Cate Whitcomb reflects on 30 years of membership at First United Methodist Church of Evanston, where themes of faith, community, and mission have guided her family’s giving. She views their pledge as a joyful commitment to support church staff, worship, music, and global mission work, fostering God’s love in the world.
Read MoreThere are many reasons and motivations for “why” people give to churches and charities. Humans are made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26), so we should do more than wonder about this identity we have, being made in God’s image as a giver. We should exercise our souls by actually giving, so that we build up our spiritual health by practicing God’s creative purposes as givers.
Read MoreObserving a Wesleyan spiritual practice rather rallying around a slogan, members of the 2024 session of the Northern Illinois Conference of met from June 16 to 18 in Schaumburg to yield to God as they recognized ministry milestones, worshiped, and voted on policies and resolutions.
Read MoreWithout debate, this year’s conference members passed a 2025 budget of $4,630,098. It represents an increase of $243,254 over the 2024 budget. “The increase of 5.25 percent from 2024 is an increase in every area of the budget; there was no single large expense,” explained Elaine Moy, conference treasurer and director of administrative services.
Read MoreThe Northern Illinois Conference is grateful for its many churches for their faithful apportionment giving and celebrates those who paid in full, despite these challenging times. In 2023, 197 churches paid 100 percent of their calculated apportionments to the conference. Ninety-six churches paid 100 percent of their apportionments to both the conference and the general church funds.
Read MoreThe Northern Illinois Conference appreciates the churches that went the second mile as Mission Links churches. To become a Mission Links 100% Supporter, a church needs to pay its conference and general church apportionments in full and donate to at least one Mission Links project in each of the giving areas. In addition to their apportionment giving, Mission Links 100% Supporters gave almost $451,500 in second-mile gifts and over $89,500 in Special Sunday offerings.
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