The Kerith Farnborough Building Fund Tithe Committee - an update, and an invitation.
You may know that linked to our building project fund, we want to give away 10% of what we raise to bless other worthy causes and charities – split equally across the course of our project to local, national and global causes. We wanted to give you an update on who we’ve been able to bless so far, and also invite more proposal applications!
Last year we put together a tithe committee with representatives from our congregation who will make decisions on how we spend this money. The group is headed by Malcolm Pearcey, and it’s members are Adesola Fadiora, Jacqui Webber-Gant and Nick Rudd. Sonia Hopkin also attends as her role as Site Pastor, but in a non-voting capacity.
Before this committee was formed, we have already tithed away money given to the building fund over the years. You may know about the building we helped Compassion build in Tanzania - you can read about HERE. We also recently gave money to Novo Communities towards their desire to move into Northern Nigeria. You can read more about their work and the project on their website HERE.
We felt that it was important that our congregation was represented in the decisions around who we bless, rather than the decision being based purely on the personal relationships of one or two people! So, last year we began inviting proposals and the committee decided making decisions around tithe gifts. We have been very pleased to confirm support of the following very worth causes;
Global: Abba Father’s House for roof repairs, and a Tearfund project in Nigeria, brought to our attention initially by our Creation Care Team, that we have blogged about before.
National: Oddments Theatre, towards building repairs & rennovations
Local: Blooming Marvellous, for tools and a shed!
If you’d like to know more about these amazing causes - please do click on all the hyperlinks above to find out more! However, each will give us an update after a few months, so we can celebrate the impact the money has had. Watch this space for more information in future months!
For now though, the committee is particularly inviting proposals from local and national causes for consideration when they next meet (as you can see, so far, we have mainly given to global causes). So - this is where you can help! If you know of a cause or charity that would be really blessed by some money in the local area, or anywhere in the UK – please do read the criteria on the form below and then complete it yourself, or pass it to them to complete. If you can’t think of anywhere yourself - why not share this blog to your social media? (Please note: to give adequate time for requests to be considered before their next meeting, please submit it by the end of Sunday 24th May. Any received after this may be considered at a later date).
God has blessed us in so many ways, not least with the building we now call home. Our prayer is that we can be a blessing for others, as we make improvements to our house of God and house of the people – but also, that we are building God’s Kingdom at the same time!