Our
Stephen
Ministry
ChristCare
Small Groups
Breakthrough
Leadership
Grief
Resources
Courses
and More- Christian Caregiving--
a Way of Life - Caring Evangelism: How to Live and Share Christ's Love
- Discovering God's Vision for Your Life: You and Your
Spiritual Gifts - Spiritual Growth through
Spiritual Gifts - Leader Killers: How
to Identify and Deal
with Antagonists in
Your Organization - Antagonists in the Church: How to Identify and Deal with Destructive Conflict
- Caring for Inactive Members: How to Make God’s House a Home
- Christian Caregiving--
About
Us
Values-Driven Leadership: Discovering and Developing Your Core Values for Ministry
Price: $17.95
101 Ways to Reach Your Community
Price: $7.00
Angel of Prayer
Price: $10.95
Caring Evangelism Lapel Pin
Price: $5.95
Biblical Equipping:
God's Word in Your World
Price: $11.95
Sowing the Seeds,
Growing through Service
Spanish Fort United Methodist Church,
Spanish Fort, Alabama
The "Mission Possible" ChristCare Group serving breakfast to homeless people
In the wake of hurricanes Ivan and Katrina, Spanish Fort United Methodist Church in Spanish Fort, Alabama, a suburb of Mobile, has seen phenomenal growth--but not just because of the population shift away from the coast.
"Our church vision statement is 'deeply committed to Christ, his church, and our community,'" said ChristCare Equipper Karen McVay. "We really try to live up to that vision statement through our outreach."
Spanish Fort United Methodist Church, a Stephen Ministry congregation since 2002, enrolled in ChristCare Group Ministry in 2003. ChristCare has since helped this caring congregation make a real difference both in the church and in the community as members have reached out to help others--and draw people in.
Outreach in Times of Disaster
Equippers Karen McVay
and Pat Shubird
Spanish Fort UMC's ChristCare Groups have been a great vehicle to provide help in the aftermath of two severe hurricanes. "During the hurricane season, we've provided more hurricane relief than we ever thought we could," Karen said.
"Our group at least has always kept in contact--and the church can't do that with everybody. We've checked in before and after the hurricane to make sure we're all okay. We're there for each other.
"With Ivan, we helped out with our own members' homes, then with others. A bunch of us went to help clean up an area just north of us that was hit harder than we were. This one 82-year-old woman had countless trees down. We cleared her backyard. When we finished, she was in tears."
The following year Katrina caused even more destruction. "Right after Hurricane Katrina there was great need," Karen said. "Our church became a disaster relief center--something that we'd never dreamed of doing. We had this huge space we were imagining would be for a recreation center. Plans fell through. The hurricane came, and we were able to use this place as a loading area. Trucks would come unannounced in the middle of the night--one night, 12 trucks from Pennsylvania. We became a distribution center, and our ChristCare Groups worked to box the food to send off. The entire church worked together.
"In December we were still boxing up food to send to families. The call came out to ChristCare. One evening in December, our groups made 500-plus boxes of food for families, and our church was able to send those out so those families could have a holiday meal."
Spanish Fort UMC has learned a great deal about helping out after a disaster. "We've just learned what churches can do," Equipper Pat Shubird said. "We can get in there right away. We don't have to cut through the red tape. We can just be there."
A Strong Focus on Missional Service
While Spanish Fort UMC's ChristCare Groups have provided continuing help following Ivan and Katrina, disaster relief isn't the only missional outreach they offer. ChristCare Groups spearhead many of the congregation's efforts to reach out to people in the church and community.
"We send teams out of the country," Karen said. "We do a lot of missional service in our own neighborhood. We have a tutoring ministry. We have one group that helps with the uniform closet, sorting uniforms. We have one group that provides a program for young teenage mothers over the summer. The ChristCare Group collects things--disposable diapers, different baby items--to give as an incentive to these girls to come back the next day to class.
"We have people doing ministry that might not be doing ministry if they weren't involved in a ChristCare Group."
Joy in Serving as a Group
ChristCare Groups at Spanish Fort UMC give members a unique chance to share in a strong vision for service. "Collectively, we can do so much," Pat said. "We'll serve as a group in ways that an individual might find daunting. It's just something about a group dynamic--especially when it's your group, people you're intimately familiar with and have a deep abiding love for. Then it's so easy.
"Nearby is a big veterans' home. Individually, I doubt that any of us would just visit on a Saturday, handing out cookies or magazines to the veterans. But my group took that on as a mission.
Group Leader Scott Kearney and his group repair a home in Bayou LaBatre, Alabama
"My group also took over scheduling groups from our church to work at a Methodist mission in downtown Mobile that feeds homeless people," Pat said. "We schedule our church's involvement in that mission, and four times a year our group itself goes and serves there.
"When you're very focused on missional service, the group just thrives. They grow so much closer--they're willing to do whatever it takes. Missional service just builds a heart for that--it's creating servant leaders and servant hearts.
"Our ChristCare Groups are making such an impact that every time we have a mission committee meeting, we devote part of that meeting to going over what each ChristCare Group is doing because they are taking over quite a bit of what needs to be done," Pat said.
ChristCare: A Solid Structure to Build On
Rev. Dave Harle, an Equipper, repairing a home in Bayou LaBatre, Alabama
ChristCare has provided a great foundation for small group ministry in this congregation. "The actual ChristCare system is very well put together, very well thought out," Pat said. "Our church has tried small groups before. But if you have no structure and especially no support and accountability for the leader, either people lose interest or the group changes its focus and tends to become a social group. It's wonderful that every two or three weeks we get together in SEA Groups to lift each other up and hold each other accountable and share ideas. I never walk away from a SEA Group meeting that I didn't pick up some wonderful idea that some other group is doing."
Spanish Fort UMC's distribution center following Hurricane Katrina
ChristCare is also providing a great way to manage the dramatic growth that Spanish Fort UMC is experiencing. This fall, new members joining the church will be organized into small groups; they'll experience the Beginnings course together, along with other materials normally covered in a new members' class. The group can then choose to remain a group, or individual members can be placed into other groups.
"We're trying to make ChristCare Groups a part of the culture of the church," Pat said. "We still need to get some of the established members on board. But we're making headway--we do Mission Moments during the service, and on all our videos about church programs we have at least one person from a ChristCare Group talking about his or her experience in a small group. We have the Stephen Ministry and ChristCare Ministry banners on the stage. It's mentioned at every service; it's in the bulletin: 'We're a ChristCare congregation. We're a Stephen Ministry congregation.' You've just got to keep sowing the seeds, and it will work."