Why you should become a Global Faith in Action member?
Vision To encourage congregations, organizations and individuals of differing religious ideologies and faith practices to build relationships that focus on commonly held beliefs that are transformative and life-changing.
Who Are We Global Faith In Action (GFIA) is a Dialogue in Action organization. We contend that a healthy dialogue is a bridge to the transformation of families, communities and our world. Our past experience has taught us that dialogue builds relationships, and relationships create understanding, and understanding promotes peace.
Become a Member Recently GFIA, a non-profit inter-religious organization, came to the realization that the Greater Wichita area needed an active interfaith membership organization. It is our observation that there is no stronger community witness than an active, dialogue-centered interfaith membership organization. Our primary goal is to facilitate community dialogues that become a bridge to the transformation of our city, country and world. Also, we encourage members to participate in our 27 year Haiti project – the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.
Membership Expectations 1. Each member congregation/organization selects two delegates who will attend Membership Planning Meetings. 2. Share ideas that strengthens relationships between the congregations and our community. 3. Promote GFIA events and outreach projects that create a more just and compassionate society. 4. Make a minimum of one contribution a year to GFIA. The contribution could be a special offering, or put in your annual budget, or design/organize a fundraising project. Specific amount is up to the congregation.
What Does a Member Receive from GFIA? 1. We can provide dialogue moderators, if you want to sponsor a dialogue event. 2. We can help connect you with persons of diverse religious traditions who will share their faith in a manner that respects the traditions of your congregation. 3. We can help your congregation schedule a Pulpit Exchange between a religious leader of a different tradition. 4. We have social media and web pages that can help members advertise their events. 5. We will offer community events that will help you relate/identify to diverse community groups. 6. If you are looking for a global outreach project, GFIA has a well-organized outreach project in Haiti. Opportunities include: a. sponsor a student or students. b. help fund a special project
Letter From the Board
It is our hope that you would agree to present to your congregation our invitation that they become a Global Faith In Action Charter Member. It is our thought that if we can name ten to twenty “charter member” congregations of diverse faith traditions it will be much easier to encourage 50 to 100 religious organizations to join – 50 is our present goal.
Global Faith In Action’s primary goal is to facilitate community dialogues that become a bridge to the transformation of our city, country and world. GFIA’s hard working diverse board of directors is proud of what we have accomplished over the past years, but our impact is far too small. We need a group of congregations/religious leaders that can help us transform the community and world we live in. GFIA is primarily a volunteer organization, and we expect that to continue. We will continue to depend upon volunteers to help promote, serve on committees, and help facilitate dialogue projects. However, we also recognize the need to hire an Executive Director. Our present founder and volunteer president,
Sam Muyskens, will continue to help, but in January 2, 2021, he turned 80 and wishes to turn the organizational responsibilities to a paid Executive Director. He will continue to help during the transition, and give of his time to introduce our present contributors to the new Executive Director as well as introducing new fundraising possibilities. It is our hope that you will say “yes” to our invitation and provide the opportunity for your congregation to become a Charter Member.