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    Planning an Annie Armstrong Easter Offering® Promotion

    Pray

    • Pray for your church to have a greater awareness and commitment to missions.
    • Pray for members to give sacrificially to the offering.

    Plan

    • Form a team to plan, promote, and conduct the emphasis. Include pastor, mission leaders, and other mission advocates.
    • Schedule emphasis dates on the church calendar. Traditionally, the Week of Prayer begins the first Sunday of March (March 7-14, 2010). However, your church can collect the offering any time of year.
    • Set a challenging church goal. Consider increasing your offering by 10 percent over last year's receipts.
    • Construct a way for the church to visually keep track of progress toward the goal. Click here for ideas for visuals. 
    • Encourage Sunday School classes and small group Bible studies to set class goals.
    • Order available resources to promote the AAEO, allowing two to four weeks for delivery. Secure additional resources for promotion and implementation of emphasis plans. Determine how each resource can be used in your church.
    • Order prayer guides, posters, and offering envelopes from your state WMU office.

    Enlist

    • Ask your pastor to preach a sermon on North American mission efforts. Sermon outlines for pastors are available on the pastor's page.
    • Invite a local North American missionary or staff member from  your association, state convention, or NAMB to speak to your church and share how AAEO is used in your state.
    • Enlist lay people to give personal testimonies on why they give to the AAEO.
    • Enlist individuals to share missionary stories found at www.namb.net.
    • Enlist mission leaders to visit every Sunday School department or class to encourage praying for and giving to North American missions.

    Promote

    • Display the AAEO posters in a high visibility areas. The poster design this year features several sections which can be cut apart and used in creating an emphasis bulletin board or promoting the North American Mission Study.
    • Distribute the AAEO offering envelopes in pews, Sunday School classes, newsletters, bulletings, and special mailings.
    • Distribute the a prayer guide to every member.
    • Consider giving each family a set of missionary prayer cards.
    • Promote the offering in missions organizations, Sunday School, church newsletters, bulletins, and worship services.
    • Make arrangements for special prayer times during missions organization meetings and other appropriate times.
    • Remind church members that 100 percent of gifts to the AAEO go to support North American missionaries and their ministries.
    • Show the NAM Emphasis video segments in worship services, prayer meetings, or mission studies. 

    Planning a Week of Prayer for North American Missions Emphasis

    • Form a leadership team to plan, promote, and conduct the various events of your church's Week of Prayer for North American Missions (NAM) emphasis.
    • Pray for a greater awareness and commitment to missions and increased prayer support for North American missionaries.
    • Schedule emphasis dates on the church calendar. The Week of Prayer suggested dates are March 2-9, 2008; however, your church can schedule the emphasis at any time.
    • Review video segments on the NAM Emphasis DVD, and make plans to show the segments
    • Order prayer guides, posters and offering envelopes from your state WMU office.
    • Display the NAM Emphasis poster in high traffic areas. Cut apart sections of the poster to create a bulletin board visual.
    • Distribute Week of Prayer prayer guides to members. For up-to-date prayer requests and in-depth information onthe missionaries featured in the guide, call 1 800 554-PRAY for current North American missions prayer requests.
    • Consider distributing Missionary Prayer Cards featuring Week of Prayer missionaries.
    • Ask your pastor to preach a North American mission sermon. Sermon suggestion is available on pastor's page. Or, arrange for a North American missionary or staff member from your association, state convention, or North American Mission Board to speak to your church on mission efforts in your state. To locate a missionary, visit www.namb.net/missionaries or call (770) 410-6000.
    • Promote the Week of Prayer in missions organizations, Sunday School, church newsletters, bulletins, and worship services.
    • Make arrangements for special prayer times during the emphasis.
    • Plan to conduct the North American Mission Study during the emphasis.
    • Ask Women on Mission® members to visit every Sunday School department or class to encourage praying for and giving to North American missions.

    A sample schedule for prayer meetings during the Week of Prayer might include these:

    (Taken from the Woman's Missionary Union Year Book, 2001-2002 edition)
    Additional ideas for promotion are given in the Winter issue of Mission Leader magazine published by WMU.

    Sunday - special prayer time during a worship service

    Monday - daytime prayer meeting at the church

    Tuesday - evening prayer meeting in someone's home

    Wednesday - churchwide meal and prayer time in small groups around the tables

    Thursday - early morning/before work prayer time at the church

    Friday - prayer time that specifically involves youth

    Saturday - 12-hour or 24-hour prayer chain in which church members commit to pray during one 30-minute period

    Sunday - virtual prayerwalk around the church building after a worship service, praying for specific types of North American ministry in different parts of the grounds (pray for church panters as you walk through the sanctuary, pray for ministies among families and children as you walk through the preschool area, etc.)