Classis Ministries

The Classis Ministries Board Mission Statement

The overall goal of the Classis Ministries Board of the Regional Synod of Albany is to promote healing and nurture in classes and congregations, so that they may be empowered to live out faithful and fruitful mission in God’s world.

What does the Classis Ministries Board Do?

The CMB oversees the Synod’s efforts to provide for church revitalization, clergy support, leadership development, clergy networking, development of clergy leadership, discipleship resourcing, and resourcing for social witness.

How can we (I) submit a proposal for CMB consideration?

As you look at the above description of CMB, do you have what they describe as "new ministry activities" you'd like to see the board consider and provide for Albany Synod congregations? The CMB PROPOSAL FORM is listed under our web heading of "Administrative Documents".

Mission Working Group

The newly formed Mission Working Group needs your help. We’d like to post and share ongoing mission ministries in local synod churches and classes. If you would like to add to the lists below, email Nancy McNiven at nmcniven@albanysynod.org. Thank you.

Albany Classis:

First Church in Albany

• Food pantry
• Monthly community dinners
• Fowler Day Camp
• Missionary support
• Co-sponsor and host a day care center
• Provide meals to emergency overflow shelter
• Youth group mission trips
• Youth group volunteer at regional food bank
• Youth group serve meals at Capital City Rescue Mission
• With Blooming Grove Reformed Church, help to tornado victims in the US through Church World Service

Montgomery Classis:

Canajoharie Reformed

• Comfort Zone-11^th year, monthly outreach to the community through gift of household supplies provided in the context of a gathering that includes prayer, singing and a testimony of God’s faithfulness
• Youth group helped pack boxes for Operation Christmas Child. This will be a growing project.
• Visitation Team makes monthly visits to the nursing homes in the community to bring the hope of the gospel with them with their smiles, stories and presence.
• Support two RCA missionary families and try to stay connected with them.
• Each month a special offering for a different designated mission opportunity-local, national, international

• A couple from the church will travel in August to the Congo to work with a pastor who visited their church last fall

Reformed Church of Syracuse

• Afterschool tutoring program for refugee youth             
• 1-1 ESOL with refugee adults
• Deacon’s pantry: food for two days, with special supplies for infants
• Shopfer Fund: low interest: crisis loans
• Way Below Market: housing for refugees (4 units)
• Holiday collections for AIDS Community Resources
• Meals-transportation for families in crisis (not just families in congregation)
• Intensive assistance for neighborhood family with gaining/moving to and furnishing adequate housing
• Fowler Day Camp
• Building open to AA, local house school, L’Arche Community

Sprakers Reformed Church

• Second Saturday- a monthly community dinner – includes devotional, stories, activities/games.  Leftovers sent home with attendees.
• Local mission support- giving gas cards, grocery cards to those in need, i.e. cancer patients, elderly, fire victims and other hardship conditions

• Support for Waves of Mercy Mission in Haiti
• Rummage Sales in spring and fall by Ladies Aid
• Monthly collection to support our own mission fund and other local mission activities (Comfort Zone, Manna House, Fulmont Outreach)

• Food collection box – taken to local food pantry when full
• One individual makes lap robes for nursing home residents from material remnants

• Another individual faithfully sends cards and visits the sick and shut ins

Schoharie Classis:

Berne Reformed Church

• Deliver Christmas and Easter baskets to local shut-ins
• Participate with the Hilltowns Community Resource Center’s Christmas Program (adopting families or individuals)
• Support of the local food pantry (at Knox Reformed Church)
• Recycling good, used clothing as a collection site for distribution
• Provide scholarships for children attending Fowler and other church camps

• Host American Red Cross Blood Drive twice yearly
• Recycle Devotional materials with Eagles Nest Ministries (in Illinois)
• Provide lunch/ refreshments following funerals
• Provide meeting space for local community groups (boy scouts, girl scouts, yoga class, Hilltown Players, etc) without charge

Contact Person: Rev. Robert Hoffman (518) 872-1553 hoffmanclerk@aol.com

Calvary, Hagaman:

• Monthly Not Eating Alone Tonight dinner
• Open Chapel daily for Liberty Enterprise to meet for lunch (Liberty Enterprise is a facility with persons in need).

• Each Tuesday visit River Ridge Living Center for Bible Study and visit with the residents. Provide Communion to residents twice a month.

