About Healthy Congregations: Local churches play a major role in shaping each community's culture, values, and sense of place. Healthy Congregations engages Great Plains United Methodist churches in projects to improve spiritual, physical, social and emotional health in their congregations and communities. The Health Fund also hosts a free, annual retreat for Healthy Congregations members to learn about current issues and connect with others who share a passion for congregational and community health.
What is Healthy Congregations?
The Healthy Congregations program provides training, resources, and financial support to Great Plains United Methodist churches committed to improving congregational and community health.
More Information
Join Healthy Congregations
Interested in joining a network of United Methodist Congregations who are making a difference in the health of their community? We’re here to help you get started!
Program benefits:
• $500 initial discovery and planning grant
• $100 bonus grant per member who completes orientation
• $1,500 annually renewable grant (increased from $1,000)
• Immediate access to additional HC special program opportunities
• Our friendly, knowledgeable staff is at your service to answer questions, offer consultation and advice, and help you every step of the way.
Program requirements:
• Grantee must be a Great Plains Conference United Methodist church
• Minimum team size is a lay member of the UMC and one additional active UMC member. For success and program continuity, additional UMC members and community-based members are encouraged to join the team.
• Teams are expected to commit to good-faith, active program participation and timely completion of program requirements.
Commonly asked questions:
Check out some of our commonly asked questions about the Healthy Congregations program here. We encourage you to contact us with any additional questions!
Ready to sign up? Get started here:
APPLY HERE
Member Resources
Are you a current Healthy Congregations member? Check out our toolkit, where you can find resources to help promote your program and participation in special programming opportunities!
Healthy Congregations Certification Training
A minimum of two people must complete the Healthy Congregations program training — a designated program leader and one other UMC team member. The two core members must be laypersons, but pastors are welcome to serve as additional team members. This helps ensure continuity for the program in the event a pastor relocates to another church.
Training is provided by Health Fund staff during live, virtual sessions, which you can schedule at a time that works best for your team. We encourage team members to train together when possible; the training is about two hours. Most teams, upon completion of training, will end up with their program plan developed and ready to go.
Additionally, we offer at least one in-person training opportunity each year.
Training credit never expires, but team members are welcome to repeat training if desired (e.g. along with new members, etc.)
To get started, go to the Healthy Congregations training platform at https://healthfund.org/hctrain.
