Innovative Program Raises Nearly $15,000 for Peacemaking

The Peacemaking Committee prepares the Multiply the Gift envelopes for distribution. Photo courtesy of New Wilmington Presbyterian Church

by Carla VanDale

The New Wilmington Presbyterian Church used this model to raise funds for their local peacemaking efforts. The model could be adapted to support the Peacemaking Offering by providing seed money and inviting those who receive it to raise funds for the Peacemaking Offering.

One Sunday morning last September, a very surprising thing happened at the New Wilmington Presbyterian Church in western Pennsylvania.  Following a sermon based on the parable of the talents, pink envelopes containing crisp, new $5 bills were distributed to the congregation as the first step in what was to be called the “Multiply the Gift” program that raised nearly $15,000 for peacemaking ministries along the U.S. Gulf Coast, at the Sabeel Center in Israel and in relief and reconstruction work in areas of Lebanon affected by the violence that took place during the summer of 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah.

This program, developed by the church's Peacemaking Committee, challenged members of the congregation (including children) to invest their $5 in materials and/or supplies to create a fundraising project that made use of one of that person’s particular ideas, interests or talents.  These projects would then become a fundraiser enabling investment in areas where human suffering cry out for acts of peace and justice.  The projects included providing a service, designing a craft, making food, offering motorcycle rides and more. The only limits were the creativity of the participants.

The three areas chosen to receive funds were locations along the Gulf Coast devastated by Hurricane Katrina; Sabeel Center in Israel, working for peace in Israel/Palestine; and Near East School of Theology in Lebanon, participating in relief and reconstruction in areas affected by last summer's violence between Israel and Hezbollah. The money for the Gulf Coast purchased building supplies for two different work teams involving congregation members and helped fund the re-building of a damaged Presbyterian church building. This program encouraged personal involvement as well as providing funds.

The various fundraising projects were highlighted by weekly lists in the bulletin that quickly grew into a two-page insert. Several Marketplace events provided a gathering of table displays for opportunities to purchase items and/or place orders to be created later.  These events contributed to energized congregational activity sufficient to last throughout the six months designated for the “Multiply the Gift” program.

During the early weeks of the program, members of the Peacemaking Committee presented a “Minute for Peacemaking” in Sunday worship.  The presentations reminded the congregation that the Session had signed the Commitment to Peacemaking and the congregation was living out various components of that Commitment as members employed talents to aid hurting people through the “Multiply the Gift” program.

Congregation members learned that they were not powerless and could make a definite impact on specific areas of human tragedy through the work of our hands.

The “Multiply the Gift” program is completed now, and the awesome news is that those $5 bills multiplied to a total of nearly $15,000. Equally important has been the heightened level of personal involvement of so many people of all ages. Truly God’s grace has been in our midst, expressing itself through human hearts of compassion wearing the faces of members of New Wilmington Presbyterian Church.

God sends us to bring good news to the poor; sends us to heal the brokenhearted; sends us to preach freedom to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind; and sends us to set at liberty those who are battered and burdened. (Paraphrase of Luke 4:18)