| Alabaster giving is the overflow of hearts filled with
gratitude to God for the wonderful gift of His Son. |
Alabaster, the international building fund of the Church of the Nazarene), funds four projects every week.
Believers worldwide are praying that God will meet their needs for a building in which They can worship, receive medical care, or go to school.
We know God hears their prayers. We know that He will answer them. Could it be that He will answer them through you?
"I had a sweet little pre-k friend bring me an Alabaster box yesterday at church. She was so excited that she had collected change to 'help build churches far away.'" -- Allison White, Nazarene Bible College student
| Days of month Amount to give |
Reasons to give Amounts are in U.S. dollars and cents |
| _______ 1 | 5¢ for each bottle/can of pop in your home |
| _______ 2 | 25¢ for each clock you own |
| _______ 3 | One dollar for each car/truck you own |
| _______ 4 | 60¢ for each type of cereal in your cabinets |
| _______ 5 | 75¢ for each type of cologne or perfume on your dresser |
| _______ 6 | 15¢ for each pet you own and an additional 25¢ if the pets are large |
| _______ 7 | 50¢ per hour of television your family watched today |
| _______ 8 | 35¢ for each time you ate out last week |
| _______ 10 | 45¢ for each piece of jewelry you own |
| _______ 11 | 20¢ for each game you own |
| _______ 12 | 55¢ for each house plant you have |
| _______ 13 | 25¢ for each radio you own |
| _______ 14 | 50¢ for each trip you made to a store of any kind this week |
| _______ 15 | 40¢ for each type of shampoo you have in your house |
| _______ 16 | 50¢ for each drink you took today of something other than water |
| _______ 17 | 10¢ for each telephone call you made or received today |
| _______ 18 | 80¢ for each hobby represented in your family |
| _______ 19 | 15¢ for each tie or scarf you own |
| _______ 20 | 25¢ for each power tool or labor-saving device you own |
| _______ 21 | 15¢ for each picture/painting on your home/office walls |
| _______ 22 | 14¢ for each mile you drive to church |
| _______ 23 | 5¢ for each book you own |
| _______ 24 | 95¢ for each sports team you keep track of |
| _______ 25 | 35¢ for each musical instrument in your house |
| _______ 26 | 20¢ for each computer game you have or internet bookmark you use regularly |
| _______ 27 | 25¢ for each snack item purchased this week |
| _______ 28 | 5¢ for each hour of recorded music you listen to each week |
| _______ 29 | 25¢ for each type of flower, tree, or shrub in your yard |
| _______ 30 | 75¢ for each entertainment-related activity you did this week |
| _______ 31 | 50¢ for each hour you spent online this week |
"Give up a want to meet a need"-- Funding for facilities for global ministry
For years, small cardboard containers about the size of animal crackers boxes with the word "Alabaster" printed on them have been sitting in Nazarene homes. There, they have served as collection containers for millions of dollars for world evangelism.
The Alabaster box idea began during Elizabeth Vennum's dozen years of service on the Nazarene Missions International Global Council. In the late 1940s, the Church of the Nazarene experienced a crunch in mission funding. At the 1949 meeting of what is now the General NMI Council, Elizabeth was asked to come up with a promotional idea that could raise money for land purchases and building construction needs in Nazarene mission areas. As she rode the train home to Florida from that council meeting in Kansas City, Vennum said the Lord gave her the details for the Alabaster offering. "And the rest is now history," said the former General NMI director Nina Gunter.
The offering promotion was based on the story of the woman pouring perfume on Jesus from a container carved from soft alabaster stone. Building on that Biblical story, Mrs. Vennum decided to ask Nazarene women to put off buying that new perfume for themselves or postpone getting a new dress and to give that money to world missions instead (in sort of the same way that the woman gave her bottle of perfume to Jesus).
Mrs. Vennum promoted her offering idea with the slogan: "Give up a want to meet a need." Since its inception, that semi-annual Alabaster offering (in February and September) has generated more than $100 million for land purchase and construction at thousands of sites worldwide.
