MISSION MATTERS IN SOUTHINGTON
by Rev. Dr. Gordon E. Ellis, Senior Minister, First Congregational Church, Southington, CT.
Mission matters at The First Congregational Church of Southington, where in 2004 more than 60 adults and 30 high school youth attended at least one of the church’s 5 mission trips to serve the poor in such places as Mexico, Ecuador, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and New York City. These trips, which are 1 to 2 weeks in length, provide participants with more than just an opportunity to serve the poor. As one participant remarked, we also got acquainted with people living in poverty and learned from them. As one woman in Mexico said when we told her we had come there to learn more about Jesus and our Christian faith, “That’s good. Jesus was poor just like us. We can teach you a lot about Jesus.”
However, mission trips are only one component of Southington’s mission and outreach program. The church also offers monthly workdays at Hartford’s Habitat for Humanity; provides perishable food each week to Prudence Crandall Home, for victims of domestic violence; actively participates in Covenant to Care’s Adopt-a-Social-Worker program; leads our community in raising funds for the town’s annual Crop Walk; co-sponsors Bread for Life, our community’s soup kitchen; organizes Southington’s annual AmeriCares Homefront Day, a one-day home repair blitz; provides a Stephen Ministry training and supervision staff and site for more than a dozen area churches of various denominations; makes and distributes quilts for children in need to such organizations as The Hole in the Wall Camp, Connecticut D.C.F. & a number of area hospitals; and much more. In addition, First Congregational Church has contributed thousands of dollars to a multitude of organizations including, The Denan Project (a medical center in an Ethiopian refugee camp), Water for People, Heifer Project International; Habitat for Humanity; and more.
However, the centerpiece of the church’s mission program is its own foundation, Every Dollar Feeds Kids. Currently The First Congregational Church of Southington feeds over 600 children per day in Mexico (in partnership with a mission organization there called VAMOS), as well as providing all the food for an orphanage of 22 girls in Guayaquil, Ecuador. In addition, many more Mexican children are being fed each day by Every Dollar Feeds Kids partner churches in San Rafael, CA; Chagrin Falls, OH; and Eugene, OR. The most exciting thing about Every Dollar Feeds Kids (www.edfk.org) is that every penny contributed is used to provide food for children living in poverty, because the church and members of the EDFK Board of Directors cover all administrative and publicity costs. A number of other churches and organization contribute to Every Dollar Feeds Kids, but there are several local “partners,” who offer monthly donations, including The Rotary Club of Southington, The Southington High School Interact Club; and First Church in Unionville.
What are the keys to creating a successful mission and outreach program?
1. Start slowly with “hands on” mission projects, mostly local, and don’t be discouraged by your limitations.
2. Think big and creatively, and don’t be confined by what you perceive to be your limitations.
3. Regularly remind people of the words of Jesus in Matthew 25: Whatever you do to even the least of your brothers and sisters, you do to me.
4. Urge people to stretch themselves, to dare to break out of their comfort zones.
5. Work hard to maintain and publicize a balance between local, national and global mission work, as well as between missions requiring just funding & those needing volunteers as well.
6. Commission and pray for the mission workers in worship. It not only affirms the importance of mission, but reminds everyone that these mission workers are sent out on behalf of the entire congregation.
7. Enlist mission participants regularly to share their experiences and tell stories from the mission sites to make mission as personal and joyful as possible.
8. Try to provide an array of mission possibilities, and encourage people to pick and choose from among them, even if some are supported only lightly.