Planning Guide for Promoting the Christmas Joy Offering

July/August
Look for your standing order confirmation to come in the mail.

September and October
Receive your shipment of offering materials. Review the materials on this Web site and begin planning your offering promotion.

Ask the session to set a date to receive the offering. The General Assembly recommends that the offering be received on the Sunday before Christmas, December 20, 2009. Encourage the session to set a giving goal that is higher than the previous year’s giving.

Order additional promotional materials for your congregation, if needed.

Begin planning events around the theme “What Child is This?” Choose the speakers who will give minutes for mission. Work with the worship committee to plan a special Christmas Joy Offering worship service as well as a Christmas Eve candle-lighting service. Work with Christian educators to plan the involvement of your children in the Christmas Joy Offering Art Contest.

Plan a potluck meal at which you'll use the place mats. This is a good time to invite a speaker for your congregation.

November
Display the Christmas Joy Offering Poster in a prominent location.

Use the reproducible black-and-white art found in the packet (and on the art page) in newsletters or bulletins.

Remind the congregation about the offering and distribute coin boxes. Also remind members through the church newsletter or in other mailings. Consider enclosing the brochure/envelope in your mailings as an opportunity to contribute for those who may be out of town on the Sunday you will be receiving the Offering.

December
Place an insert in the Sunday bulletin every week. Ask individuals to give minutes for mission for three or four Sundays, including the day the Offering is received. Note that the sample minutes for mission in this promotion guide are keyed to specific bulletin inserts and can offer thoughts to help those giving minutes for mission.

Put offering envelopes in the pew racks.

Use offering materials during a worship service, potluck, or other congregational gatherings.

Use the worship resources.

Receive the Christmas Joy Offering on December 20.

January
Send in your congregation’s offering.

Send in your ideas and photos from your congregation’s promotion to the Share-Your-Ideas page on this site.

Send in your children’s art to the Christmas Joy Offering art contest.

Thank your congregation for its participation and its gifts.

What to Do After Receiving the Offering

Remit your congregation's gifts through your normal remittance process at your presbytery receiving site. On the memo line of your check, note that it is for the Christmas Joy Offering. If your presbytery does not have a receiving agency, almost all do, checks may be sent to:

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
P.O. Box 643700
Pittsburgh, PA  15264-3700