Growing our faith, our family, our community together!

Your support – through gifts of time, talent and treasure – enables us to sustain the mission, vision, and outreach of this church.

At our annual Congregational Meetings, church members adopt an Annual Budget for the new fiscal year. An essential part of the income in that budget comes from our members’ donations.

What is Stewardship?

The definition of stewardship is the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care. As Christians, we are encouraged to consider how we use our money, possessions, time and abilities to thoughtfully and prayerfully change lives following the example of Jesus of Nazareth.

Community UCC conducts an annual Stewardship drive each spring to ask church members and supporters what they will bring to the mission of the church by completing a financial pledge form and Time and Talent sheet for the following fiscal year, from July 1 to June 30.

Why are Financial Pledges important to our church mission and vision?

Our church budget is a reflection of the mission and vision of our church. We put our resources into things we need (electricity; water) and things we want (ministers; music; Sunday School and Christian nurture classes; ways to work together to make a difference in our community).

If every member of the church completed a pledge card after prayerfully considering what they can financially bring to the church in the next year, the church budget can be built with accurate knowledge of what funds to expect and plan for what our possibilities can be in the following year. Electronic giving can make weekly or monthly giving easy to do.

What is a Time and Talent Sheet and why do we need them?

A Time Talent Treasure sheet has a broad list of opportunities to participate in our community and is an excellent way for people to communicate what they would like to bring to our church life. Time and Talent Sheets are shared with our church ministries and leaders so that our church can plan the actions of our church in the following year and be enriched by more participation. It is an easy way for people to share their desired gifts of time, skill and ability and helps to connect people together in shared interests.

What to do if not at church on Stewardship Sunday?

Pledge forms and Time and Talent Sheets can be mailed to the church office or placed in the offering basket during any worship service at any time.

They are also available online.

If you want to print out and mail in your forms, here are links to do so:

Or you can submit your answers online via these links to Google Forms:

Many ways to give financially

Weekly collection

Each Sunday, attendees can give a gift to the church when the collection plate is passed during the Invitation to Giving.

Givelify

Did you get to church and realize you forget your checkbook at home? No worries. Givelify is a three-tap, easy way for donors to give from their smartphones, using the Givelify app. Just download the free app, and select Community United Church of Christ as your place of worship. Then select the green “Give” button, select an amount. You can do a one-time gift or select recurring to set up a weekly, monthly or quarterly donation.

Online

You can set up an online donation through Vanco or through your own bank’s automatic Bill Payer system (which generally involves no fees to you or the church). Using Bill-Pay will probably require our church’s address and phone number: 5550 N. Fresno St. Fresno, CA 93710, 559.435.2690.

Mail a check

You can always mail or drop off a check at the office at 5550 N. Fresno St. Fresno, CA 93710.

Facebook fundraisers

If you are on Facebook, consider sharing a fundraiser, inviting your friends to help raise funds for a cause important to you, on your birthday, some other significant date or just because. This enables you to have a bigger impact than you might on your own and also raises awareness of what our church does.

Facebook charges no fees and takes no cut of the money raised. All donations go directly to the selected nonprofit within a few weeks.

Here are the steps to create a Facebook fundraiser:

Go to Facebook fundraisers. Click on “Select Nonprofit” and type in Community United Church of Christ (You should see our logo).
Set a goal for the amount you want to raise and then set a date for your fundraiser to end.
Facebook will auto-generate a sample message that your friends will see, but you can customize it.
Click the create button. It’s that easy!

Shop on Smile.Amazon.com and Amazon will donate money to Community UCC!

Community UCC is now part of the AmazonSmile Foundation charitable organizations that can be supported while you shop at Smile.Amazon.com. Register Community UCC as your charity and Amazon will donate 0.5% of the eligible purchase price to our church. How does it work?

Log onto Smile.Amazon.com. Use your regular Amazon login information. The online page will look exactly like your regular Amazon.com page and all your lists and history will be there. Prices will be the same. There is no difference between the Amazon.com and Smile.amazon.com sites except that the AmazonSmile Foundation will make charitable donations to your selected organization if you use smile.amazon.com for eligible purchases.
Select Community Ucc as your charitable foundation and be sure you pick the one in Fresno CA. The last two “c”s are lower case letters. If you can’t find it by name, use our EIN: 94-6050078.
Whenever you want to shop on Amazon, log on to Smile.Amazon.com.

Links to last year’s Stewardship campaign articles:

What shall we bring? — A Stewardship Thought About What Our Church Brings to Our Community and the World

What does our church bring to our community and the world? Why should we support Community UCC with our time and our treasure?

Community UCC is one of the few institutions in our area that offers a view of theology, the Bible, and Christianity that understands that God is still speaking and proclaims Jesus’ ministry of inclusivity. All are welcome at Community UCC to worship together, to listen to God’s message and to learn from Jesus’ teachings. Continue reading on our web site.

What Shall We Bring? — A Stewardship Thought about our Buildings and Grounds

Every week, 77 pre-school children can be found learning and playing in our church’s classrooms and playground. In 2007 solar panels were placed on our church roof. In 2014, our grass lawns along Fresno and Browning Avenues were replaced with water-saving xeriscape landscaping. What do these things have in common? These are some examples of how Community UCC has intentionally made a commitment to reduce our use of Earth’s scarce resources and to share what we have with others. Continue reading on our web site.