How to promote the 2013 One Great Hour of Sharing
Plan now
Set dates
Ask your session to set dates to receive the offering. The session should also set a goal, preferably an ambitious one. See the “Challenge” section on this page.
Gather a strong committee
Ask members of your mission, worship, stewardship and Christian education committees to work with you to plan a celebration that integrates all aspects of congregational life.
Locate your resources
Find the shipment of materials that came in late December or January. By the end of January, make sure that you have received enough of everything you will use and order more if necessary. If you don’t have all you need, note what extra materials you have had to order so that next year when you receive the confirmation letter for your standing order, you’ll know how to correct it. Call PDS at (800) 524-2612 to order additional materials. Other resources are listed on the program websites.
Plan displays, worship, special events and Christian education
Check the One Great Hour of Sharing website for ideas. Consider whether any of these ideas might strengthen your promotional efforts this year. Be sure to assign responsibility for minutes for mission and for the follow-through on each of the other areas. Let those who are preparing minutes for mission know of those available in the Reproducible Resources booklet and on the website.
Plan how best to use the video, "Sharing Brings Joy."
Challenge your congregation
Choose a goal
Focusing on a goal has clearly made a significant difference for those congregations that have tried it. If you haven’t raised your goal in recent years, be bold this year—try challenging your congregation to give 50 percent more than last year.
Share that goal with the congregation
Use your congregational mailings, displays and announcements during worship to keep this challenge before the congregation.
Explain the reasons for the challenge
Need is increasing. Both within the United States and throughout the world, the gap between those who have enough and those who don’t continues to widen. Increased costs of living mean that this year’s dollar simply can’t do as much work as last year’s. The pinch many Americans feel is amplified many times over for those who must already spend most of their earnings on food.
Show the increasing need, as well as the impact an individual gift can have
Insert facts and graphics from the Reproducible Resources booklet in newsletters or other written congregational communications, or lift them up in minutes for mission. To make them more effective, relate the size of a gift to what it might purchase in members’ own lives — a tank of gas, a fast-food meal for the family, an evening at the movies, a single night’s stay at a hotel when traveling and so forth.
Show your progress toward the goal
For ways to help your congregation focus on how much more you need to meet your goal, call your presbytery’s Hunger Action Enabler or the office of Special Offerings in Louisville.
Thank the congregation for reaching its goal on behalf of those currently in need
If the congregation has not yet met its goal, remind members that any support for One Great Hour of Sharing throughout the year will also help meet it.
Visibility
Create an eye-catching display in a prominent place
Start with the posters, fish banks, and thank-you letters. You may have some differently colored fish banks from previous years. If the church has a particular connection with a specific One Great Hour of Sharing project, include photos in the display.
Place value for values facts in different places around the churc
Check the art page to find them. Be sure members know they are being thanked for their gifts to OGHS.
Discover the impact of One Great Hour of Sharing on both your community and your congregation
See the most recent project listings to see what the three OGHS programs have done in your community. Highlight those ministries in your displays, newsletters, and minutes for mission.
Plan special congregational events
A potluck meal or a mission fair can highlight the ministries supported through One Great Hour of Sharing. This is a good time for an intergenerational exploration of the map-and-stamp resource. Use the free place mats for added impact.
Plan church school activities related to the offerings for all ages
Distribute the fish coin boxes and copies of the Sharing Calendar to all children in church school. The children’s activity resource, Gracie Finds Joy, continues the story about Gracie the OGHS fish, and includes questions to help children of different ages explore the story.
Send a letter from the pastor to your congregation
Surveys confirm that sending such a letter along with an offering envelope does make a significant difference in giving. A January mailing will include a sample letter. Use elements from the Reproducible Resources booklet or website for visual impact.
Worship
Try to integrate all of the following elements and activities into your service as part of the worship process, rather than treating them as add-ons, to emphasize the central role our witness in the world plays in our own discipleship.
Use the liturgical materials provided
These are on pages 2–3 of the Reproducible Resources booklet. Others are available on the OGHS website and the Tool Kit CD. Feel free to adapt them.
Present minutes for mission each Sunday
Four are provided on pages 4–7 of the Reproducible Resources booklet, in coordination with the bulletin inserts. Individuals giving the minutes for mission should feel free to use their own words and experiences.
Use a skit, children’s sermon, or dramatic monologue during worship
Check the OGHS website or call the office of Special Offerings at (800) 728-7228, x5183.
Focus on the offering in the sermon
It’s important in interpreting this offering to place it in the context of our calling to witness to God’s love by ministering to God’s people.
Dedicate the congregation’s gifts
Each Sunday, dedicate the gifts to the service and glory of God and tell the members of the congregation how much they have given to those ministries. Consider a special dedication for children’s coin boxes.
Commitment
Discover new opportunities for involvement
Giving follows commitment. Individuals may wish to give their time and talents to help a One Great Hour of Sharing ministry in your community. Instead of giving up something for Lent, invite individuals and families to pick up a ministry for Lent — helping in a soup kitchen or homeless shelter, delivering meals on wheels or similar activities. Even if the ministry isn’t specifically funded by One Great Hour of Sharing, it will help people become aware of the needs of our sisters and brothers and some of the ways we can reach out to them.
To find out more about becoming involved, contact Presbyterian Disaster Assistance at (800) 728-7228, x5839, the Presbyterian Hunger Program at x5832, or Self-Development of People at x5791.
Involve children and youth in the promotion
Consider asking the children to perform a skit. Instead of inserting the bulletin inserts in the bulletins, ask children and youth to hand them to people as they enter the sanctuary. At the beginning of Lent consider “commissioning” the fish coin boxes and dedicating them during worship on one of the Sundays you receive the offering. Consult with your Christian educators on other ways to weave the children and youth activities into the worship experience.
Send in your congregation’s offering
Please send all gifts through your normal giving channels, including your presbytery’s receiving site. If this is impractical, please send the gifts to:
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
P.O. Box 643700
Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700
Indicate One Great Hour of Sharing on the memo line.
Complete and send in the survey
Include any ideas that worked for your congregation in promoting the Offering so we can share them with others on the "Share Your Ideas” page.
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Comments
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The new OGHS video will be ready the first week of March, just before Ash Wednesday. It will be emailed to congregations and middle governing bodies but will also be available to download from the website.
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Any chance the video is available as a download? I'd love to put it on my congregation's website.