Deadline to Order Sunday Resources Approaching

The Oct. 15 deadline is quickly approaching for churches to order materials that support offerings on the Christian Reformed Church in North America calendar from Jan. 1 through June 30, 2019.

This is the second time that the CRCNA is using a new ordering process that allows churches to order six months’ worth of material from multiple agencies all in one place.

As part of this process, an email titled Important: New Way to Request Free CRC Materials was sent out to every CRCNA congregation in mid-September. Each had a unique order form link allowing that congregation to order materials.

The resources are organized by their suggested date on the 2019 CRCNA Offering Calendar, which was sent to all churches earlier this year. They cover special dates including Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, Easter, Pentecost, and Ascension Day.

Note that while each of these causes has been given a suggested offering date on the calendar, materials are designed in such a way that they may be used on any date that works best for your congregation.

The materials for each cause vary, but can include bulletin covers, inserts, children's resources, devotionals, worship planning tools, prayers, projection graphics and more.

“This new process was designed to meet the expressed needs of congregations,” said Kristen deRoo VanderBerg,  director of Communication and Marketing for the CRCNA.

“Each church can easily review the materials that are available and can plan months in advance for how to use them. They can also order exactly as many copies as their congregation needs.”

The new system also remembers a congregation’s order history. If, for example, a church participates in the World Hunger campaign one year and asks for one poster and 300 bulletin inserts, those quantities will automatically appear in the form the next year, when that church is asked to order again.

“A church will always be able to adjust their order preferences, but by remembering previous orders, we hope to make things as easy as possible for church administrators,” said deRoo VanderBerg, pointing out that the congregation’s order form link can also be shared with multiple people in the church.

The new system was used for the first time in March 2018 for offering dates between July 1 and December 31. Using this process boosted the number of churches that asked for resources from CRC ministries. Disability Concerns, for instance, saw an increase in requests for bulletin inserts from 532 in 2017 to 24,981 this year.

Similarly, congregations increased their requests for materials from Safe Church Ministries from 11,731 copies in 2017 to 28,000 in 2018.

“We are happy for greater visibility for Safe Church resources, and the greater numbers of orders for our inserts,” said Bonnie Nicholas, director of Safe Church Ministries, who pointed out that these increased orders will also help congregations increase awareness about various topics related to abuse prevention and response.

While CRCNA ministries are pleased that more congregations are requesting their materials, the new system has also been well received by the church administrators and pastors for whom it was designed. They report that it has made it easier for them to plan ahead for Sunday services and has reduced waste from getting unwanted materials automatically shipped to them.

Sonya Wonder, of Meadowlands Fellowship CRC in Ancaster, Ont. wrote an email to the CRCNA soon after the first order form went out.

“Thanks for making this change! So easy!” she said.

Rev. John Greydanus of Bethel CRC in Shiprock, New Mexico agreed.  “Very easy. Very nice.Very much appreciated,” he said.

All congregations should have received their unique order form link on September 13 and are asked to respond by October 15. Anyone having difficulty accessing their link is asked to contact [email protected].