www.creativeladiesministry.com

[Stumped]

I am trying to think of creative fun ways to raise money for different ministries at our church. We are in need of many items for our new nursery, our children's afterschool program, etc. Just asking for donations is getting tiresome - anybody out there found a new creative way to inspire people to get involved in raising money for a project?
Thank you.

[creativ4]

For your new nursery, you may want to hold a shower. Just make a list of all the items that are needed and place it on a bulletin board and have people cross them off if that's what they want to get and do it just like any other shower. Encourage them to wrap the gifts too as it makes it more special. We've held church nursery showers in a couple of the churches I've been in and they went over wonderfully.

BTW, the last one we did, we had an 'open house' for the nursery after an evening service so everyone in the church could walk through and see all the new items in place.
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Joy and blessings,
Julia

[Oma]

What a great idea! I keep that in mind as we move forward.
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ysiHn&l;
Deb

[Prov31wannabe]

I agree...Nursery showers as well as kitchen showers (if you have a kitchen that needs updating in the church) are great fun and are a new way of asking for donations.

Bunco or Bingo---use white elephant prizes (the idea that my trash may be your treasure) or try to get local merchants to donate prizes (items or services---offer "free" advertising for a good cause and many will comply). Charge a small fee for players as your fund raiser.
(There will always be a couple/few who will also provide drinks and snacks so costs can be virtually nothing.)

Rummage sale.
Ask your members and others to donate their cast-off items. Form a committee to hold a rummage sale with all proceeds to go to your various causes.

Do a 5K walk/run (or, in my case...a 2K or a 1K ) and get pledges/donations for walkers/runners. Make it a family thing (peple will give more freely to children involved in such activities sometimes)...a mother/daughter thing maybe? My daughter and I walked for a local crisis pregnancy center and managed to raise nearly $250.
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Colossians 1:27 ...."Christ in you, the hope of glory."

[1flower]

Auctions are alot of fun and can really benefit your group or ministry. Many local or national companies will donate gift certificates, everything from restaurants, hotels, attractions, weekend getaways. Also ask for donations from your church folk - maybe some homemade items, crafts, dinner certificates. We hold these twice a year for one of our ministries and have made as much as $6000 in one auction. It does take alot of work writing letters to businesses, but with several people doing it - it is certainly worth while. We also have either a spaghetti dinner or barbecue during the auction where we sell food and baked items.

[AnnaJo]

I find this puzzling. Because my question would be more like: "How can we can get our memebers to tithe?" I fully believe that if the church would tithe like the Bible teaches that no church would ever have this problem.
I went through a study in Exodus 35. You may recall the Israelites were building a sanctuary for God. Remember what happened? They had to be told to stop giving!
I know, I have repeated this in my own church to the response of:
"People don't give like they used to"
"Our people won't give like that!"
"I'm trying to win the lottery, I've promised God I'll tithe if I win"
To which I have replied "We serve the same God as the Israelites were serving."
I think people know God CAN do things, but they don't believe He WILL.
I think we need to get out of His way, believe that He wants to bless, and then let HIM do it.
I think WE try to hard and then call it God.
Just a thought.
AnnaJo

[Bramblerose]

[AnnaJo]

I was not trying to imply that all that was bad. I think the kitchen and nursery showers are great ideas. As you stated the Israelites brought other things. Good point.
I just get a little upset when we "conform to the worlds standards" and raise money in our worldly ways to do God's work. God told us how to support the church and I believe if we did that HIS way we wouldn't have to try things OUR way.
My husband uses the phrase "We don't raise funds, we raise Christians" Sometimes I think we have gotten away from what the church is supposed to be.
I did enough fund raises with my children in school through the years, I don't want to do that at church. No where in the bible do I find where God says to do that.
I believe what you said about the widow is a good example, but for MY point, as you see, it was an individual, and then, what she did with the money was up to her. That to me is no different than any of us supplying needs for our household. She certainly didn't go out and say "I'm selling this to raise money for First Church of Samaria"
I'm just concerned about what we tell the world when we operate the same way they do. (And yet we claim to be non profit and tax exempt)
I know some churchs out there that are making pretty big profits on their fund raisers!
Not trying to argue this point either, it's just one of my pet peeves.
Where your treasure is...
Trust in me....
Delight in the Lord and HE will give you the desires of your heart...

