St. Anne's, Sunfish Lake, achieves its MDG goal: A report from our fourth and last pilot MDG congregation

by the Rev. Kate Hennessy

Throughout Lent, four churches in the Diocese participated in an exciting and innovative MDG campaign focused on mobilizing congregations to pledge 0.7% of their income toward an MDG project. This campaign, which was designed as a pilot project toward using the MDGs as a tool for transformation within the church, is the first step toward engaging more churches in the process, and was an exciting learning experience for all involved.

In addition to innovative approaches to giving, the project asked the congregations involved to take a fresh approach when it came to deciding how the pledges would be spent. The process, called Collective Decision Making, gives everyone who pledges a voice in decision making.

At St. Anne’s, Sunfish Lake, one of the participating churches, those who pledged met together after the conclusion of the pledge drive. The children showed a poster with some suggestions as to how to use the funds, based on organizations that had been suggested earlier. Then, in small groups, the adults decided what criteria would be used to evaluate potential organizations. These criteria were then taken to the large group for a final decision. A small group process was used to compare the previously suggested organizations to these criteria and each pledger ultimately was given a chance to “vote,” using stickers to make their choices.

St. Anne’s chose Kiva and Operation Bootstrap Africa as their pledge recipients. Kiva provides micro loans to unique small business in the developing world. Operation Bootstrap Africa is a Minnesota-based, non-profit, inter-denominational organization dedicated to helping people help themselves in a variety of educational programs in Africa.

Joe Burgess of the St. Anne’s team had this to say about his involvement with the project: “I am proud to be part of St. Anne's successful MDG campaign. We met our goal even though we had fifteen church members, including much of the MDG leadership, team participate in a mission trip to Belize during the campaign. The church really came through and we can help make a difference in two important projects, Operation Bootstrap Africa and Kiva.”