Alabama CBF Enews
February 13, 2020
Grant Opportunties for Congregations
Alabama CBF Grants
The healthy congregations team of the Alabama CBF Coordinating Council is announcing three grant opportunities for 2020. The team hopes to encourage ALCBF churches and leaders - particularly smaller congregations and female pastoral leaders - to seek resources that promote growth in ministry by offering this financial assistance.You can apply for these grants at the links below, and if you have any questions please contact Terri Byrd at terri@alabamacbf.org.
Rolling Travel Grants
Because there are many quality professional development opportunities offered beyond CBF life (e.g., Festival of Homiletics, storytelling conferences) that are often cost-prohibitive, Alabama CBF is making up to $4000 available in 2020 for ministers to travel to these events. Each applicant may request up to $1000, and priority will be given to women in ministry and staff at congregations with an average worship attendance under 150 people. Applications will be considered as they are received.
http://www.alabamacbf.org/travel-grants
Ministry Grants
Alabama CBF is making up to $6000 available in 2020 as seed money for projects that focus on improving congregational or community health, defined broadly. Applicants will be asked to consider what their churches could do that hasn't been done before or that could be done better with more resources. Priority will be given to proposals that are submitted by small congregations, that demonstrate innovation, and that have the potential to be sustainable and replicable. Each applicant may request up to $1500, and applications will be considered on a rolling basis, with deadlines of March 31, June 30, September 30, and December 31.
http://www.alabamacbf.org/ministry-grants
ChurchWorks
Registration is now open for ChurchWorks, CBF’s annual gathering of spiritual formation practitioners. This conference creates space each year for ministers - whether lead or associate pastors or ministers of age-specific ministries - to be equipped for the journey through creativity, community and worship. ChurchWorks 2020 will be held March 1-4 at Central Baptist Church Fountain City in Knoxville, Tennessee. The focus will be on tending to our own physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. At ChurchWorks three years ago, Matt Bloom of the Flourishing in Ministry Project at Notre Dame focused on why clergy and other caregiving professionals must prioritize self-care. In Knoxville, ChurchWorks 2020 will center on how clergy can most effectively do so.
Alabama CBF would like to offer financial assistance for travel to ChurchWorks. Up to six grants of up to $500 per person are available. Applicants must be connected to ALCBF through their church or as individual participants. Priority will be given to women in ministry and to ministers at congregations with an average worship attendance under 150 people. Please complete the form below by February 21 in order to be considered. Applications will be reviewed and responded to as they are received.
http://www.alabamacbf.org/church-works
CBF Global Grants
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Ministries Council invites you to submit a proposal for funding a project to support the efforts of your church in building bridges within your church and your community. The Ministries Council accepts proposals that address the following categories:
1) Innovative faith development and lay leadership
2) Immigration, migrant, refugee based ministries, or mission work within your community
3) Innovative/incarnational community-based partnerships and programs
Tell us what you are doing, why these funds would help, and help expand our knowledge of what is taking place across the Fellowship. We are especially interested in resources that can be developed, shared, and replicated across the Fellowship. In the past, awards have ranged from $500 to $8,750 and the average grants awarded were $4,980.56.
https://cbf.net/governance/ministries-council/ministries-grant
ChurchWorks
As ministers we do quite well at taking care of other people when needs arise, but more often than not, we don’t take care of our own wellbeing as much as we should. When we are not able to physically, mentally or emotionally take care of the things we are dealing with, it’s much harder to carry those needs with other people. Three years ago, when ChurchWorks last engaged ministerial wellbeing, Matt Bloom of the Flourishing in Ministry Project at Notre Dame focused on why clergy and other caregiving professionals must prioritize self-care. Because a minister’s work is complex, often under-appreciated and subject to rapid change, Bloom emphasized maintaining a sense of calling and fulfillment is of central importance.
On March 1-4 at Central Baptist Church Fountain City in Knoxville, Tn., ChurchWorks 2020 will center on how clergy can most effectively focus on their own wellbeing. ChurchWorks will be a time to think about caring for yourself in different ways; a space for you to come and take a break from the day-to-day work, to network, to connect, to relax and to be renewed in your work as a minister.
For more information email churchworks@cbf.net or visit https://cbf.net/churchworks2020
To learn more about Church Work grants from Alabama CBF, visit our webpage: http://www.alabamacbf.org/church-works
Advocacy In Action
March 9-12, 2020
Washington D.C.
In 2020, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is bringing Advocacy in Action back to Washington, D.C. The First Baptist Church of the City of Washington, D.C. will serve as a host for our time. Planned agenda items include a special tour of the Smithsonian Museum for African American History and Culture, an evening tour of the U.S. Capitol, lobby visits on Capitol Hill and visits with CBF Partners such as the Baptist Joint Committee. Participants will have the opportunity to hear from other faith-based advocates and folks in the religious journalism sector.
To learn more visit: https://cbf.net/advocacy-in-action.
20 years of Sowing Hope
Baptist Women in Ministry Month of Preaching!
February is Baptist Women in Ministry Month of Preaching. It is an opportunity to celebrate the calling and giftedness of women to preach. If your church does not regularly have a woman in the pulpit, we encourage you to invite a woman to preach. If you do, we encourage you to invite a female ministerial student who is still new to preaching as a way of encouraging her calling by God to preach. If we can help you find a gifted female preacher to preach for your congregation in February (or any other time), please let us know.
Tax Support for Ministers
Summer Opportunities for Service!
Internships play a significant role in discovering passion and giftedness and have the potential to alter life’s direction! Through CBF’s Student.Go (read student dot go) and Student.Church (read student dot church), a summer or semester is punctuated with meaningful experiences allowing both graduate and undergraduate students the opportunity to recognize their place within God’s mission to change the world.
Learn more about Student.Go/Student.Church at: https://cbf.net/summer-semester-internships
Ministry Opportunities
Children's Intern
Woodland Forest Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, AL
Church Ministry Intern contributes, in coordination with the youth ministry team and pastor, to planning and implementing a well-balanced program for youth that will provide spiritual growth by nurturing students in their relationships with Christ, helping students discover their personal gifts and abilities with which God has entrusted them, and teaching them how to spread God’s love to the world around them. Additionally the Church ministry intern helps plan, coordinate and develop outreach and community centered activities that develop healthier relationships and opportunities between the church and direct community.
For more information or to apply please contact jeffhoward100@gmail.com.
Summer Intern
Weatherly Heights Baptist, Madison, AL
The WHBC Ministry Intern will serve the congregation of Weatherly Heights Baptist Church for 10 weeks during the summer. The primary responsibilities of the Intern will be assisting the Minister of Families with Children and Youth in the planning and implementation of the summer activities for the children and youth ministries. The Intern should be a seminary student (preferred) but a college student who has completed one year of college will be eligible.
For more information or to apply please contact vicki@weathelry.org.
Save the Date
Contact Us
205-835-8117
Lucas Dorion, Associate Coordinator
205-718-9443
Website: www.alabamacbf.org