(815) 758-0691 | Worship every Sunday @ 10 a.m.
(815) 758-0691 | Worship every Sunday @ 10 a.m.
Thank you for your donations to support our church and its mission. Without your support, it wouldn’t be possible to make a positive impact in our community. Every day we seek to embody God’s love in support of our community and our world, and your gifts enable us to do that.
Download
If applicable, provide the name and a brief description of any major fundraising/donation campaigns your church facilitates during the year. (50-100 words)
Ex: Canned Food Drive, Church Bake Sale, Special Christmas Offering
Our budget is a means of making sure our mission to embody God’s love to all thrives.
Our budget supports the staff that work hard every day – including our pastor, office manager, choir director, facilities manager, and nursery care giver.
Our budget also covers all operational expenses, including property management and repair, office supplies, pipe organ tuning – and other assorted items.
Our budget sustains the missional life of the church, supporting a wide variety of local, national, and global ministries like Hope Haven (local shelter for the unhoused), Safe Passage (local domestic abuse shelter), Youth Outlook (local LGGBTQ+ youth and young adult support group), Growing Places (local low income child care), Bright Stars of Bethlehem (educating artisans in Palestine at Dar Al Kalima University) – and so much more!
First Church maintains a variety of endowed funds to help us with the mission
First Church is a community leader in LGBTQ justice. Pastor John is now a certified LGBTQ and Trans Ally, having completed the coursework at Northern Illinois University. The church is an active leader and organizer of the annual Pride Fair/Parade/Festival here in town. The church is an active leader and organizer in immigrant justice, serving as a founding organizing body of the DeKalb Migrant Aid collective. The church also led the charge to defeat a county referendum to name DeKalb a non-sanctuary county. We are active with the local homeless shelter, providing meals for the families there every fifth Mondays and Tuesdays; with the local women’s abuse shelter; and with the local food pantry. Our children collect a noisy offering every Sunday in worship, taking in any and all loose change our members may have brought with them. They choose a local organization working for justice once a quarter to share those funds with. Recently, this has meant donations to the local animal shelter, to the women’s abuse shelter, and to the Barb City Food Pantry. First Church is also active in networks across the country to fight White Christian Nationalism and to remind everyone that our faith is centered in love – not hatred.
Planned gifts enable individuals to support First Congregational United Church of Christ even after their lifetime. It is a great way to create a meaningful legacy and help for generations to come. There are several ways to structure your planned gift:
Reach out to our pastor at [email protected] to learn more about how you can make a legacy gift to ensure to ongoing mission of our church into future generations.
OCWM Basic support enables associations, conferences, the national setting, and some of our affiliated partners to continue providing the care and services that are vital to the United Church of Christ. OCWM Basic support is generally given at local churches, where the funds are then sent to their associations and conferences before being forwarded to the national offices in Cleveland. (Individual donors are encouraged to give through their local churches for Our Church’s Wider Mission Basic Support)
Strengthen the Church is a special mission offering to reimagine and build the future of the UCC. Shared at the conference and national levels, STC largely supports youth ministries and full-time leaders for new churches in parts of the country where the UCC does not have a strong presence. It also provides support for existing church’s new initiatives.
One Great Hour of Sharing (OGHS) works with international partners to provide sources of clean water, food, education and health care, small business micro-credit, advocacy and resettlement for refugees and displaced persons and emergency relief and rehabilitation. OGHS also supports domestic and international ministries for disaster preparedness and response.
Neighbors in Need supports ministries of justice and compassion throughout the United States, including the Council for American Indian Ministries (CAIM), justice and advocacy, and direct service projects supported by Justice and Local Church Ministries.
This offering is received on First Sunday of October as part of World Communion Sunday.
The Christmas Fund for the Veterans of the Cross and the Emergency Fund is a Special Mission Offering that congregations have been supporting for over 100 years. The offering is administered through the United Church Board for Ministerial Assistance, the charitable arm of the Pension Boards. Funds provide direct financial support to those who serve the church and are facing financial difficulties. Active and retired clergy, lay employees, and their surviving spouses may be eligible for the Supplementation of Small Annuities, Supplementation of Health Premiums, Emergency Grants, and/or Christmas “Thank You” Gift Checks. This offering is received on the Sunday before Christmas.
