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Looking to establish a “Care Network” in your small church? Here are three steps to a purposeful program of compassion and consistent caring.
When People Fall Through The Cracks
Have you ever had someone from your church just seem to fall through “the cracks”? Maybe they miss a couple of Sundays, then they don’t come to Bible study, or their kids aren’t at youth group for a few weeks. A couple of Sundays turn into a couple of months, and then they’re just gone! No one is sure why, but shouldn’t we have noticed? If we had, we could have made an effort to let them know they were missed, or to ask if there was a problem that we could help with.
Perhaps you have been on the other end of the situation, and you were the one who stopped coming to church and no one seemed to notice. There were no phone calls asking how you were, no texts to say hello, no notes in the mail saying you were missed, and no one dropped by to check on you. Our small churches are supposed to be extensions of God’s family, but sometimes we get so busy “doing” that we miss the opportunity to care for people who might need us.
Work Schedules, Sports, Pandemics … What’s Next?
It can seem like a difficult task to care for all the people coming and going in our churches, even small churches. Work schedules, children’s sporting events, family gatherings, and illness all contribute to people missing a Sunday service here or there. The pandemic has also contributed to that situation. We have some people needing to quarantine, some with compromised immune systems, and some people simply choosing to worship online rather than returning to church in person.
But instead of driving ourselves into a place of shame because we can’t keep up, here’s a simple plan to care for people well and …
- prevent people from falling through the cracks
- be diligent about “seeing” everyone and identifying their needs
- help individuals know they are important to your small church family
3 Steps To Establish A Care Network
These three steps can help you establish a Care Network within your church, a purposeful program of compassion and consistent caring. A network to keep people from falling through the cracks.
1. Create A Team & Create Awareness
Sit down with your pastor and elders/leaders and find out what resources you already have in place for this area. Do your elders have a regular schedule of care or visitation of the people in your church?
Are there established policies about member care, and if so, what are they? If there are no policies, then this would be a great time to create them.
Make your leadership aware of the concerns and discuss why a deliberate Care Network is important. Share the stories you’ve heard.
Create A Care Notebook & Policy
Identify the needs of your church, i.e., member care, illness-hospitalizations, surgeries, death of a family member, after-funeral gatherings, providing meals, encouragement, celebrations, and life changes.
Once you have identified the needs, take the time to make some basic policies as to what your response to those needs will be –– flowers sent for funerals of immediate family members, baby showers for the first child, house calls for those missing church for 2 months, etc.
Break the needs into different categories and appoint a team/person to be in charge of the response for that particular category so that all the work doesn’t end up always falling on the Pastor or one particular person.
Care Team Categories
- Visitation For Encouragement
- Celebrations/Condolences
- Meal Trains
- Member Care/Cards-Calls
- Illness/Surgery/Hospitalization
Create The Team
Work with your pastor to help identify some people who may be gifted in the various areas of encouragement, hospitality, and caring –– people that would excel on this team and be blessed to be asked to serve. Spread the word about your teams in your church. Talk to people, recruit volunteers, and get people excited to start caring for others!
Let each of you look not only to his own interests,
but also to the interests of others.
Philippians 2:4
2. Cultivate An Atmosphere Of Caring
The best way for churches to have an excellent Care Network is to cultivate an atmosphere or attitude of caring. Your small church members will understand how a true caring network flows if they see it being demonstrated daily by the leadership in your church!
Jesus did it for us to see so we could follow in His footsteps.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another:
just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.
John 13:34-35
So what did Jesus do? He was intentional, He took time to listen, He took the time to look at the unseen and to love all those around Him. Your small church family will learn from that example.
Do things just for the sake of showing love! Make a big deal about the small stuff too! Celebrate job promotions, school achievements, milestones, etc. This could be a simple note, a phone call to congratulate, or a little gift. The effort that you take to show others that you care will help to cultivate that atmosphere of caring. Soon you will notice others joining in and reaching out in love. They now understand how great it feels to be on the receiving end of that care!
Cultivate Your Care Captain
So how do we know who is in need? That’s where a great Care Captain comes in. The Care Captain should be someone who works with the pastor & elders to be trained in what the goals are. They should have a written job description so that they know exactly what is expected of them.
The Care Captain will be in charge of making sure that all of the needs are being listed and can be shared with others (with permission of course).
Who should you ask to be your Care Captain? This person is, well, you know the one, that person who loves to organize things. The person who can whip up a spreadsheet or a master list can multitask. They can track information efficiently, and contact people with a smile!
The Care Captain will be the point person that people and even the Pastor can contact when they hear of a need in the church family, they have a need, and they want to volunteer to be part of a caring team.
Your Care Captain will keep a record of all the ongoing needs and projects and document the response to those needs. They will also keep a list of all the volunteers who have participated. This gives you some accountability and also quick access to records at the end of the year.
3. Celebrate And Make It Fun
When there is a project that requires a team effort, (yard work to be done for a shut-in, etc.) make it a fun event. Bring drinks and snacks, put on some worship music, and work side by side with smiles and joy! This atmosphere will make the work go quicker and make those involved want to do it again. Allow them to give testimonies about why they enjoyed working on this project. You will see others wanting to volunteer the next time a project arises. Joy is contagious!
Appreciate Your Care Team
It is very important to thank your caring team members and volunteers for their work. We know that volunteers who feel appreciated are more likely to volunteer again. I am not saying that this is the reason they volunteer. We volunteer to care for one another because we are being obedient to what Christ asked us to do and we desire to show the love of Jesus to others but hearing that someone appreciates your efforts is always nice.
Acknowledge from the pulpit, send a snail mail card, email, or a call to just say thanks!
Post A Completion Board
Celebrate a completed project or happy occasion! Make a bulletin board displayed with pictures from projects or people working together with titles and dates. Put a big “Thank you for giving to the Lord” sign on the top of the board. You can also post any thank you notes that have been received.
At the bottom of the board, have a list of upcoming needs/projects from your Care Captain and have a place where they can sign up to volunteer.
You could also do a display with a picture introducing your church family to your Care Captain. Have an explanation of their job and list their contact info so people will know who to go to when they hear of needs or when they want to volunteer to help.
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap,
if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone,
and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
Galatians 6:9-10
To create an intentional Caring Network within your small church, you need to create, cultivate, and celebrate! Most of all, you need to follow Jesus’ example of taking the time to care, love, and connect heart to heart. That’s what a small church family should be all about.
Don’t let anyone fall through the cracks again!!
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