FIRST CHURCH MISSIONS
LOVING LANCASTER & LOVING THE WORLD.
First Church seeks to connect people to Jesus Christ and the church; Grow Christian disciples, & relieve suffering.
These mission partnerships and connections help First Church to fulfill that mission.
First Church has a vision to be a central hub of Christian ministry in Lancaster County & beyond.
ANCHOR LANCASTER
Anchor Lancaster is hosted by First Church. The breakfast program runs 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year. A free breakfast is served to an average of 150 per day. The low income, unsheltered and socially excluded population, as well as any and all who are hungry come to eat. Breakfast is served from 8:30-9:45 am each day with a regular menu of juice, milk, cereal, eggs, toast, a hot beverage and fruit. Each day a team of 12-16 volunteers come together to prepare breakfast.
A continual Anchor Lancaster fundraiser is the sale of 12 oz. coffee bags roasted by RedRoseCoffeeRoasters.com. 100% of the profits from the purchase of coffee goes to support the program. The coffee is always available at First United Methodist Church.
For more information, check out the website.
AARP TAX MINISTRY
MISSION
This is an FUMC signature mission that has been in continuous operation since tax year 2007. Our volunteers prepare tax returns for local people in Lancaster City and the surrounding area at no charge. This tax service is equipped to file electronically for Federal and State returns, and at the same time, prepare paper returns for the Lancaster County Tax Collection Bureau (LCTCB). We also provide either property tax rebate or rent rebate preparation for low income taxpayers who qualify. The wireless internet infrastructure at FUMC is critical to the success of this mission.
SCOPE
We serve low to middle income (undefined) taxpayers with special emphasis on retirees and the elderly. The scope of the returns we can prepare is defined by the IRS and is quite detailed. We rarely have persons who are out of scope and denied service. Every tax return is mandated to have a quality review by a Team Leader before being electronically filed. The average gross income (AGI) of our clients at FUMC was $19,770 which was slightly less than 2016 We secured more than $1,667,000 in refunds for 1443 clients who filed federal returns at the FUMC tax office.
Our FUMC site is an affiliate of the AARP Foundation and is the largest affiliated site in Eastern Pennsylvania in terms of the number of efiled returns. Our process is 100 percent computer and network based, and runs in a Windows 10 environment running the Taxslayer application and Internet Explorer. We electronically file 99 percent of our tax returns to the IRS.
Tax Ministry Annual Report 2016
Tax Ministry Annual Report 2015
Tax Ministry Annual Report 2014
VOLUNTEERS
Normal hours are 9 am to 2 pm, Monday to Friday.
Interested in becoming certified to join this ministry?
If so, call a member of our leadership team: Steve Franz (717-656-0353), or Ralph Beedle (717-464-6945)