AnnaJo

[creativ4]

Hello AnnaJo,

I deleted all the extra posts that were the same for you. I was going to email to let you know I took care of it, but then I realized you didn't have an email and couldn't private message you as you were down as a guest.

I don't know why the board keeps acting funny lately. It seems to be a lot of quirky little things and not one specific thing, just little odd things happening lately. Sorry you had so much trouble.

BTW, we do appreciate your input. Most churches I've been in have never done fundraisers, although I've been in a few that have done them for their women's ministry, such as put together a cookbook or something. They usually didn't call them "fundraisers".

The biggest problem, and I've recieved tons of email on this, is that so many churches don't want to have fundraisers but when they are putting their budget for their church year together, so many do not acknowledge the Women's Ministry or figure anything in the budget for them as they do other ministries, such as youth, etc. so the women have to fend for themselves and come up with something, because no matter how much in tithes and offerings are coming into the church, their women's ministry will never see any of it for their use.

I'm glad that's not the case in all churches but I've found it's quite common, in both big and small churches. Many a women's ministry in our churches are not given a budget to work with from their church and all they have to rely on is what they take up in an offering once a month at their monthly ladies meeting, which depending on how many ladies they have, usually isn't much or enough to offset the expense of a well run women's ministry.

Many ladies involved in Women's Ministry are very conflicted about this topic because they believe that the church should be run with tithes and offerings but when the pastor and church leadership don't see the Women's Ministry as a vital part of the church to designate some of those tithes and offerings, it can be very frustrating for them.

What I find so funny in all this is that some of the churches and pastors that would never have a fundraiser will sell books and tapes in the foyer which is basically the same thing.

I know we will never all totally agree on this topic but fundraisers is one of the biggest topics that some women's ministry leaders have questions about because how much money they have to spend throughout their year is a big part of their planning, so I know the questions will keep coming and I know we can all glean some knowledge concerning the topic from each other, although we may not totally agree on the concept itself.

It's been a very long day and I'm quite tired right now, so I hope this long winded post makes sense to everybody!
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Joy and blessings,
Julia

[Oma]

Lydia sold purple dye and Paul made tents both supported their ministries with these efforts.

Although I PREFER our congregational family to support ALL of the ministries of the church, I do not think, that when approached through prayer, fund rasing is necessarily bad. NOR, do I think that there is scripture prohibiting it (I could be wrong, heaven knows it wouldn't be the first time )

Having said that............AnnaJo I do think that if a fund raiser is done it should be something that presents the gospel in some way. I went to a Congregational Church in New England that had a Turkey dinner every year. The money raised was used primarily for Ladies Ministry. That ministry did things like make curtains for the fellowship hall, paint murals in the nursery etc. As well as purchase curriculum for bible studies for the ladies.

Anyway, when pursuing GOD's will I think that he will guide us. NO I KNOW that he will
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ysiHn&l;
Deb

[BarbaraJean]

Our congregation is very blessed with generous givers in a West Virginia community that is far from poverty stricken but also far from being considered wealthy. During our recent revival we had over $1000.00 come in offerings for our evangelist plus over $1700.00 for him to purchase a tent for a mission trip he's taking plus $250 for a visiting praise band plus a large amount of tape set orders. That was above tithes and we saw no decrease in tithing. That was from an average attendance of 75 - 80 people for a week. They are great givers and we don't do fundraisers to pay our church bills. But we have found some very fun ways to raise money which we do not because the congregation won't give as the Word leads. We consider craft sales, auctions and yard sales to be a lot of fun and great fellowship and a time of meeting the community. I can't tell you how many people we have invited to church at our yard sales. Most of the money raised goes to missions projects.

A believe a church can raise Christians and also raise funds. There are some people who are gifted with a lot of money to give and some people who have little money to give but are gifted to make a craft or work a yard sale.

Stumped, Here is something our ladies have done and have had a lot of fun with. It's an auction but different from the one already mentioned. Ladies are invited to bring something to put in the auction. It can even be used. We've had ladies bring a Home Interior candle that they had lit a few times and perhaps didn't like. I always try to get those! Or it can be something new or a craft. We've even had baked goods! Each lady gets a number and little pieces of paper. You write your number and your bid on the paper and slip it under the item you wish to purchase. Then a couple ladies go through and call out the winning number and the winning bid. Items that recieve no bids or a tie are placed to the side and are open for bids again. We do one of these every year for a specific mission project.
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God Is Good All The Time. . .
Barb