the time to be asking for big tickets items. We are known for not being the most fiscally conservative bunch (I’m talking youth ministers not Rebulicans) but we can gain big time points with the Elders and finance person(s) by wisely asking for what we need and finding creative ways to get the rest.
I hope you will take these times seriously and find ways to be good stewards of what God has given you and the families in your congregation and community and show it through your ministry!
(HT for the idea for this post: Tall Skinny Kiwi
