Healthy Congregations Covenant Program
About the program | Participate | Covenant Connection | Events
What is the Healthy Congregations Covenant program?
The Healthy Congregations Covenant program is designed to provide training, funding, and technical support to help Kansas United Methodist churches develop and grow effective, high quality health ministry programs.
Two participation options fit churches at differing stages of health ministry development and commitment. Both options start with a Covenant agreement between the Health Fund and your church. In order to qualify for cash payments, a church must have a signed Covenant form on file with the Health Fund. See the "participate" section for details and to get started.
Program benefits
Participation in the Covenant program makes the following benefits available to your church and its health ministry program:
- Cash awards of $100 or $1000 to support your health ministry program; allocation of these funds is left to the discretion of the church/health ministry team
- Free, convenient access to resources including:
- professionally developed health ministry-related training courses
- professionally developed communications and advertising materials for your program
- the shared wisdom and knowledge of your peers in Kansas UM health ministry
- Technical assistance and advice from our experienced program administrator Judy Johnston and her staff at the Kansas University School of Medicine-Wichita.
Covenant of Participation - Level One
For churches just starting their health ministry programs or not yet ready to make the greater commitment of the Level Two Covenant, Level One participation provides $100 annually with completion of a simple report.
Getting started:
- Identify a "Health Ministry Coordinator" to serve as the point of contact for the program
- Sign and mail a Level One Covenant agreement to the Health Fund to join the program
Level One ongoing requirements:
- Annually - complete a Covenant Report by March 1 to receive a $100 cash award
Covenant of Action - Level Two
Level Two participation involves training of a health ministry team and development of an annual health ministry work plan. Each church that commits to completing the seven capacity-building core training courses, submitting an annual work plan, and submitting an annual activity report will be awarded a $1000 "signing bonus" to defray travel costs for training, provide program support, etc.
Once a Level Two team has achieved "certified" status by completing the core courses within 24 months, the church qualifies for $1000 cash support each subsequent year by submitting a health ministry work plan and activity report by the annual March 1 deadline.
Getting started:
- Identify a "Health Ministry Coordinator" who will lead a health ministry team of at least three congregation members (not including the pastor) and serve as the point of contact.
- Sign and mail a Level Two Covenant agreement to the Health Fund to join the program
Level Two requirements while "in training":
- HM Team of at least three must complete all seven core training courses within 24 months.
- Optional: complete a Covenant Report by March 1 to receive a $100 cash award
- Optional: participate in elective training courses or other continuing education
Level Two requirements once "certified" status achieved:
- Annually - submit a Covenant Plan (current year) and Covenant Report (trailing year) by March 1 to receive a $1000 cash award.
- Optional (encouraged): participate in elective training courses or other continuing education
Is my church already participating?
A list of churches participating in the program is available here. If your church isn't listed, we hope you'll consider signing up!
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 Covenant Reports (Level One, or Level Two Training) and Covenant Plans (Level Two Certified only) to be eligible for cash awards.
How do we get started? First, decide whether to participate at Level One or Level Two. Then, complete and mail a Covenant agreement to the Health Fund to sign up.
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 at Level Two. How does that work? Generally, parishes will be treated as a single entity for purposes of the ability to make a Level Two Covenant election. However, if separate churches in the parish are able to form distinct health ministry teams, they will be eligible to individually participate at Level Two upon approval. For Level 1 participation, churches are always treated individually.
In the rare event that a parish has elected to collectively participate at Level Two and one or more churches in that parish wish to participate at Level One, individual church Level One Covenants 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 Level Two Covenant and eligible for the "signing bonus" will receive a check about a month after we receive the completed agreement. Churches signing a Level One Covenant and "Certified" Level Two churches 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 Covenant Report and or Covenant 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.
If your church is not yet participating and you have questions about the program, please contact Matt Kuzma for assistance. If your church has already signed up, please contact the program administrator, Judy Johnston, for more information at jjohnsto@kumc.edu or 316-293-1832.