{"id":31866,"date":"2022-09-10T15:47:06","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/5-ways-to-mobilize-your-church-for-congregational-care\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T15:47:06","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:47:06","slug":"5-ways-to-mobilize-your-church-for-congregational-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/5-ways-to-mobilize-your-church-for-congregational-care\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Ways to Mobilize Your Church for Congregational Care"},"content":{"rendered":"
Photo by Josh Appel on Unsplash <\/p>\n

By Elaine Atchison<\/em><\/p>\n

Serving on the ministry team of the church where I\u2019ve been a member for 26 years has broadened my perspective about the importance of every one of us functioning rightly to serve and strengthen the church family.<\/p>\n

Tim Keller put it like this, \u201cThe only workable dynamic for every-member ministry is Mark 10:45. Because Jesus served you in such a radical way, you have a joyful need <\/em>to serve. It\u2019s a form of praise that doesn\u2019t fully enjoy what it admires until it expresses itself in service.\u201d 1<\/p>\n

Every church has a culture that goes with its size, and its ministry strategies will change with growth. A new church plant or an urban store-front church or a rural congregation can operate essentially as a close-knit small group in which everyone knows everyone else intimately.<\/p>\n

Communication happens by word of mouth, and information moves quickly through the whole membership. As a church grows larger, deep face-to-face relationships can become impossible to maintain, but there is still the expectation that every member can know every other member. 2<\/p>\n

A medium-sized church must begin to put more emphasis on small group ministry, inviting supported and supervised church members to help shepherd others. Caring for each other is still initiated \u201corganically\u201d with little need for direction from the pastor or staff.<\/p>\n

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Historically, age-graded Sunday School classes have been a natural context for member care. Our congregation did not have a permanent address for 13 years, so we formed community groups that met in homes across the city. Those weekly, intergenerational gatherings helped foster the ideal of neighborliness that becomes more challenging for large churches.<\/p>\n

Thirteen more years have passed since our church was finally situated at a busy intersection straddling two counties. Today, we are considered a large church and a few long-time members occasionally express their discomfort over our continuing growth, complaining that the church has become \u201ctoo big\u201d or \u201cimpersonal.\u201d<\/p>\n

We gently remind them that more than ever, all of us<\/em> are needed to fully participate and serve in congregational life and care.<\/p>\n

1. Convey the guiding value of \u201cevery-member\u201d ministry.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Bible calls every member of the body of Christ to service (Galatians 5:13-14). Our New member class is used to help cast a vision for ministry from the pew <\/em>rather than ministry of the few. The membership process includes a \u201cministry interest checklist\u201d to help potential members begin to think about future service.<\/p>\n

One question that helps us connect members with each other is, \u201cDo you have a unique life experience that might enable you to come alongside a person experiencing something similar?\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Urge every person to engage in a small group.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Community Groups are still a trademark of our congregation, which means new host homes and leaders are always on our prayer list. We continue to observe the sense of belonging and fidelity cultivated by regularly meeting for table fellowship, spiritual discussion and prayer.<\/p>\n

We encourage each small group to enlist a point person to help coordinate practical care for the group and communicate pastoral care needs to church leaders. Those supporting the leadership in this way will need training to help to develop best practices for ministering appropriately and powerfully.<\/p>\n

3. Identify member \u201czones.\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Not everyone will be able to participate in a home fellowship or ongoing Bible study.<\/p>\n

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Recently, a long-time member shattered her knee and after surgery couldn\u2019t bear weight on it. We sent out a \u201cdear 37220 zip code\u201d email, mobilizing members who were her physically near neighbors to help support the family members caring for her around the clock. People she had never met happily rose to the task and through a tough season, new relationships were forged.<\/p>\n

With no direction from the staff, another community group organized visits, meals and transportation for a group member who suffered a stroke. Since this was a long-term endeavor, they asked for help enlisting others to pitch in from an \u201cat large\u201d congregational care list.<\/p>\n

4. Develop servant teams.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The ministry of the elders provides oversight for the spiritual and directional health of our church. Several years ago, they identified the need to hire a full-time staff member to help the church family care for the church family.<\/em><\/p>\n

Currently, we use the model of servant teams to do the work of the deacon. Deacon (diakonos<\/em>) simply means \u201cservant.\u201d Acts 6:1-7 describes how deacons are called to a ministry of practical service that complements the ministry of the Word.<\/p>\n

Servant teams carry out both short-term and ongoing needs like hospitality, finances, caring for the sick, missions, Sunday morning teams and building design. Servant team leaders are called and spiritually gifted welcomers, encouragers, helpers and intercessors who are chosen and equipped according to the changing and growing needs of the church.<\/p>\n

5. Answer a key question.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Every now and then, a well-meaning person will call the office to assert that the church<\/em> needs to help \u201cso-and-so.\u201d Who is the church<\/em>? God calls us into the family of His people, and we have the privilege and obligation to love and serve them.<\/p>\n

And we need them to do the same for us. There\u2019s no shortage of opportunity\u2014in fact, if our eyes are open to see it, there are people all around us who want and need our encouragement and help to know Christ and live for him.<\/p>\n

When we look more closely, we\u2019ll see our church for what it is: a place where God is still present in the midst of us, leading us to love and encourage each other through His Word.3<\/p>\n

ELAINE ATCHISON<\/strong> is the congregational care director at Grace Community Church in Brentwood, Tennessee.<\/em><\/p>\n

1 <\/strong>[\u201cDiscerning and Exercising Spiritual Gifts\u201d, Copyright \u00a9 2007 by Timothy Keller, \u00a9 2011 by Redeemer City to City. This article is adapted from a leadership training session at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in 2007. Redeemercitytocity.com]<\/em><\/strong> 2 <\/strong>[\u201cLeadership and Church Size Dynamics: How Strategy Changes with Growth\u201d <\/strong>Copyright \u00a9 2006 by Timothy Keller, \u00a9 2010 by Redeemer City to City. <\/em><\/strong>This article first appeared in <\/em>The Movement Newsletter and was reprinted in the Spring 2008 edition of <\/em>Cutting Edge magazine, Vineyard USA. <\/em><\/strong>We encourage you to use and share this material freely\u2014but please don\u2019t charge money for it, change the wording, or remove the copyright information.<\/em>] 3 How to Walk into Church<\/strong>. <\/strong>Tony Payne, Matthias Media, 2015 <\/p>\n

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Photo by Josh Appel on Unsplash By Elaine Atchison Serving on the ministry team of the church where I\u2019ve been a member for 26 years has broadened my perspective about the importance of every one of us functioning rightly to serve and strengthen the church family. Tim Keller put it like this, \u201cThe only workable … Continue reading “5 Ways to Mobilize Your Church for Congregational Care”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31866\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}