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VOL. 15, NO. 18

NEWS

Conference second-mile giving contributions decline

By Melissa Lauber
UMCONNECTION STAFF

The Advance for Christ and His Church, commonly known as simply “the Advance,” provides United Methodists with opportunities to go beyond their normal budgets and participate in special “second-mile” giving to aid mission.

Developed after World War II, the Advance is a means for United Methodists to connect and offer support to a vast array of ministries around the globe. Today, the Advance supports 2,140 ministries, reaching every corner of the world.

Without this support, many of the ministries, known as Advance specials, would be unable to perform their life-transforming work with those struggling to overcome poverty, war, social upheaval, drug addiction, violence, lack of education and disease.

In spite of the tremendous need, however, giving to the Advance in 2003 dropped 37 percent in the Baltimore-Washington Conference to $664,379.

According to a report by the General Board of Global Ministries, per capita giving in the Baltimore-Washington Conference to Advance specials dropped from $5.11 in 2002 to $3.22 in 2003. Forty-three percent, or 296, of the 692 area churches made contributions.

Within the conference, 168 fewer churches made contributions last year.

Local giving to United Methodist missionaries also dropped from $318,354 in 2002 to $248,692 in 2003.

Many church leaders have expressed concern for this decline in giving. Associate Council Director Sandra Ferguson believes it may be indicative of a slight “cultural shift toward apathy.

“It’s not that people don’t have the resources. Communications are also good. There just doesn’t seem to be a sense of urgency,” she said.

However, in instances where this urgency is felt, as with the recent hurricanes in Florida, the interest is impressive, Ferguson said.

To illustrate this point further she referred to several specific ministries that saw increases in support in 2003.

Advance special ministries receiving more than $1,000 in funding from members of the Baltimore-Washington Conference included:

Denominationally, 8.2 million United Methodists contributed more than $29 million to General Advance giving, including $4,238,066 to ministries in the United States; $12,582,625 to ministries outside the United States and $12,231,401 to ministries related to the United Methodist Committee on Relief.

To learn more about the Advance for Christ and His Church and opportunities to give to these projects, see http://gbgm-umc.org/advance. The Baltimore-Washington Conference also offers opportunities for giving to ministries close to home. For a listing of the 15 conference Advance specials, contact Priti Khana at (800) 492-2525, Ext. 437.