Miracle Offering 2019: The Central Conference Theological Education Fund
The General Board of Higher Education and Ministry is a diverse, thoughtful, Spirit-led people who are changing the world by nurturing and resourcing lay and clergy who lead through The United Methodist Church. Whether we’re helping people discover their call, claim it or flourish in it, we stand with them—revitalizing them to reflect, adapt, collaborate and practice their calling in different contexts and cultures, so that the world will know Christ.
The 2019 Miracle Offering: Lead Boldly #fillthegap provides United Methodists across North and South Dakota an opportunity to come alongside and support persons answering God’s call to ministry in two ways.
First, we will be receiving a monetary offering that will be equally divided between the Endowment Fund for Theological Education in the Central Conferences and a Dakotas United Methodist Foundation Scholarship Fund for undergraduate students planning to prepare for pastoral ministry and individuals training to be licensed local pastors in the Dakotas. There are significant gaps in financial assistance for pastors being trained in our Central Conferences (annual conferences outside the United States) and for those undergraduate and licensed local pastor students preparing for ministry in the Dakotas.
The Commission on Central Conference Theological Education Fund. Photo by Priscilla Muzenrengwa.
In the Central Conferences, which include seven areas of Africa, Europe, and the Philippines, obtaining a theological education can be challenging. Seminaries are too far away or too expensive. Our existing seminaries in the Central Conferences struggle to find and retain well-trained professors and to provide library resources in native languages. Courses of Study for initial and continuing education need to be developed, and scholarships are needed for initial and post-graduate studies. The $25,000,000 Endowment Fund is designed to close these gaps.
The Central Conference Theological Education Fund, administered by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, changed Andre Vieira's life from surviving as a prisoner captured by rebel forces in Angola to leading as an educated United Methodist clergy person. View his story.
The second part of the 2019 Miracle Offering: Lead Boldly #fillthegap will be an opportunity to make a commitment to reach someone who does not know Jesus. Each clergy and lay member of conference will be blessed to offer to God the name of at least one acquaintance, who does not know Christ, for whom we are committed to “dare to reach” through our prayers and our witness of compassion, love and hope. Perhaps it will be a child, work colleague, neighbor, or the person who serves you coffee each day.
Join the efforts to Lead Boldy #fillthegap. Bring your offering to the 2019 Dakotas Annual Conference in Bismarck. We will recieve the offering at morning worship on Friday, June 7. Get your resources here.
