NEPTUNE – GNJ’s forward thinking mission and ministry is making waves across the nation, catching the attention of individuals and organizations that not only believe in what they’re seeing, but are also graciously providing funds.
Michaela Murray-Nolan, Director of Development for the United Methodist Stewardship Foundation of Greater New Jersey and leader of the Miracles Everywhere campaign submitted one of two grant proposals to The United Methodist Foundation of Western North Carolina on behalf of Next Generation Ministries. The award for $15,000 was granted to help support and expand Next Generation Ministries for 2019.
“This grant affirms the direction of Next Generation Ministries in relaunching our Summer Camps program,” said Eric Drew, Executive Director of Next Generation Ministries. “We have added an additional week of Fine Arts Camp, which is already seeing many parents and students register. With these funds we’ll expand our summer paid and volunteer positions and create an environment of faith, fun and safety for all our students. We are so thankful for Michela’s work on our behalf, the Reynold’s Ministry Fund and everyone who is participating in the Miracles Everywhere Campaign.”
The second grant, for $25,000 was awarded for GNJ to experiment and expand Fresh Expressions and Dinner Church. Trey Wince drove the grant process and was thrilled that people are recognizing the necessary risks associated with innovative ministry.
“We’re in the early stages of working with more than 15 churches who are in the process of launching a dinner church,” said Wince. “This grant will give us the margin to experiment with different ways we might get communities around the table.”
Murray-Nolan said that the awards speak highly of the Connectional Ministries and Next Gen team that their work is attracting this kind of attention and funding from national philanthropists.
“We plan to continue expanding the grant development program at GNJ to provide support to more and more mission and ministries that benefit our congregants and communities,” she said.
The Western North Carolina Foundation’s Reynolds Ministry Fund, established by Royce and Jane Reynolds of Greensboro, NC. seeks to support innovative, engaging, ambitious initiatives that will invite new believers into a relationship with Christ. Grant recipients have the vision of helping the church to reach out in new ways and engage new people with the message of the Gospel.
Bishop John Schol extended thanks to the teams of The United Methodist Stewardship Foundation of GNJ, Next Generation Ministries and Connectional Ministries.
“I want to thank the team for all their doing on behalf of securing these investments in our mission,” he said. “Their work with the Miracles Everywhere campaign has been outstanding and grant requests are bearing fruit. Our team is made better by everything each of our staff teams do every day.”