When I was young, I prioritized caring for others over caring for myself. Indeed it took me years to even know what I needed. Congregations are sometimes the same.
Now is a good time to be sure that your members are getting the care that they need.
Care for Members 1 of 2
The story of sharing in the book of Acts is about church members sharing what they have with each other. It is not as much mission as it is sharing. The church will later become involved in providing for the wider community, but from the start they cared for the poor in their midst.
I know of a church that had an unknown person wander in, share his hardship tale, and the congregation came together to help him. They were cautious and slow, but spent time getting to know him, and then came through with help with housing, help with food, drove him to appointments, and more. It revived the place. It gave them a sense of purpose. It opened up discussions on what is the purpose of a church community.
They could have instead worked on institutional issues--in his case it was the justice system--and worked to fix that system to be more fair. I hope that there are churches that are doing that, and maybe this church will turn to that work. But they were tiny, worn out, lost in the journey of how to save their congregation. This person was a simple enough project, directly in front of them, and welcoming of their care.
A lot of people are going to need that immediate care in the coming weeks and months and years. Higher prices will hurt the poor especially hard. People who are transgender or are immigrants are at high risk. People who are Lesbian or Gay or Bisexual or Jewish or Muslim or have chronic illnesses or disabilities and more, are afraid. Retirees and government employees are in a panic. I encourage you to find one household, or one group of households, that are members of your church and figure out what they need.
Figure out everything they need. Do they need help with accessing material resources? Do they need additional counseling, or a lawyer? Gather money and buy them what they need. Maybe many people in your congregation can work on finding someone a new doctor, doing research on places they can move that are safer, creating a support group for your member and their friends.
This is not something you can do to a person in need. This requires working with. Start small. A few people who know the people-at-risk can gather with them and start the conversation. "Our church wants to provide you the supports you need. How are you doing and what kinds of things can we help with?" Unless your church has a history of providing in-depth support, they will not be able to imagine what you are willing to do. Perhaps you cannot imagine what you can do.
Start small, offering ideas for help: checking in-weekly, doing internet research for them, finding organizations that support their needs. Perhaps you can just help them turn off the news by promising to report what is going on in summary form. Perhaps they would like someone to talk to the school system about how they are being treated.
Ask for permission before including a larger group in the discussion.
Money does not solve everything, but it solves many things. Be direct in offering to pay for additional counseling or lawyers, or school lunches, or gasoline to get places. Obviously some people need more financial help than others, but even a middle class family could be overwhelmed by health care needs when the system seems so fragile. And moving, whether to another state or another country, is expensive.
It is possible that the people most in need may find themselves facing physical violence and/or significant poverty. The better we know them, the more practice being a support, the more likely that we will be the church that stands between hate and our neighbor.
Loving your neighbor as yourself may be a commandment that requires us to take significant risks. Get started now building the relationships that will make it easier to choose love over fear.
What is your church doing, to care for one another? Are you able to care for material needs, not only spiritual needs? Just reply to this email to let me know what's happening.
I am collecting your stories of care for immigrants for a later series, send me notes about that as well.
This (long) secular article is about standing up for what is right in the cloak of Americana. I feel similarly about the church. We can make the most change by being explicit that it is our Christian values that drive us to take these positions. Hold up the cross, the scriptures, the resurrection as our models why we must be a nation that cares for our neighbors, for strangers, that sets the oppressed free.
What does your church need? If it is repair, or strengthening, consider this article on how mending clothing and the church have similarities.
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