raising the bar on evangelism

[Ellen Rowbotham Davis]

Our church has been challenged to match a significant gift designated for evangelism. I'm looking for ideas for challenging the congregation to give to the matching fund. Anything creative and catchy out there?

[Donna R. Hoppestad]

Hi Ellen,
I have been unable to get on this site lately, so I missed your request completely. Since it's been several weeks, I wonder if you could update us on this project? Thanks!

[Ellen Rowbotham Davis]

Hi Donna,
Since I last wrote, we have raised about $5000 for the endownment as matching funds. How did it happen? I remembered a visual I had used elsewhere - a net in both our worship spaces - and we filled them with $50 hearts for every $50 we received. In three weeks we raised the $5000 - and were pleased that it was so successful in this tight economy. We have envelopes in the pews and continue to receive gifts although not at the rate we did when we were giving it a big push for three weeks the end of May - first of June. If you have ideas for use - send them my way! We'll be continuing this project for some time since growing 'deep and wide' is an ongoing mission.