2008 EASTERN DISTRICT MISSION DEVELOPMENT GRANTS

The Eastern District Executive Board has voted to continue the Mission Development Grant program into 2008 in which the development of new mission/outreach projects in Moravian congregations in the Eastern District is encouraged. With the Northern Province’s commitment to mission ministry over maintenance ministry, the EDEB is making a financial commitment to encourage the congregations of our district to create programs that enhance their ministry to the communities in which they are located. Our district mission statement, as emphasized by the 2004 District Synod, provides the foundation for this effort – “Enabling Christ’s Ministry by Living Our Faith.” Our 2008 District Synod will also carry forward this dialogue with the theme, “One in Mission, One in Call.” What might your congregation do to further enable the ministry of Christ in your community that you are not already doing? Where is there a need? How can you fill that need?

How can we move away from “church as usual” and, in effect, join God in mission to the community “out there?” How can our congregations join God in God’s engagement with the community outside the normal congregational boundaries rather than the usual outreach efforts, which try to bring those outside into our arenas? Such efforts are, so often, survival efforts aimed at “shoring up” our ministries and, invariably, lead to failure because they do not ask, “where is God leading us?” Instead, the challenge of the Mission Development Grants is to work at ways in which your congregation can be in mission to the community in which you find yourself.

So often, our district and provincial funds have been used in an attempt to help unhealthy congregations continue in a survival mode, only to discover that all we have succeeded in doing is to continue a maintenance ministry that, ultimately, has not gained in health. This endeavor has taken many forms: negotiating less than full payment of the non-mandatory assessments, which support our true mission endeavors; direct stipend assistance to the local congregation; or paying a portion of a pastor’s benefit package. In 2007, as our denomination celebrated its 550^th anniversary (a “jubilee year”), the EDEB used some reserve funds in the late spring to forgive 2006 unpaid assessments from congregations that were unable to meet those assessments as a Jubilee offer with the understanding that those congregations could then begin to truly be missional congregations.

Grant Criteria

Each congregation in the Eastern District is invited, through the action of its Joint Board, to apply for a Mission Development Grant from the district. Two grants will again be awarded in 2008 – one for up to $10,000 and one for up to $5,000. Please prepare a proposal for a grant and submit it to the EDEB, who will chose the two recipients of the grants at its first full meeting in August following the June synod. It will be necessary for the proposal to be on the desk of the Eastern District Administrative Assistant at 1021 Center St., Bethlehem, PA, (mailing address: PO Box 1245, Bethlehem, PA 18016-1245) no later than noon on August 1, 2008. There will be no exceptions made to the deadline.

If at all possible, have someone familiar with the process of grant-writing help you with your proposal. Perhaps such a person could write your proposal. You might find some generic help for the process on the Internet. Try “Googling” -- “grant proposal” “mission.” There are many others, but two sites that provide helpful advice can be found at http://www.npguides.org/ and http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/sflib/libmgnt/grantproposals.htm.

Criteria used to select the successful applicants will include (but not be limited to) how the program fits into the district’s mission statement, originality of program, the need for the program in the community, the ways in which the program will touch unchurched individuals, supplementary funding sources, the involvement of laity, how it shows obedience to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission, and how it will demonstrate that we are following the risen Christ in mission. Your proposal should also include a ministry plan that highlights how the proposed program would begin a transformational ministry within your congregation, leading from a maintenance mode of ministry to a mission mode of ministry.

When a proposal has been accepted, the successful congregation will be required to follow a strict reporting process. The grant proposal should, therefore, include a means for follow-up reporting. We encourage you to think outside the “Moravian Box” in developing this project. Be creative. Be open to the leading of God’s Holy Spirit.