Stewardship Emphasis on The Outreach Ministry Team
Each month Stewardship will highlight a Ministry Team here at Asbury to educate and inform our members about General Fund allocations. The General Fund isn’t just about utilities and salaries. It truly is about so much more!
Outreach Ministry Team: Restructuring Budgets and Serving the Poor
Do you recall Christ’s parable from Matthew 25:14-29? Another look at this tale brings the reminder that the servant did not gain praise from his master because he had accrued a certain amount from his investment. The servant earned his master’s praise simply because he had tried to accomplish something with the talents for which he was responsible.
This parable best portrays the pursuit of Asbury’s Outreach Team. How can Asbury best use its talents to be in service to the local poor? How does a downtown church serve its neighbors? The Outreach Team seeks to raise Asbury’s awareness about local needs and to increase our congregation’s ministry to the poor in our community.
For the 2011 fiscal year, Outreach has restructured its budget to be expended by small groups in the congregation. Any Asbury group can propose a local service project and request Outreach funds. We believe that managing our resources in this way will encourage spirited and inspired efforts from throughout the congregation to serve our neighbors. Groups can contact Outreach through the church office to seek funds. The next cycle of this mini-grant funding begins in September – Asbury’s circles, choirs, groups, and classes should all plan to propose a Fall project at our September celebration.
We are the hands and feet and the face of Christ in the world. Asbury Outreach wonders, when our neighbors spy us downtown, how will Christ appear to them?
Tim Thomas
