Ministries of Compassion

Funding of Mission Partners
Currently, 8% of our church’s annual pledge income ($73,320 in 2007-2008) and 10% of the Foundation’s annual contribution to the operating budget ($7,500 in 2007-2008) are designated for benevolence.  While the Governing Board ultimately approves mission grant recipients, the Board of Outreach/Mission serves as the church’s agent in determining how best to use the money on God’s behalf.  Increasingly, we seek to give to those ministries in which our members can be actively involved.  We seek some balance between local, regional, national, and international opportunities as well as between more traditional “ministries of compassion” and “ministries of justice.”

Mission Special Offerings
The World Communion (October) and the Easter Offerings (springtime) provide additional opportunities for our church family to give in order to alleviate human suffering beyond the walls of our church.  Generally, both local and national/international recipients are selected by the Governing Board for each offering and monies collected are divided equally.

Guatemala
In 2004, we began a mission partnership with the Bezaleel School in Guatemala.  Serving K’ekchi’ Mayan children, the school is a mission of the Mennonite Church.  FCC has contributed to building a girls’ dorm and provided a vocational arts program that includes a Heifer International agro-ecology project.  Through special offerings we have supported many students by providing scholarships. Over the past four years, twenty-seven FCC members and friends, including both pastors, have taken the “Learn and Work” trip to Guatemala and Bezaleel School.  A task force oversees our Guatemalan partnership.

New Orleans
Ten percent of our Project Sacred Space campaign has been designated for rebuilding a New Orleans church destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  Through Churches Supporting Churches we were partnered with Mount Nebo Bible Baptist Church in New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward. The $230,000 set aside for this partnership will give that congregation a significant jump-start on their rebuilding.  Once Mt. Nebo’s plans and funding are set, we will support Rev. Charles Duplessis and the Mt. Nebo family by providing work groups to assist in their rebuilding efforts.

Habitat for Humanity – Chicago Southland
For the past 15 years FCC has provided funding and volunteer labor for the Chicago Heights Habitat affiliate.  A member of FCC’s Board of Outreach/Mission serves as a direct liaison with HFH and organizes regular Saturday workdays when our members work on a home alongside the family who will be living there.

Rebuilding Together – Metro Chicago
On a Saturday in April, an FCC building team (of all skill levels) partners with corporations, churches, skilled trade unions and local government to repair and improve the safety and livability of a south suburban home.  Rebuilding Together (a national organization) makes the arrangements with individuals or families (often elderly or disabled) who own their own homes but cannot afford to make needed repairs.  The work includes inside and outside carpentry, electrical work, plumbing, and painting.  The workday provides a delightful opportunity for fellowship between the family and the building team. 

Christmas Angels
Christmas Angels connect south suburban families in need with “angels” assigned to provide the families with “Christmas.”  Working through local social service agencies and schools, the specific needs of each family member are determined.  Generous “angels” purchase and wrap the gifts that are then delivered by church teams the week before Christmas.  Often, a church family becomes the “angel” for the family in need.  Many others provide cash donations which are used for gift certificates for food and shoes. In December 2007, Christmas Angels sponsored 47 families including 273 individuals.

Blood Drives
Each fall and spring the Board sponsors blood drives on a Sunday through Heartland Blood Services. These drives, which net around 20 units each, reflect the compassion of our members by giving the gift of life to people in need in our area hospitals.

Food Drives
Each fall and spring FCC members help stock local food pantries.  Grocery bags are distributed following worship and returned full of food on subsequent Sundays.  In the fall, the collected food is delivered to the Chicago Heights Respond Now food pantry.  In the spring, donated food fills the shelves of Rich Township’s food pantry.  Over 225 bags of groceries, along with additional financial donations, are contributed in each drive.

Food for Life
Four times a year (every 5th Tuesday) a group of FCC members gather to make and then deliver lunch to the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, located in the Woodlawn area.  Working with First Church members, they serve lunch to between 100 and 200 hungry individuals.  It is always a blessing to assist First Church in their commitment to serve the needs of the poor in their community.

PADS (Public Action to Deliver Shelter)
South Suburban PADS is in its 18th year of providing overnight shelter and supportive services for homeless men, women, and children.  FCC has been a shelter site since 1993 for 30 persons on Sunday nights from late October through April. Currently, we are an all-male site and have over 100 volunteers who work either one of the four shifts one Sunday a month or are subs if needed. Members and groups also assist by providing meals (dinner, breakfast, and a sack lunch) as well as donating toiletries, towels, and blankets.

For further information on any of these Outreach Ministries efforts, contact the Interim Assistant to the Pastor for Mission and Pastoral Care at the church - 708.798.2800, x18.