• Mission project to send packages to those in the military

Contact Person: Shirley Buchanan (518) 842-0653

Howe Cave:

• Support Operation Christmas Child
• Operation Christmas Elderly (provides shoe boxes to Schoharie County Elderly)
• 2011 Operation Christmas Teen (providing for Schoharie County teens through association with Schoharie County Community Action program)

• Support Wycliffe Bible Translator
• Christmas in July – funds collected throughout the year go to support local families in need in July

• Food Boxes at Thanksgiving (also with Schoharie County Community Action program)
• Financial support of sister congregation in North Blenheim
• Support of local food pantry – located at Schoharie Presbyterian Church
• Visits to Sharon Springs Nursing Home – bring flowers for all the resident
• Christmas Caroling throughout the community
• September Pig Roast for the community (Admission is a dish to pass)
• Provide a “Spiritual Minute” on the local radio station (60 seconds of time purchased and aired throughout the day)
• Donate clothes, toys, educational items for Schoharie County Community Action Program children at Christmas

Middleburgh

• Area distribution site for Operation Christmas Child
• Houses local food pantry
• Provide scholarships for children attending summer church camps

Contact Person: Mary Lou Ryan (518) 827-4093 rryan@midtel.netRemove

Rochester Classis:

Lakeview Community Church

Monthly - recurring basis:

Mission Share Outreach Center - missionshareoutreach.org

Faye Cole, Lakeview Mission Share Representative

 Mission Share was started in the winter of 1993 with a Christmas outreach that provided a sit-down dinner and gifts for several families who were in need of assistance.  The Bible verse, “But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” (Hebrews 13:16), was adopted as the Mission Share theme verse. 

From there, Mission Share expanded its outreach efforts by providing food on an ongoing basis, thus, the Food Pantry began.  In the Fall of 1994, Mission Share Thanksgiving was implemented, providing baskets filled with all the trimmings for a delicious Thanksgiving dinner.  Soon the Clothing Closet started, then the Christmas outreach providing presents for children of incarcerated parents.  In August 2005, the Back-To-School outreach, providing 500 children with backpacks filled with school supplies, was offered through Mission Share. 

Greece Ecumenical Food Shelf

Debbie Gill and Joan Marvin, Lakeview Community Church organizers

Our donations and involvement include providing food items gathered in our church over a month and delivered to the food shelf to meet the needs of the community. Lakeview also provides volunteers to assist with defining and validating the needs of those served.  Here is a brief overview of this mission:

The Greece Ecumenical Food Shelf was created by eight Greece churches. The group started to take food donations and calls for food would come in from around the community. In May 1978, the growing organization was named the Greece Emergency Foodshelf and helped 41 households during a period of six months.

The name changed to Greece Ecumenical Food Shelf in 1980. As the organization grew, the need for storage space grew. After moving around to local churches, the shelf settled on the Human Services Building at 500 Maiden Lane in 1991 and has been there ever since.

Serves residents of Greece and Charlotte in case of crisis or emergency. When a resident calls to get food, a food shelf member verifies they are in need. The food shelf will give out food when the resident is in dire need, such as if they are unemployed and haven’t yet received their unemployment check. They deliver to residents who need it, including senior citizens and those with disabilities.

Those in need are provided with a week’s worth of food, including $5 to $25 per person for fresh food such as bread and eggs. They also provide baby products and work with the Greece Ecumenical Clothing Closet, which distributes clothes to the needy.

Deacons Yearly Mission Support

Lakeview invites local groups once a month to come in and talk about their “Mission” and needs of the community and the needs of the organization trying to meet those needs.  The congregation becomes aware of the needs that our surrounding community has and provides financial support through a special offering taken up later in that same service.  For 2011 the following have been at Lakeview to talk about their programs and needs:

Boy and Girl Scouts of America

Cameron Family Ministries – Urban needs based ministry in Rochester NY

Volunteers of America (VOA)

Journey Home – local Hospice care program and provider

Agape Counseling - Agape’s mission is to provide excellent professional counseling that integrates Biblical truth with proven methods of psychological healing in order that individuals find spiritual, emotional, and psychological wholeness.

Alternatives for Battered Women

Open Door Mission - The Open Door Mission, Inc. of Rochester, New York is a not-for-profit ministry, founded in prayer, to meet the spiritual and physical needs of the last, the least, and the lost of our community prompted through the love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and is supported by the continuing prayer and contributions of others.

Salvation Army Rochester

Deacons Love Fund – Members of the congregation, relatives or friends having a severe financial need are provided typically onetime gift of money to help them pay necessary bills such as gas & electric, medication, and similar needs. Amounts and names are held confidential.

Church World Service – Blankets+ program. Our Lakeview Ladies Group coordinates the fund raising efforts for this cause.

Contact: Lakeview Community Church- 585-227-4910