Apportioned funds enable United Methodists to do together what no church, district or annual conference could do alone. We believe giving is an act of worship. We believe giving is, as 2 Corinthians 9:15, NRSV, teaches, our way of saying "Thanks be to God" for the most generous gift of all... our Lord Jesus Christ. John Wesley and his followers saw our work in the simplest terms. To paraphrase his inspiring words:
"Do all the good you can, in all the places you can, to all the people you can."
During the month of August our focus is on Conference Office giving. Bookkeeping and audits and running the Annual Conference Session (the week-long event at which our pastors and lay representatives meet in Sacramento to celebrate our mission, ordain new pastors, recognize retirements, and call each other to accountability) are accomplished through the Conference Office portion of our Shared Giving. It also pays the mortgage and utilities on the office building in West Sacramento where our Bishop meets regularly with the District Superintendents, where the Conference communications and other Conference staff work, and where several training events for pastors and laypersons are held.
Our Conference could hold the reign on administrative spending, and not sacrifice valuable, life-impacting programs, if each church that is giving less than 100% of what is asked (sadly, including ours) would simply increase what they gave in 2007 by 15% this year. For our church that translates to $100 more than the $665 we gave last year. This is a drop in the bucket considering that if we gave 100% of our shared giving, that figure would be over $16,500.
I think we can do better! Together, United Methodists can do more together than they can do alone: start new churches, build schools and missions in other countries, conduct camps and retreats to help grow Christians, train leaders for tomorrow, be a bold witness for justice, help the poor and those struck by disaster — the list is endless. Your special gift toward the Shared Giving that goes beyond our local congregation helps make that possible.
— Pastor Laurie
To contribute, please make a check out to BUMC with "Conference Office" written in the memo line, OR donate online below. Giving online through PayPal is safe, simple and secure: all you'll need are a few minutes to go through the process. (PayPal account not required.)
Click on the Donate button below:
Then enter donation amount.
On the "Review your donation page", click the link to "Designate your donation to"
and enter "Conference Office" in the space provided.
You can enter your credit card information as a guest, you can Login into your PayPal account, or Register if this is your first time giving via PayPal. You will get an e-mail Acceptance and receipt of your donation and it will be applied to your yearly tax deductible giving statement.