Do you have a passion for one of the ministry teams at Bethel?
Do you have a passion for service in our community?
Do you have a passion to aid the wider church or world?
If you can answer yes to any of these questions, and if you are a Thrivent Member (either an Associate Member or a Benefit Member), you are eligible for a program sponsored by Thrivent to help fund your passion.
Let’s start by defining Thrivent Membership. An associate member is someone who submits a membership application and pays an annual fee of $19.95 or purchases a product from a Thrivent affiliate or subsidiary (such as a Thrivent Mutual Fund product) or joining the Thrivent Credit Union. A benefit member is someone who submits a membership application and purchases a qualifying Thrivent insurance or annuity product, like disability income or life insurance. Associate members can lead one team per year, benefit members can lead two.
It’s really easy to get started. All you need is an idea, a plan to carry out the idea, some team members to help work on it, and the action to complete it. This is a great way to help fund a ministry at our church, the community, or the world. Your team can receive up to $250 to either completely fund your project, or kick-start something larger.
For example, the Bethel Women’s Ministry cares deeply about maintaining contact with all the women in our congregation during this time of physical separation. The leadership of this group presented the idea that a few women should take a section of the women in our church, and write them a personal note, just to let them know that they are being thought of and prayed for fervently within the Women’s Ministry. Thinking about how this could be funded without being a burden on any individual or on our church, the suggestion was made to make it a Thrivent Action Project. So, I filed an application with Thrivent laying out how this would be accomplished, why we wanted to do it, and the timeline, stating that the funding will be used to provide the postage and note cards to be sent out. It was easy, and we got approval for our project the same day. We received the Action Kit in about 2 weeks, and we were able to start this project right after Easter.
There is so much more that can be told about the Thrivent Action program. Other members of our congregation have used this program to provide seed money to get a project started.
