Healthy Congregations Covenant Program
About the program | Frequently-Asked Questions
About the Covenant program
Health and healing are central to our faith, our traditions, and our calling. The Healthy Congregations Covenant program provides training, funding, networking, and consulting support to help Kansas United Methodist churches build and grow effective, high quality health ministry programs.
You have the passion and energy for health ministry.
We have the proven tools and supporting resources to set you up for success.
Let's work together to make intentional ministries of health and wholeness blossom!
What we ask: |
What we provide: |
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1. Make the Commitment! (click here for the Covenant signup form)
The first step is making a commitment to achieving the program requirements:
- Build an active health ministry team of at least three people
- Complete the 7 "core" team training courses on organizing and implementing programs
- Develop an annual Healthy Congregations Plan for upcoming activities (what you'll do)
- Complete an annual Healthy Congregations Report on those activities (how you did)
When you sign up, we'll give you $1000 up front to get your program off to a great start.
With training completed, you'll receive an annual $1000 to support your program as long as you maintain at least three active, trained team members and complete the annual plan and report. You have up to 24 months to complete team training.
Any time your team has less than three fully-trained and active members (starting out, someone moves, etc.), you can still submit just a report and receive $100 for program support.
2. Build Your Team
The second step is building a health ministry team and completing the 7 "core" training courses - 15 hours in all. The courses provide valuable training that will help your church organize successful health ministry programs. The training courses are presented in a live online format.No travel is required, and you can train together as a team - you just need a telephone and an internet-connected computer.
3. Plan and Take Action
Once your team is trained, you'll be well-equipped to create an annual Healthy Congregations Plan outlining the activities you intend to organize in the year ahead. Your submitted plan (due by March 1 of the current year), will be reviewed by our program coordinator, Judy Johnston, KU School of Medicine-Wichita, who may follow up with questions or suggestions before approving your plan. She is also available with many resources if you have questions about how to organize particular activities or events.
4. Adjust and Update
Even the best plans are affected by unexpected outside factors. Your Healthy Congregations Plan should be a living document - keeping it up-to-date throughout the year as changes occur, new ideas arise, and even when things fall through - gives you an accurate record of the year's work and will make report preparation a breeze.
5. Reflect on Successes and Lessons
When the year has passed, and with it the activities in your plan, we ask you to reflect on your successes, on those things that could have gone better, and on what you would do differently next time around. Aside from helping you reflect, your Healthy Congregations Report tells us what you achieved with the help of the Covenant program, and your activities are shared with other participating churches so that they may draw inspiration and learn from your experiences.
Frequently-asked questions (FAQ)
When can my church sign up to participate? Are there deadlines I should be aware of? A church is welcome to sign up and begin participating at any time. March 1 is the annual deadline for submission of Healthy Congregations Reports and Health Ministry Plans to be eligible for cash funding.
How do we get started? Read and complete the Covenant agreement, then mail the signed form to our office. We'll issue your initial $1000 funding check in our next monthly payment cycle. If your church had previously been in the Covenant program but discontinued participation (team members moved away, etc.) please contact Jeff jgamber@healthfund.org / 800-369-7191 to discuss eligibility to re-start the program.
How do we complete the core training courses? Do we need to travel? The core training courses are offered periodically throughout the year in a live online format - all you need is a telephone and an internet-connected computer to participate. Your team can train together at the church, at someone's home, at a public library, etc. There is no charge for the training courses. We also offer in-person training once a year at the spring Healthy Congregations Annual Retreat.
Some of our church members attended training courses at the Annual Retreat, but we don't have a Covenant agreement yet. Will those training credits apply if we sign up? Yes! Training credits count toward a Covenant signed within one year of the training date. For churches in an active Covenant agreement, team training credits never expire.
My church is part of a parish and is interested in participating in the Covenant option. How does that work? Generally, parishes will be treated as a single entity for purposes of the ability to make a Covenant election. However, if separate churches in the parish are able to form distinct health ministry teams, they will be eligible to individually participate in the Covenant program upon approval. For Report Only participation, churches are always treated individually.
In the rare event that a parish has elected to collectively participate in the Covenant program and one or more churches in that parish wish to participate at the Report Only level, individual church participation will be allowed where the church's health ministry activities are distinct and different from those conducted collectively as a parish. We strongly recommend contacting Health Fund staff about this special arrangement for approval and instructions ahead of time.
When will we receive funding? Churches signing a Covenant agreement and eligible for the "signing bonus" will receive a check about a month after we receive the completed agreement. "Certified" Covenant churches, and churches participating at the Report Only level, will receive checks in early May of each year that the program requirements have been met by the annual March 1 deadline.
The website says I need a personal account to sign up for training or work on a Covenant Report or Plan. Why do I need my own account? In order to keep track of individual training credits, each person involved with Covenant program participation needs to have a personal Covenant account on healthfund.org. This doesn't mean every team member necessarily needs to have access to a computer, though. More details are available on the account login page.
What information is needed to complete the Healthy Congregations Report and or Healthy Congregations Plan forms? If you just want to see what kinds of questions are on the forms, you can view a Sample Report Form [Word | PDF] or Sample Planning Form [Word | PDF] to learn more. Please note that although representative, these downloadable forms are samples only. To submit an actual Report or Plan, be sure to use the official online forms.
What happens if our church signs up and then fails to complete the training or the other program requirements? What if our team leader moves away and no one else will pick up the mantle? Do we have to give the money back? Participation is on the honor system - we expect that churches entering into the Covenant agreement do so in good faith and with a full intent to meet all of the program requirements. However, we know that sometimes circumstances beyond reasonable control can cause a program to fall apart. The funding through this program is renewable on an annual basis, and is contingent on completion of the annual requirements. If those requirements are not met in a particular year, no funding will be issued. However, any remaining funds from previous participation remain with the church and do not need to be returned.
If a church falls out of good standing in the program and later wishes to resume participation, we will be happy to discuss and evaluate eligibility on a case-by-case basis.
If your church is not yet participating or you have questions about the program, please contact Health Fund staff Jeff Gamber jgamber@healthfund.org/800-369-7191 for assistance. If your church has already signed up and you have plan- or activity-related questions, please contact the program administrator, Judy Johnston, for more information at jjohnsto@kumc.edu or 316-293-1832.