Below is the foundational mission scripture and listing of our various mission and outreach opportunities!  Come join the fun/service for our Lord!

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”– Galatians 5:13-14

• Angel Tree: In mid November a Christmas tree is put up in the Church with tags requesting gifts for children in the DYFS program in Somerset County, The Adoption Resource Center in Trenton, and the Refugee Resettlement Committee.
• Angel Tree: In mid November a Christmas tree is put up in the Church with tags requesting gifts for children in the DYFS program in Somerset County, The Adoption Resource Center in Trenton, and the Refugee Resettlement Committee.
• Armed Forces –Notes: Lydia Circle writes notes to members of the Armed Forces.
• Back Pack Collection: Our church members collect backpacks for the Martin Luther King Center.
• Baking for Others: Lydia Circle bakes and gives cookies to Agape House in Somerville and a home for displaced youths in Bridgewater.  They also make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the Food Bank.
• Blood Bank Collections: Each season of the year, our church hosts a Blood Drive, through which our members and community members donate blood to the blood bank.
• Bridges Work Day: This young adult group does various mission projects throughout the year including leaf raking for older members of the congregation and volunteering at food distribution sites.
• Children Fleece Throws: Our church collects fleece throws for children.
• Christmas Alternative Gift Fair: Each year in early December, our church hosts an alternative gift fair that provides an opportunity for our members to purchase gifts for the holidays that will help support local, national and international missions. In recent years, ministries supported have included Equal Exchange Fairly Traded products, Heifer Project International, Compassion International, Solar Ovens for Darfur Refugees, Ten Thousand Villages, The Nature Conservancy, and Habitat for Humanity.
• Cleaning Van Holten Road: The middle school youth and advisors clean up Van Holten Rd. twice per year.
• Compassion International: Through this loving, church-based child sponsorship program, congregants sponsor individual children in another part of the world, who receive food and clean water, medical care, educational opportunities and important life-skills training.  Sponsors correspond with these children, who are also encouraged to develop a lifelong relationship with God.
• Covenant Meals: These meals are prepared and served on Mondays in July and a few other dates during the year at the Covenant United Methodist Church in Plainfield. BUMC supplies the food and labor.
• CROP Walk: Pledges are taken to raise money by organized walkers to help stop hunger in the world.  We participate with Church World Service for the Crop Walk.
• Domestic Violence Awareness and Prevention Team coordinates information/training sessions at the request of BUMC groups with the Resource Center of Somerset (RCS); provides information on volunteer opportunities and community events sponsored by the RSC, and organizes ongoing activities to support the work of the RSC.
• Easter Baskets: United Methodist Women (UMW) collects individually wrapped snacks and candy, small games, personal care products, etc. to prepare about 80 nicely wrapped Easter baskets that are distributed through FISH.
• Eastern Star Home: Lydia Circle writes cards for this charity.
• Food Bank/FISH: Food is collected in the barrels and taken to the Somerset County Foodbank or given to FISH for emergency distribution.
• FISH Clothing Pantry: Gently used clothing for adults and children are collected in the “mission” closet and taken to the pantry for sorting the first Friday of the month. 
• Haiti Relief: BUMC donated materials for 100 health kits to send to Haiti last spring, and our youth packaged them. 
• Interfaith Hospitality Network: Through participation in this network of churches, BUMC provides a place to stay for homeless families.  We share our space and provide meals to a few families several times per year, a week at a time.
• Habitat for Humanity:  Through monetary support, volunteerism and community outreach, our church supports our local affiliate - Raritan Valley Habitat for Humanity - in its ecumenical Christian ministry to provide safe, decent, affordable housing to qualified, hard-working, low-income families in Somerset and Hunterdon counties.
• Mission Trips for Youth and Adults: Our church members go on Mission Trips. Recent weeklong trips have been to Mississippi and New Orleans with adult teams, to South Dakota, NYC, and Toronto with our high school youth, to Baltimore, Binghamton NY, and DC with our middle schoolers, and to Paterson NJ, DC and Youth 2011 with our college aged adults.
• Mission Special Offerings: Two Sundays of the month a special collection is taken to help various mission projects locally, nationally, and internationally.  
• Pasta Dinner: Alternate years United Methodist Women (UMW) sponsors a pasta dinner with a small silent auction to help fund their annual mission outreach efforts. UMW sends checks to various local and international mission groups in January.
• Prayer Shawl Ministry: There are 10-12 knitters who knit at home and at church on Tuesdays from 1-3:00.  We've given away 65+ shawls for healing, celebration and comfort. Each Shawl is prayed over, and a card accompanies the shawl with another prayer.
• Refugee Resettlement: Refuge families in danger of violence and oppression in their home countries who are admitted into the U.S. are "adopted" by our church regardless of origin or religion, and we provide them with friendship, support and the opportunity to resettle locally in a safe, nurturing community.
• Relay for Life American Cancer Event: This is the 7th year that our youth and advisors have participated and stayed overnight at a local Relay for Life American Cancer Society event – to raise awareness for cancer and help with fundraising.
• SHIP’s Galley: Supplies are purchased by BUMC and prepared as a lunch here at BUMC then served at St. James church in Somerville on the second Friday of each month through the SHIP program. This is a line item in the church budget.
• Souper Bowl of Caring: Each year in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, our church members donate soups and other foods. We place them on the table for the team we want to support in the Bowl game –just for fun! All of the food is donated to Food Bank and FISH.
• Special Donations: Our youth groups have collected about $1200 in donations for Maria Clark, to help her get a van, and they created a beautiful handmade heart quilt for her.
• Sunday School Missions Projects: The BUMC Sunday School children have a mission project each year. In Fall 2010 they collected pennies for Seeing Eye puppies.
• St. Mary’s Soup Kitchen: This is the 8th year that youth and adults have continued to volunteer to serve dinner on the 3rd Sunday of each month at St. Mary’s Soup Kitchen in Plainfield, NJ.
• Vacation Bible School: This one-week event each summer provides a major community outreach for families in the community. Also, they also include a mission project that varies from year to year.
• Battered Women’s Center: Holiday Boutique: This is the 7th year that our Confirmation class and mentors have helped children select/wrap gifts for their family at a Holiday boutique at their shelter.
• Youth Auction: Youth Group sponsors an auction just as the UMW Auction.  The money raised is donated to finance youth activities and mission trips..