Michigan Church’s Extra-Giving Campaign Supports Local and Global Missions

Lake City (Mich.) Christian Reformed Church is celebrating its missions-focused fundraising campaign, recognizing the gifts God has provided to support six local and global missions.

The campaign, called Faith Unleashed, was born out of a desire to see the church do more for missions than pay its annual ministry shares (money used to support denominational ministries) and support its permanent missionary families.

“When [we] asked the [church’s] administration team for a goal of $35,000 for Faith Unleashed and [they] came back saying they wanted us to name a $50,000 goal, we were pretty surprised,” said outreach team member Jennifer Pugh. “Once we talked and prayed about it, the $50,000 sounded like something God would do, not man, and then it became an adventure!”

The adventure included seeding fundraising projects by offering small amounts of money to church members with money-making ideas; tracking results with outreach team updates in the church’s weekly bulletins; and hearing mission-field stories through visits from the individuals and organizations Lake City CRC wanted to support.

Church member-driven fundraising projects included teens offering manicures, kids offering dog walking, and the usual baked goods and craft sales, as well as services from hairstyling to archery lessons.

“It's been really fun and quite inspiring to see how engaged folks have become in mission efforts around the world,” Pugh said.

The six causes were selected by the outreach team because of community involvement or because God laid a particular need on the team members’ hearts through prayer.

To date, the church has brought in more than $50,000, with more still coming in. The funds will go to Mission India for church planting, Bible clubs, and literacy classes; the ministry of Veronica Ramos to children living on the streets in the Dominican Republic; the ministry of Jeff and Marilyn Greenway with Young Life in Nicaragua; Stand Strength, a group of weightlifters traveling to testify and share the gospel in the United States; World Orphans for a partnered church’s support of 24 orphans; and Friends Ministry, a Christian community development organization in Lake City.