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Faith Promise
Sample brochure
Bulletin inserts
Commitment cards
Sample 1
Sample 2
Sample 3
Sample 4
Children's card
E-book chapter
Guidelines for success
Poetry
Speaker possibilities
Faith Promise FAQs
Missions music
Classics
Contemporary
Songs in many languages
Recipes from Haiti
Budget
Sample budget
Visual
Themes
1950's
Bible themes
Missionopoly
Music themes
Suggestions
Internet links
Want more out of life?
10/40 window
Missionaries needed
Searching for God's will?
An African's martyr's statement on commitment
Mission trip fund raising
10 ways to ruin a short-term mission trip
Youth in Mission
Nazarene Missions International resource pages
Linking to me
Missions conference ideas: Raising prayer support and money for missions
"Faith that is not generous is not genuine!" -- anonymous
Question from Pastor Ron: Do you have any guidelines for successful local church Faith Promise presentations?
Three elements typify the planning behind successful Faith Promise Conventions and Missions Conferences:
- Advance publicity and information. Get your Faith Promise weekend off to a running start by making sure people are aware your missions conference is coming. Give people the opportunity to answer questions about Faith Promise / Missions Giving ahead of time. What to do for advance publicity:
- Sunday bulletin or worship folder inserts.
- Mailings to their members/attenders.
- Faith Promise testimonials in services leading up to the event.
- Involvement of lots of people. Faith Promise events seem to go better when lots of people have "ownership" of them. People feel ownership of something when they are personally involved. Ways of involving people:
- Publicity
- Decorating
- Meal events
- Music [ missions songs ]
- Advance prayer
- Setting goals
- Building on year-long missions emphasis. Faith Promise programs work well in churches where world evangelism is an ongoing theme (sermons for instance on "how God wants us to give" from 2 Corinthians 9). If Faith Promise convention or Missions Conference weekend is the only time people in a church hear about their global outreach responsibility, they usually don't embrace it well. [ more info ]
Need a sermon idea for boosting missions on the Sunday prior to Faith Promise? Use John Wesley's sermon on giving as a starting point. [ read sermon ]
Need decorating stuff for a Faith Promise banquet?
Bible verse fortune cookies
- Get Chinese fortune cookies with Bible verses in them for about 10 cents each from: the Inspirations division of Oriental Trading Company, P.O. Box 2676, Omaha, NE 681030-2676. Phone: 800-228-2269
Paper place mats with various country themes
- Place mats by Brooklace
- Italy and Mexico: Foodservicedirect.com
Book marks
- Bookmarks with Hyatt Moore's Last Supper Painting featuring people from twelve different tribal groups
Flags around the world tie
Faith Promise innovator
Oswald J. Smith (1889-1986) was a Canadian pastor and evangelist who enthusiastically supported world missions. Although he pastored congregations in Chicago and Los Angeles he is best known as the founding pastor of The Peoples' Church, a large congregation in greater Toronto. Smith's vision in Toronto was to raise up a church whose principal core value would be the spreading of the Good News of the gospel around the world. To that end, the historic vision statement of The Peoples' Church says, "Taking Christ to the Nations."
Early in his ministry, Rev. Smith was captivated by a missions fund raising concept developed by A.B. Simpson, founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Calling his idea "Faith Promise," Simpson wanted to move churches away from taking occasional big offerings for missions to getting people to commit to weekly or monthly gifts to World Evangelism. Oswald Smith took that concept to Peoples' Church and made that congregation into Exhibit "A" of what could be accomplished in one local church through such systematic giving to world evangelism.
Oswald Smith was also a poet, hymn lyricist, and author. Among the best known of his songs are "The Glory of His Presence," "The Song of a Soul Set Free," and "Then Jesus Came".
"Why should anyone hear the gospel twice before everyone has heard it once?" is a question Oswald Smith often asked as he spoke of his passion for world evangelism. As he urged people to give money to missions he was fond of saying: "You must go or send a substitute." [ more missions slogans ]
For more info on Oswald Smith (including a photo and a recorded message), click here.
 | What does a Faith Promise commitment card look like? [ read more ] |
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Howard Culbertson, Southern Nazarene University, 6729 NW 39th, Bethany, OK 73008 | Phone: 405-491-6693 - Fax: 405-491-6658
Copyright © 2000, 2001 - Last Updated: June 9, 2011 | URL: http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/promise.htm
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Article by Howard Culbertson. For more original content like this, visit: http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert