The Outreach Ministry:
The Outreach ministry inspires, enlists, and coordinates the wider mission concerns of the church. It plans and conducts programs that educate the congregation regarding the needs of others and points out opportunities to serve. It reviews requests for support and allocates financial and non-financial resources to those causes and missions the church chooses to support.
Specifically, the ministry is responsible for:
*Inspiring and enabling the broader mission concerns of the church that are designed to enhance peace and justice in the church and in our world
*Planning and conducting programs to educate the members of the church regarding opportunities for Christian service
*Considering the requests for support that the church receives
*Allocating resources among those concerns that are to be supported
In the past, Outreach has supported a number of worthy causes on an ongoing basis, including:
*Feeding Northwest Du Page http://www.feedingnwdupage.com/
*CASA (a legal advocacy for youth)
*Hesed House
*The Community Crisis Center
*Fox Valley Hospice
*Renz Addiction Center
*Church World Service
*SERVV
*Crop Walk
*The Riverwoods Christian Center
*The Heifer Project
Outreach also facilitates a number of special projects, including:
*Collecting donations of Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners that are distributed through the food pantry
*The “Christmas Giving Tree” where members buy presents for local needy families
*Collecting used eyeglasses, cell phones, and pagers
*Collecting and recycling used printer cartridges
*Distributing Jewel and Dominick’s coupons that help to raise money for the food pantry
*Collecting personal hygiene items for the Community Crisis Center
*Conducting back to school clothing drives
We also continue to give our fair share to Our Church’s Wider Mission, the Illinois Conference of UCC. About 70% of our contribution stays in the Illinois Conference and remaining 30% goes to support global ministries and clergy.
How can I become involved in the Outreach Ministry?
*Participate directly in fund raising activities, such as Crop Walk
*Help to collect donations such as collecting money to support the local food pantry
*Donate food and personal items to the food pantry on a regular basis or when specific needs arise
*Support the “Christmas Giving Tree” and other special events
*Collect and donate your used cell phones, pagers, eyeglasses and other needed items
*Recycle printer cartridges from your home and place of business
*Do your food shopping (using the coupons the ministry supplies) when it benefits the food pantry
*Offer up you own passion for a group or cause so that it might be added to the mission work of the church
*Lead or help coordinate a special outreach project
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