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I design and donate cards for my church's card ministry. I don't know exactly how the ministry is set up, but cards are mailed out once a week. A different Sunday School class is responsible each week, taking care of writing notes inside the cards, addressing, etc. Sorry I can't be of more help, but God's speed in your endeavor!
__________________ Linda E
Caution: You are entering an artistic zone. This is not clutter - this is creating. These are not pajamas - it's my work uniform.
I just make the cards so I am unaware of the postage cost and how that is controlled in the budget. There's a comittee called Love&Action that takes care of taking the cards, writing them and sending them out. I also give the pastor some cards so he can write cards and give them out when needed. I try to use different topics, both happy and sad, even though I know in our church it seems we have a higher incidence of death and sickness just due to the average age of our members.
yes I make extra cards and mail them out on birthday to our church members. I love it. I don't charge anything, which I wont be of any help to you, but you can speak to your pastors to see if they can help out with postage or supplies if you want to.
For me its worked well for me to do it voluntarily and I have received orders from the same members that get cards so its a win win ;)
I do it for fun, and love it.
Our Ministry is simple. A few of us get together once each month and create cards for the member's birthdays and anniversaries. Then another gal (who does not feel the creative urge) mails them.
Originally, we only worked on cards for the coming month. Recently we decided it was better to work "assembly line" style. One of us decides/designs ahead of time to make some cards for guys' birthdays. gals' birthdays, kids' birthdays and anniversaries (maybe 6 nor 8 of each kind). Then the rest of us just follow her instructions. After finishing those planned cards, we usually hang around and do a few more "one of a kind" cards too.
Right now, we are a few months' ahead of schedule, so we may be able to "take off" this summer and start again in September.
The church pays the postage and buys some of our supplies. But a few of us gals have sooo much stuff in our craft rooms that we just donate extra papers and ink.
Hope this helps. I'll subscribe to this thread to see if others have good ideas too.
I ran a card ministry at my former church for several yrs. For the most part, I made the cards myself and several times during the year had an open invitation for members to join me.
The cards were mostly for Sympathy, Birthday, Get Well. I did have several other occasions to chose from just in smaller quantities.
Did not charge for the cards, however, did have a donation box.
Good luck!
__________________ I like mayhem! Southern Heart-my blog
I make cards for our church as well. We don't do birthdays because that is a large amount of cards! Usually about 15 a week. We have a lady that sends out sympathy and get well cards, and I supply her with cards. Also, I supply the pastors and secretary thank you cards (which they use quite quickly) and sympathy cards for funerals that happen in our church (we have a lot of community people having funerals in our church because it is the largest in town). I have a hard time keeping up, and when I don't they use store bought cards, although everybody says they like giving the handmade cards better.
I began a small card ministry at our church a couple of years ago and was making and sending out cards for new babies and first time visitors in the Kids center on Sunday. Then, last year I realized that I was making so many cards for my hobby and just hoarding and admiring them- that perhaps I could make it bigger. I talked with our Children's Minister as well as the Ministry Team Pastor and we officially started Cards for Kids Ministry Team. The church pays for most of the supplies and postage and my team of volunteers meet every other month and make birthday cards for member kids, visitor cards, new baby cards and cards for our mission trip children. We make about 150 cards every other month and I mail the b-day cards weekly and others as needed. It has been such a blessing because we are involving several women that have never crafted before and have a great fellowship time as well as creative time. We begin and end with prayer that God will bless our work and touch the lives of the family who is receiving our cards. I even have crafters participant that don't go to our church. I prepare all the materials-just like make and takes- and we have an easy dessert and beverages.
So worth the time and effort-
__________________ Diane If life was fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead. Johnny Carson Please visit My Gallery and My blog Planted in Joy
I supply all the birthday and anniversary cards for our church card ministry. I also supply the bookstore with cards and totes to sell. All of this is donated. I get tax credit for it. I also make all my cards in multiples and put some aside on a shelf so when the kids need cards to raise funds for their bible camps the youth pastors let me know. I usually supply them with 1000 cards twice a year. It is a good money maker for them with no worries about paying me for them. All of the cards I donate to the church for any of the above things are kept on a spreadsheet so I can get a letter at the end of each year for the donations. It works for me and really really helps a lot at tax time.
blessings.
