“10 Days of Connectional Giving”
Killingsworth Home in Columbia.
Fourteen Advanced Special Ministries receive funding from connectional giving through the Connectional Ministries budget of the South Carolina Conference of The United Methodist Church.
Rev. James
“These missional organizations have been vetted by the Global Ministries Committee and do significant ministry with minimal resources,” said the Rev. Kathy James, the conference director of Connectional Ministries. “Congregations can expand their ministry beyond their own communities by directly supporting one or more of these ministries with their time, talents, gifts and resources.
Some of the Advanced Special Ministries are predominately United Methodist, while others are ecumenical and interfaith with a United Methodist presence on their boards of directors.
Volunteers work through UMVIM-SC.
“All do amazing ministry for vulnerable persons while generating most of their own income,” James said. “I would love to see congregations adopt one or more Advanced Special Ministries each year and invest in the work that they do by visiting the ministry, taking a special offering, or providing other support in conversation with the director.”
Connectional giving for Advanced Special Ministries provides encouragement for these ministries.
“A connectional presence with these ministries by individual congregations,” James said, “extends the love of Christ to vulnerable people throughout our state.”
2016-17 Advance Special Ministries
Alston Wilkes Society
The society’s original mission was to provide rehabilitative services to adults released from correctional facilities in South Carolina. Through the years, the society has expanded its focus to include at-risk youth, homeless veterans, other homeless individuals and the families of these groups of people. The multi-state nonprofit is a fully accredited agency that works every day to fulfill its mission statement – Rebuilding Lives for a Safer Community.
Bennettsville-Cheraw Area Cooperative Ministry
A specialized ministry of the South Carolina Conference that was established to help facilitate the needs of people living in Marlboro and Chesterfield counties in a shared ministry and vision. The mission of the ministry is to respond to the increasing call in our communities to continue to light the flame of hope by striving to build and sustain communities of character with youth, young adults, adults and older adults who have high morality, integrity and commitment to be leaders for the sake of the present and future generation.
Bethlehem Community Center (Columbia)
The center is an historic multi-service agency serving residents of the Riverview Terrace and Broad River Terrace communities in Columbia. As the premiere community center for children and families in the Midlands, the center strives to educate and enrich the lives of individuals and families in the Midlands to help them achieve their own success through such programs as after-school tutoring, summer feeding; youth film camp and Kids for a Better Community Summer Camp.
Bethlehem Community Center (Spartanburg)
The center is a multi-service agency providing an array of programs to residents in Spartanburg County. The Center’s day care facility has the capacity to serve 130 children between the ages of two and five. The outreach department facilitates client-centered referrals, provides emergency assistance with food, electrical, heating and rental payments as well as coordinates self-improvement focused programming and remedial academic GED preparation classes. The community services department provides numerous programs related to afterschool tutorial services, fine arts (dance, drama, piano lessons and art), sports and recreational activities, scouting, seasonal camping, primary prevention and leadership programs for community youth.
Coastal Samaritan Counseling Center
The center provides counseling, pastoral and spiritually integrated psychotherapy, education and consultation to individuals and families in crisis due to mental illness. The center works with pastors and local churches to stabilize families and improve mental health. Fees for services are adjusted according to a client’s income and the center is dependent upon generous donations and grants to supplement low-fee or indigent clients.
The Cooperative Ministry
The ministry is fighting poverty by working to increase the economic self-sufficiency of people in the Midlands through crisis assistance and sustainability programs. The goal of the founding churches was to establish a collaborative method of administering assistance to those in need, while also preventing duplication of services. The Cooperative Ministry encompasses congregations of all faiths, over 120 partnering agencies, and countless civic and social organizations, foundations, businesses and individuals.
Interfaith Community Services
The agency works with faith and community partners to meet the needs of struggling families as Columbia’s first urban service center. Its mission is to convene, educate and coordinate faith and other community partners to build strong families and strong communities. The faith traditions at the heart its work call us to love our neighbors as ourselves, to share the gifts and resources of this life justly, to work in partnership for the common good, and to provide an environment that promotes the development of everyone’s strengths and skills.
Killingsworth
The transition home for women in crisis supports, empowers and advocates for women recovering from crisis within a safe, nurturing Christian environment. In addition to room and board, the home offers counseling and education, spiritual development, job development and work support, life-skills training and community re-orientation.
P.A.T.H.
The mission at People Attempting To Help is to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless and give financial aid to those in crisis in York School District No. 1, which includes the communities of York, Sharon, Hickory Grove, Smyrna and McConnells. It maintains a food pantry to supply a week’s groceries to qualifying households once a month. It provides financial aid for basic needs (maximum four times a year) such as rent, electricity, natural gas, water and prescription medications. Its thrift store provides clothing and household needs.
Rural Mission Inc.
The ecumenical non-profit, faith-based organization serves the people of the Sea Islands by addressing basic human needs families have, such as decent housing through renovations and construction, educational, spiritual and emotional concerns they face. It offers crisis assistance in the form of vouchers for prescription medication, food and transportation.
Tracy Jackson Program (G.I.F.T)
The General Instruction For Tomorrow program is an ecumenical Christian mission providing children with food for the body, mind and spirit. It serves children during the summer months in Abbeville and Anderson counties. It provides S.C. DSS approved lunches weekdays and physical activities at each site. It provides games, activities, speakers and field trips that children would not experience without the program, as well as back-to-school supplies. Each site is led by caring Christian people.
United Methodist Volunteers in Mission-South Carolina
UMVIM-SC provides opportunities for South Carolinians to get personally involved in short-term mission projects at home and abroad. Its services include construction, medical care, education, agriculture, early response to disasters, long-term recovery teams and supportive services.
United Ministries of Greenville
The direct service agency provides life-changing opportunities and advocacy for people who lack education or employment skills, who are in financial crisis, who are homeless, and those who can help. It provides utility, rent and medication assistance; a food pantry; a day shelter for the homeless; showers, laundry, lockers and telephones on a walk-in basis. Case management is provided to address the major issues that keep a person homeless: substance abuse, mental illness, disability and lack of identification papers. It provides GED training, employment assistance through classes ranging from resume building to workplace etiquette and one-on-one counseling.
Wallace Family Life Center
The family-oriented facility provides educational, cultural, recreational and religious programs to enrich the lives of people in the Wallace/Bennettsville communities. It offers adult education, arts & crafts classes, a Homemakers’ Club through a partnership with the local Clemson Extension Office, after-school tutoring and enrichment, summer reading programs and vacation Bible school. Other ministries include Scouting, a food pantry and community food drive, a clothes closet and Operation Christmas Child.
Over “10 Days of Connectional Giving” – leading up to the Jan. 10 deadline for churches to pay their 2016 apportionments to the conference treasurer – we are sharing short stories to remind you what your church’s annual contributions mean to your fellow United Methodists and to those whose lives are touched by their efforts.
We hope this will encourage your congregation’s leaders to make sure they have submitted your church’s 2016 apportionments so the good work of all of the conference’s ministries can continue.
And to those churches that already have given 100 percent of their apportionments:
