Coronavirus Response

  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
Cross & Flame Logo

Congregations for Children (C4C)

  • Discipleship
    • Christian Formation
      • Children
      • Church & Society
      • College
      • Creation Care
      • Differently Abled Persons
      • Older Adults
      • Spiritual Formation
      • Status & Role of Women
      • Young Adults
      • Youth
    • Church Revitalization
      • Coaching
      • Disciple Making Way
      • Evangelism
      • Grants
      • MissionInsite
      • Shift
    • From the Bishop
      • Church Transformation
      • Conflict Transformation
    • Multicultural
      • Anti-Racism
      • Asian
      • Hispanic-Latinx
      • Native American
      • Strengthening the Black Church
    • Stewardship
      • Apportionments
      • District Remittances
      • Financial Discipleship
      • Grants
      • Insurance
      • Mission & Service
      • Pension
      • Treasurer Training
  • Leadership
    • Bishop’s Office
      • Appointment Book
      • Church Transformation
      • Conflict Transformation
    • Office of Clergy Life
      • Board of Ordained Ministry
      • Called to Ministry?
      • Extension Ministries
    • Board of Laity
      • Certified Lay Minister
      • Lay Servant Ministries
      • Local Church Lay Leaders
      • United Methodist Men
      • United Methodist Women
      • United Methodist Youth
    • New Faith Comm.
      • New Room Society
      • Our Communities
    • Conference Offices
      • Center for Leadership Excellence
      • Christian Formation
      • Communications
      • Conference Secretary
      • Connectional Ministries
      • Information Technology
      • Multicultural Ministries
      • Outreach Ministry
      • Treasurer’s Office
  • Service
    • Local Outreach
      • Afghan Refugees
      • Church Construction
      • Church Loans
      • Congregations for Children (C4C)
      • Creation Care
      • Cross & Key Prision Ministries
      • Health Ministry
      • Restorative Justice and Mercy
      • Seed Funds
      • Mission Projects
    • Global Outreach
      • Love for Liberia
      • Missionaries
      • NCC UMVIM
      • Project AGAPE
      • Sierra Leone: Mission of Hope
      • ZOE
    • Disaster Ministries
      • Donate to Storm Response
      • MERCI
      • Response Plan
      • Response Team
      • Training
      • UMCOR Kits
    • Giving
      • 2021 District Christmas Offering
      • Advance/Rainbow Covenant
      • Apportionments
      • Give to Storm Response
      • Mission & Service
      • The Gary Wayne Locklear Mission Endowment
      • New Room Society
      • Special Sundays
    • Ministry Partners
      • Boy Scouts of America (BSA)
      • Camps & Retreats
      • NC Institute for Spiritual Direction and Formation
      • Partners In Ministry
      • Robeson Co. Church & CC
      • UMF
  • Resources
    • Conferences
      • Annual Conference 2021
      • Annual Conference 2022
      • Charge Conference 2021
      • General Conference
      • Pilgrimage
      • SEJ Conference 2016
    • Media Center
      • Catalog
      • Labyrinth
      • Ministry Tools
      • Online Resources
      • Weekly Newsletter
    • Online Resources
      • Anti-Racism
      • Archives & History
      • #BeUMC
      • Church Lookup
      • Disaffiliation Information
      • Green Church Initiative
      • Online Data Collection
      • Online Learning
      • Pastor Lookup
      • Ramus: Web Hosting
      • Video (Vimeo)
    • Publications
      • Appointment Book
      • Bible Study
      • Conference Directory
      • Conference Journal
      • Every Day Grace
      • Lenten Reflections
      • Mission & Service
      • Podcasts (NCCUMC.FM)
    • From UMC.org
      • Agencies
      • Communications
      • Discipleship
      • Finance & Administration
      • Global Ministries
      • Graphics Library
      • Relief
      • Status & Role of Women
  • Congregations for Children (C4C)
  • Origins
  • What’s Involved?
  • Training
  • UMAPS
    • UMAPS History
    • UMAPS Vision
    • Public Education Challenges
    • Advocating Strategies
    • Congregational Mobilization
  • Stories
  • Contact Us

Mobilizing Congregations Using a District Wide Approach

Most NCCUMC congregations are engaged in public schools through Congregations for Children (C4C), so it seems logical that this work should be extended to include advocating at the local school, school board, and county authorities levels for improvements in resources for schools. The overall intent is to help improve the provision of public education within a District by inviting congregations to advocate for improvements to yet-to be defined needs. The goal is to empower congregations to be engaged in advocacy work supporting local public schools.

Project Structure and Partners

The District will partner with UMAPS to implement the targeted goals and will create a steering team to manage the project. This team will include the following:

  • The District Superintendent or his/her appointee
  • A representative from the UMAPS Team
  • A representative from the District C4C team
  • A representative from the District Mission Strategy Team
  • Congregational representatives as needed

Project Description

The project process will be as follows once a Steering Team is established.

  • Conduct a survey of all United Methodist churches in the District to ascertain the specific level and type of engagement with public schools through C4C or other intentional approaches.
  • Review the advocacy activities of all non-profit agencies currently engaged in public school advocacy in the District and develop ways to embrace and take advantage of collaborative efforts with them.
  • Evaluate the data about UMC school engagement and the collective advocacy work done by others to ascertain the capacity of congregations to engage with public education and to discern appropriate advocacy opportunities.
  • Invite selected congregations with active engagement with public schools to partner in this process as pilots. Each pilot would appoint a small congregational steering team as well.
  • Organize proactive listening sessions with selected pilot schools and congregations to build a needs list for those schools.
  • Conduct public workshops and listening sessions to promote further dialogue between education leaders and administrators, parents, public officials, and elected representatives.
  • Engage with advocacy organizations within the counties covered by the District, build relationships with these organizations, and build collaborative advocacy strategies with them.
  • Build and deliver advocacy training programs for small congregational groups to engage with school administration, school boards, and county commissioners.
  • Maintain records of all relevant metrics that define the needs in the pilot schools.
  • Monitor advocacy activities over a one year period.
  • Evaluate all advocacy activity and results and make appropriate amendments to the approach for further deployment.
  • Repeat all of the above until the advocacy work is sustained.

There are many issues and priorities for public education, and selecting the focus of any effort is essential to prevent burn-out. Understanding your congregation’s resource level to undertake this initiative is essential, so it is suggested that a study be done of the congregation to find out how many and which members have experience and skills to undertake education advocacy work. “Understanding Congregational Human Assets” is an excellent resource for this process.

NC Conference of The United Methodist Church · 700 Waterfield Ridge Place · Garner, NC 27529
Phone: 919.779.6115 · Toll-free: 800.849.4433 · Fax: 919.773.2308


Copyright © 2022 · Privacy Policy · Powered by WordPress · Log in

 

Loading Comments...