I became an SU demo to support the Card Ministry I started at our church. We meet the second Friday of each month at church. I ask the secretary what type of cards they need. She lets me know then I design and cut the paper for the cards. I bring all of the supplies to church and whomever shows up helps to put the cards together. We have tables set up in a U shape so we can all talk to each other. I put the card sample and all of the materials at a table. The ladies at the table complete the card in an assembly line fashion. If they need something demonstrated I do that as well.
Each month we make 85-100 cards for the church to use.
I drop the cards and envelopes off at the church office. The secretary takes care of having the pastors sign the cards and mailing them. WE also put a sticker on the back of the cards that says who made the card and what church they are from.
I started the ministry 3 years ago. I talked to a pastor about doing it. They originally paid for the paper and envelopes. I didn't turn in receipts for anything but paper and envelopes. Now I the ministry is self-supporting with the orders I get. All the money I earn goes back into the card ministry.
I did get a tax exempt ID # and letter to show venders when I purchased my paper and cardstock.
We've made baby, anniversary, birthday, congratulations, Praying for you, sympathy, Get Well, A monthly card for the shut-ins of the church, Easter and Christmas cards for the widows and widowers, graduation cards for high school and college, thank you, thinking of you. You name it, we've made it.
I love the people who come and share themselves with me each month.
I've also made cards for some of the groups within the church.
If you have any quesions, let me know. I'll be happy to help.
__________________ My Blog- Trusting in the Lord for Everything Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight. My Stampin' Up WebsiteMy Gallery, BRAK New Member Mentor. New Grandmother to Mia Lou. 1st Grandchild.
I got the idea of a card ministry from ladies I knew from a different church. They didn't do it anymore. The group actually turned into a club that meets for breakfast once a month to exchange cards.
I digress...
When I approached one of our pastors, I think it surprised him. After he realized that I wasn't doing this to sell people things, he was happy to help. It's worked out that the church buys the envelopes form me & the ladies bring their own adhesive. I supply the ideas & cut the card stock. I usually provide a small snack.
This way it's not a big financial drain on anyone.
Sometimes my customers come. They're always welcome! We make cards for 2 hours.
What's been an unsuspected reward is that several times I've been places where someone will mention that their church makes cards. Or at the recent quilt show, a lady stood in front of my booth & said how nice it was to get a handmade card from the church when her son was in an accident.
It always turns out that WE GO TO THE SAME CHURCH! We have 5 different services so it's easy not to know someone.
I encourage anyone who is led to do this to DO IT! I've made some good friends that I would not have met otherwise. Don't be discouraged if you don't get a crowd of people. The people that are supposed to be there will be there. I'm always praying that we'll touch someone's heart.
I forgot to mention how much we've been blessed to make the cards. We hear comments all the time. The church staff, the pastor all thank us. I think it's such a wonderful ministry which blesses those that make the cards and those that receive them. We sometimes pray before we make them, that the people making and receiving them will be truly blessed as well. It's a win/win situation.
__________________ My Blog- Trusting in the Lord for Everything Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight. My Stampin' Up WebsiteMy Gallery, BRAK New Member Mentor. New Grandmother to Mia Lou. 1st Grandchild.
Thanks for all the wonderful ideas on how you are using your supplies and making cards for your church. I'd love to get this started too. I'm going to see if I can find others who might like to join me at my church in getting this started. Wish me luck!
We have our monthly meeting put in our church bulletin a week or two before we meet. You might want to consider doing that a month or so ahead so people see it. You also have to make sure you have a room ready for that at the church. Good luck on your journey with this and God Bless. Please let us know how it goes.
__________________ My Blog- Trusting in the Lord for Everything Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight. My Stampin' Up WebsiteMy Gallery, BRAK New Member Mentor. New Grandmother to Mia Lou. 1st Grandchild.
I just got home from church.... 4:00 PM. Only four of us stayed after worship services for our monthly "cardmaking party." Besides the cards to be sent "from the church", we have now started making cards that anyone may pick up for their own use. Thinking of You... Get Well... Thank You... Sympathy... and several other categories are displayed in a box each Sunday. The congregation can take cards to mail or they can write in the card and leave it in the office for mailing.
So today, we went through our "stash" and added several cards to that box. Hoping to be a blessing to as many people as possible.
THANK YOU LADIES... I have been so blessed by all the ideas shared on this thread. But I do think that I would be overwhelmed trying to do the numbers of cards some of you create. Your churches are enormous compared to ours. Only about 100 attend each Sunday.
Card Ministries - Give me the scoop!
