Generosity: Another Perspective

There are moments when it can appear that there is nothing but bad news that comes from World Church, especially when it comes to finances. However, for this month’s testimony I want to to share with you another perspective, the other side of the story, the good news about generosity in the church and the impact we are making. Here are three generosity facts for each Mission Initiative from the past 12 months:

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Invite People To Christ

• Over 2 million pages were viewed on www.cofchrist.org, by more than 200,000 people, from 200 different countries
• There were over 31,000 visitors to the Kirtland temple (95% of visitors were not current members of Community of Christ) and nearly 12,000 visitors to the Temple in Independence
• We had an increase of 67% in followers in Social Media

 
Pursue Peace

• More than 14,000 people participated in the Golden Jubilee Celebration in Orissa, India
• There were over 4,000 children that visited the Children’s Peace Pavilion
• 1,097 hours were volunteered for the Daily Prayer for Peace

 
Abolish Poverty and End Suffering

• $1,967,000 in World Hunger grants and $255,000 in Tangible Love grants were given
• This funded 78 projects in USA, Honduras, India, Philippines, Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, England, Malawi, Chile, Nepal, Ivory Coast)
• Oblation funds were used to provide $5,000 for 270 families in Malawi after flooding, $25,500 was sent to Nepal after the earthquake and $10,000 was given to assist the Syrian refugee crisis

 
Develop Disciples to Serve

• 23 World Service Corps volunteers served in 11 countries (USA, Honduras, South Korea, Spain, French Polynesia, England, Germany, Netherlands, China, Thailand, New Zealand)
• Nearly 9,000 people visited www.spiritualformationcenter.org from 97 countries
• There were 8,056 hits to Lessons and Ideas on www.cofchrist.org and over 500 downloads of the Doctrine and Covenants eBook
  
  

Experience Congregations in Mission

• 163,000 visits to the Resources section of www.cofchrst.org
• 300 French and English versions of Community of Christ Sings were distributed in Eastern Africa.
• Over 800 participants from 101 congregation participated in the Leading Congregations in Mission (LCM) program, during 78 Retreats in USA, Canada, Australia and the British Isles

General

• Nearly $200,000 was given online in less than 24 hours on Giving Tuesday 2015
• There are now more contributors to Mission Tithes than in the last 5 years, with nearly 500 new donors in 2015
• Not to forget the over 45,000 weekly worship services, lead, organized and planned by thousands of volunteer pastors and priesthood members the world over

 
What is the message we should take from the past 12 months in the life of the church? 

I want to suggest that the message is: Membership is growing, generosity is increasing and the church is making an impact. Thank you!
 
Richard Betts
Generosity Team Leader
 
Find out more about Richard by clicking here.