Feb. 6, 2025

By Rev. Rick King

“Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives.” (Matthew 5:14-16, The Message)

In writing about One Great Hour of Sharing, our former Conference Minister, Rev. Shari Prestemon, quotes Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of these verses from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount because they urge us to show up, big and colorful in the world, with joy!

OGHS is a Lenten offering that supports health, education and agricultural development, emergency relief, refugee ministries, and both international and domestic disaster response.

I remember OGHS from when I was growing up in my local UCC congregation, First-Immanuel UCC in Alliance, Ohio. As households, we collected spare change during Lent for OGHS, held bake sales, a walk-a-thon, and raised funds through people’s giving to OGHS, of course.

But it was when I was living in an area that benefited directly from OGHS funds that I truly realized how important and far-reaching this special offering is. In 2014, in northern Colorado, a year after flash floods devastated the region (the main river that runs through, the St. Vrain, actually jumped its banks and became TWO streams!), we had set up the Boulder County Long-Term Flood Recovery Group, a 501c3 non-profit organization, to oversee funding and implementation of the long-term rebuilding process in Longmont and the other communities that had been hit. And OGHS funds were part of the conversations I had with UCC Disaster Ministries in Cleveland.

March is such a month of opportunity for your generosity and mine to make a difference in SO many lives: It’s Minnesota FoodShare month, with every pound of food and every dollar donated going to battle hunger and food insecurity in Minnesota.

AND it’s One Great Hour of Sharing month, with every dollar raised going into a common fund presently comprised of nine Christian denominations: American Baptist Churches USA, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Church of the Brethren, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Reformed Church in America, United Church of Christ, and Church World Service. The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) calls the offering Week of Compassion.

In various ways, all work in cooperation with Church World Service, the relief, development and refugee assistance arm of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA.

So this is an offering our friends at New Life Presbyterian Church are also participating in. Look for slides, posters, envelopes and special messages this month about what OGHS does and can do with your help!