Many years ago I had a "the light came on" conversation with an alum of our ministry. He said, "Arliss, I would give you some money, but I can't give you enough to help.". I realized a lot of people don't make a gift to a College Ministry because they cannot afford to give $200-$300 or more. They are embarrassed to send a small check and they think what good can $25 do.
At that time, we had 1200 people on our Alumni mailing list. A little quick math told me that if all 1200 gave $25, that would be $30,000! Now, $30,000 would help!! So, we began to ask our alums to give $25 a year. After that first appeal, my favorite response came from am alum who sent a check for $50. He said, "Here is $50 because I know there is no way my roommate sent his $25." We need to give people permission to give a small amount and to see the value of giving a small amount.
How many College Ministry alums are there in the U.S.? How many people have been positively affected by a College Ministry? What if all of them gave $25 this December?
The thought is staggering!!! Let's do some simple math (for me, never simple). If a College Minister had just 125 alums who had been affected by his or her ministry and each gave $25. That is $3,125. That is significant. Most ministries have way more alums than that.
1,000 alums....$25,000! What a difference $25,000 would make to a budget....or to someone raising their own salary. $25 can do that.
December is the month to challenge all who have been positively affected by a College Ministry to give $25 to that ministry. Let's not just challenge people who might give to our ministry....let's challenge all people to give to whatever ministry was a blessing to them.
Remember; if a gift is postmarked by December 31, it is tax deductible.
Isn't there a story somewhere about a little boy with a few fish and a couple of loaves of bread and some crazy amount of people that got fed with it? Jesus used the little.
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