+ Highlight one Apportionment category in worship on the second Sunday of each month, with a special offering for that ministry. Publicize beforehand in church newsletter, bulletin, and bulletin board. Emphasize the 4 Annual Conference Apportionments over four months, the 2 Jurisdictional Apportionments together one month, and the 7 General Church Apportionments over 7 months. One churchwide event can feature a speaker who’s involved in a district ministry to present the district askings.

+ Break down your yearly Apportionments figure into an amount per week, and send that amount in weekly to the Conference Treasurer. Use the breakdown amounts to publicize the purpose and cost of our connectional ministries.

+ Think of all the personal connections to each dimension of ministry. Invite that person or someone related to the ministry to come speak in worship. For example, invite someone from your District Council on Ministries to share what our district askings are doing to transform people’s lives.

+ Borrow a Connectional Giving Display from your district or the CA-NV United Methodist Foundation, to have it up in your own local church for a specific period of time. Invite Connectional Giving Interpreters or Stewardship Associates from the Foundation, active or retired clergy, or clergy in Extension Ministries to come speak. Invite someone to speak who is involved in a ministry near you, directly or indirectly supported by the District or Annual Conference.

+ Hold a Church Family Night to highlight the eleven new Mission Initiatives of our United Methodist Church! Contact the Foundation or one of the Connectional Giving Interpreters to make a presentation or bring part of the “In Mission Together” video. You may choose to have one event for each of the four areas of the world. Or you can show a little about each country in one shortened presentation. (Provide separate video movies for the children to watch that night.)

+ Invite your local church Lay Leader to meet with the District Lay Leader (who is also a Connectional Giving Interpreter) and your Lay Member of Annual Conference Session. Work together to draft a local church connectional giving interpretation plan, then reshape it together with your pastor. Invite area clergy on extension ministries and retired clergy to join the team.

+ Call our Conference chair for missionary itineration, and set dates for missionaries to come speak to your local church, cluster, or district

+ Connect our Apportionment giving with United Methodist Women’s studies (Schools of Christian Mission and Reading Program). Talk with the leaders of your United Methodist Women about having a UMW program on our connectional giving, including the UMW Caring Connection.

Written 2/2007 for the California-Nevada Annual Conference