What to do now to prepare for the offering

1. If your session has not already approved the receipt of the Peacemaking Offering on October 4 or another date, ask members to do so.
2. Decide how the congregation will use its 25 percent share of the Offering. If you need ideas, check the “25 Ways Your Congregation Can Enhance Its Commitment to Peacemaking,” which can be found in the Peacemaking Offering packet or on this Web site. You can also get ideas about what other congregations have done from the Offering brochure, the bulletin inserts, and the minutes for mission, which are found in the packet and on this Web site on the Resources page. Consider giving all or part of your congregation’s share of the Peacemaking Offering to PC(USA) AIDS work in Africa.
3. If the session has not set a goal for the Offering, encourage the members to do so as a challenge to the congregation.
4. Review the materials in the Peacemaking Offering packet that your church received. If you did not receive one and want one, call (800) 524-2612 and ask for PDS 11142-08-280. You will be sent a packet free of charge. If you received a standing order (in May or June), make sure you have what you need. Order anything else that will help you interpret the Offering to your congregation either by calling (800) 524-2612 or online.
5. Talk to Christian education leaders about using the study guide To Strengthen Christ’s Body: Tools for Talking about Tough Issues, sent to churches in the Offering packet. This seven-session guide will give adults and older teens ideas on how to deal with controversy.
6. Give the Children’s Activity Sheet to the person(s) who plan children’s educational activities. You can order more copies if you want to give the sheets to teachers. Give the Peacemaking Offering Worship Resource to the worship committee and/or the pastor for help in planning a worship service. Both of these resources are in the Offering packet and available on this Web site on the Resources page.
7. Place an announcement in the church newsletter that tells about the Offering, including how the congregation will use its 25 percent share of the Offering.
8. Plan a churchwide meal to promote the Offering in September and order Peacemaking Offering place mats to use.
9. Order the Offering PowerPoint CD or download it. Plan to use it in a worship service or at a churchwide meal.
10. This year is the 25th anniversary of the “Commitment to Peacemaking.” Consider having a time for your church to review and renew its commitment or to affirm it for the first time if it has not done so.