Faith in our Future Together

There’s a Pandemic: 

• Church life has been disrupted.
• Churches can’t gather together in the ways that they love.  Facilities are essentially empty.  Many programs are on hold.
• Churches have lost revenue from rentals and fundraising events.  Some churches are experiencing less giving from individuals.
• Systemic racism exacerbates the disruption for congregations of color.
• Our world has changed and it will never be the same again.  There is no going back, there is only going forward.

Churches of the Southern New England Conference, What are we Going to Do?

• If we were bold, what would we do now?
• If we were faithful and courageous, what would we do now?
• If we were inspired and brave, what would we do now?
• If we were committed to living according to our mission, purpose and values, what would we do now?

---

The Southern New England Conference Has Decided to Deploy our Resources  

 including $1 million of unrestricted funds functioning as endowment - differently, in order to help churches respond to the disruptions and emerge stronger.

• We will address the intersection of the pandemic and racism as we do this.
• We will find ways to use $1 million dollars to support local churches respond in ways that will help churches recover, and more than recover, to renew, to thrive in new ways.
• We will be intentional about working in covenant and incarnating our mission, vision and values.
• We are launching the Faith In Our Future Together program to help vital and viable congregations that have been made more vulnerable by the pandemic.

The Faith In Our Future Together program will create covenantal partnerships between the Conference and selected congregations.  This will include making recoverable grants of up to $50,000 and potentially more, to selected local church partners.

A recoverable grant is not a loan, with a legal obligation for repayment.  It is a covenant to return funds to the Conference, as a congregation is able, potentially far in the future, that will allow the funds to be redeployed to support the mission and ministry of the Conference.

You’ve heard of “paying it forward?”  It’s that kind of an idea.

• We are going to be bold, together.
• We are going to be faithful and courageous, together.
• We are going to be inspired and brave, together.
• We are going to live according to our mission, purpose, and values, together.
• We are going to get through this pandemic, together.

Frequently asked questions

 Learn more and apply for a Faith In Our Future Together Recoverable Grant (application deadline: Jan. 15, 2022)