Without public fanfare, Mrs. Vennum also encouraged and financed the education of national pastors and evangelists in several Third World countries. In addition, she personally mentored numerous young preachers and Christian lay leaders in the U.S.A.
It seemed particularly serendipitous that Mrs. Vennum's homegoing occurred during Alabaster's 50th anniversary year.
The Alabaster box wasn't Elizabeth Vennum's only creative moment. Along the way, she also developed materials and methods for Christian education at the local church level. As an ordained Nazarene elder, she was also innovative in leading people to share their faith with friends and family members.
Elizabeth Vennum's father was a Nazarene pastor. Feeling a call to ministry, she began her training in Nashville at what is now Trevecca Nazarene University. She transferred north to Eastern Nazarene College in the Boston area, graduating from that school in 1932. She married Earle Vennum in 1934. Together, they served the Lord as a pastoral team for churches in Florida, Indiana, and Tennessee.
"A woman came to [Jesus] with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head . . . "Why this waste?" they asked. . . . Jesus said to them, . . . "Wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her." — Matthew 26:6-13
Early in 2001, I walked through a dimly lit, abandoned warehouse on NW 10th in Oklahoma City. The inside of the building was a mess. They told me that aircraft parts had been made there during World War II.
Greenvale Elementary School stood A few blocks away in a sea of apartment buildings. For 20 years, a teacher there had prayed that the Church of the Nazarene would come to the blighted area and make a difference for her students who came from families often referred to as "the working poor."
On Easter Sunday of 2000, God answered the teacher's prayer. "New Life Community" Nazarene church began holding services in that very school where she had often silently cried out to the Lord on behalf of the children and young people living in all those apartments.
From the start, the dream for the Greenvale church plant was not limited to Sunday church services. Like any effective church, its vision included a wide range of ministries specifically aimed at its racially diverse neighborhood. Making that dream come true would require more than the use of a school cafeteria on Sunday mornings. That's when the fledgling church began dreaming about buying the abandoned warehouse.
Alabaster funds were a key part of the financing package. Then, the loving hands of volunteer craftsmen from Nazarene churches in the area began transforming that warehouse into a ministry center. Even the woman who runs the tavern across the street has been impressed. Her grandson became active in the youth group.
"Giving up a want to meet a need" was an early Alabaster offering slogan. It's certainly met a need on 10th St.
Thanks, Alabaster, for helping answer a teacher's prayer.
-- Howard Culbertson,
originally published in Holiness Today
More on the Alabaster offering in Nazarene mission book Our Balanced Attack
For Elizabeth Vennum, the slogan "giving up a want to meet a need" became a compelling way to think about the biblical story of the woman with the expensive alabaster jar of perfume (Matthew 26:6-13, Mark 14:3-9, and John 12:1-8).
Here's how the slogan "giving up a want to meet a need" reinforces the Alabaster Offering concept:
The Alabaster Offering is taken in Churches of the Nazarene twice a year. It is named after the alabaster container mentioned in Luke 7:37-38, where a woman pours expensive perfume from an alabaster jar onto Jesus' feet. Money given to the Nazarene Alabaster offering helps construct church buildings, schools, medical facilities, and other infrastructure worldwide. The funds collected through the Alabaster Offering are used to meet building needs identified by the church's leadership and are distributed through the denomination's global missions program.
"What a wonderful help it's been to find your website! Thanks for a fabulous site. God was good to let me stumble onto it!" -- Cheryl L., North Carolina, USA
Our local church uses legal-size paper (8 1/2 by 14 inches) for Sunday morning worship bulletins or folders. Those sheets are folded to make three panels 8 1/2 by 4 5/8 inches.
Using artwork from the global office of Nazarene Missions International, I created a series of missions informational inserts to fit into those bulletins. These could also be used as missions posters or even as starting points for missions bulletin boards.
Click on an image to open a full-sized PDF of that insert.
