Congregations of the West Virginia Conference have done amazing ministry these past few months! In March when the COVID-19 pandemic caused our churches to stop meeting in-person for worship, many of our churches were able to move their services online in a week or two. That was a remarkable accomplishment!
We are now moving into a season where many of our churches are making plans to safely begin or increase their in-person worship. God has used these past few months as a way for many churches to reach new people, connect with people who may have not attended for a while, and even reach people well outside our normal mission fields. As we strive to be good stewards and continue to learn as we go, may we continue to move forward and not go backwards. Let us keep moving forward by continuing to do our worship services in new ways. Continuing, even expanding our use of technology for worship, discipleship, fellowship, and evangelism, is critical.
With all this in mind, we are again offering matching grants to help offset expenses related to online worship technology (ex: equipment, software licenses, etc.). The maximum grant amount it $500. (Churches who received a grant earlier this year are not eligible.)
If you would like assistance in determining equipment, software licenses, etc. that would work best in your context or if you’d like to have a conversation about how to best integrate new technology into what you already have at hand, we suggest that you contact your Conference Communications team. (Director of Communications Deborah Coble may be reached at dcoble@wvumc.org)
GRANT DEADLINE: submission deadline is Monday October 5, 2020.
You may go back to August 1, 2020 for items already purchased related to your new online worship technology strategy.
APPLICATION SUBMISSION:
When submitting this application, send it to cridgway@wvumc.org
You must copy the church/charge pastor, Church Ad. Board Chair, Lay Leader, and the District Superintendent.
NOTE: Priority will be given to churches/charges which have a history of faithful payment of apportionments and for those focusing on reaching new people.
We have a maximum of 50 grants available at this time.
Follow this link for the grant application.
Follow this link to download the online matching grant guidelines.