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Accomplishing the Mission
Giving Dangerously
Like many churches, Waterfront Community Church (Schaumburg, Illinois) developed a mission statement before its launch in October 2008: “Love God and people well.” Unlike most churches, Waterfront’s leadership team and its 100 members live out this mission by giving away each week’s offering.
Although the church has received national press for the initiative (both NBC Nightly News and the Chicago Tribune have covered the story), Waterfront developed its unorthodox giving model to bless its city, not receive publicity.
“It’s not about having some cool idea,” says Jim Semradek, lead servant. “We simply wanted to explore our mission statement’s implications on our finances. We decided our staff would raise support, tithes from a few families would go for general operating costs, and all other tithes and offerings would go back to the community.”
For its first few weeks, the church donated the money to a local agency that helps single moms find safe, affordable housing. WCC also experimented with a “reverse offering” by distributing the previous weekend’s offering to church members and asking them to serve others with the cash.
Today the church uses a nomination process and encourages every member to submit names of needy friends and neighbors. A small benevolence team evaluates each submission and decides how to spend the weekly sum.
“Right now we’re helping three groups, all brought to our attention from Waterfront members,” Semradek says. “One woman just found out she has brain cancer, and we gave the family gift certificates for groceries and a favorite restaurant. The couple who nominated the family delivered the gifts, which was important to us—this is loving people, not just giving handouts.
“The second, a single mom, refused to take money but did admit her car had broken down; we paid for the repairs. Church members also recommended a couple who builds homes with AMOR ministries (San Diego, California) and we’re donating 10 percent of every offering from now until their trip toward the construction effort.”
But the experience not only supports the church mission—it also provides ongoing practice in generosity.
“I had no idea how hard it would be to write that first check to the housing agency,” Semradek says. “We could have done a lot of good things, internally, with that money. But I realized how the next step for me in loving well was learning to share. The only way to leverage money eternally is to give it away.”
www.waterfrontcc.com
Good Works
Members of Northside Church of Christ (Dallas, Texas) founded Dallas Christian Services in 1967 to find adoptive and foster parents for needy children. Today the organization, now called ChristianWorks for Children, “represents the goodness of God to children and their families by continuing Jesus Christ’s example of service.”
In addition to placing children in homes, the organization’s CounselingWorks program provides both marriage and family counseling. The ministry has helped almost 3,000 families since 1996.
In 2000 the organization launched GriefWorks to help children after the loss of a family member or friend. Volunteers partner with trained therapists to provide listening ears and a supportive environment for each child. Rob Pine, a member at Saturn Road Church of Christ (Garland, Texas), serves as ChristianWorks’s executive director.
www.christian-works.org
Jennifer Taylor, one of CHRISTIAN STANDARD's contributing editors, lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
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