Starting or Expanding Care Ministry Programming

Starting or Expanding a Care Ministry Program at Your Church

Does your church have a vibrant care ministry?

If YES, do you have the people and processes in place to meet the increasing demand? Do you offer the support and resources people need and expect?
If NO, you might give prayerful consideration to establishing or formalizing a care ministry before the age wave is upon us.

Many churches want to do more to provide care and to support people in need. As you know, there is a lot that goes into creating and sustaining programs. This piece was written to share information with clergy and lay leaders to help you develop and implement pastoral care programs. The following are specific steps and
considerations you might want to address. We hope the recipe we share helps you achieve your desired results. Make sure to pray about this process and seek God’s guidance and support at every step along with way.

1. SUMMARIZE YOUR CURRENT ACTIVITIES – Start with an assessment of your current pastoral care programs. You might consider the following:

What kinds of pastoral care support/programs do you currently offer (e.g. passive/lower involvement or proactive/higher involvement)?
What has led your church to do the things you are currently doing?
Who is responsible for/supports each program (e.g. staff, volunteers)?
How much time and effort are involved? Is there a budget? Amount?
How many people are you serving?
What’s working well? What would you like to do better/differently?

People are often surprised by what they find when they take the time to collect and summarize information about their pastoral care activities.

2. FOCUS ON THE “WHAT”FIRST – Don’t let the “How” interfere with the “What.” Be careful not to put too much emphasis on “How” you might do it (e.g. time, people, budget, coordination). When organizations start with the “How” they often get caught up worrying about the details. Focus on the “What” first, and trust that the “How” will work out. In other words, don’t put the cart before the horse.

3. IDENTIFY COMMON ISSUES & NEEDS – There are certainly many issues and challenges the people within your congregation are facing. Often the issues can be categorized into groups (e.g. health concerns, divorce.) In every stage of life, people experience natural transitions. Did you know that as a result of our aging population, caregiving has fast become an expected life event, just like going to college, starting a career, getting married, having children, working and retiring? To identify common issues and needs, you might:

Identify the demographics of your congregation/community.
Cluster people into logical groups by age (since age is often indicative of life events.)
List the various concerns that you know of, possibly through prayer requests.
Categorize the issues. Is there a common theme? Have you noticed an increase in the number of people facing certain life issues?
Identify the top two or three life issues/concerns specific to each group.

4. SELECT SPECIFIC ISSUES – Pick a few specific issues that you believe are most important or that seem to be emerging concerns. If you are not sure where to focus your efforts, you might ask people about their needs and interests, both current and anticipated. Also, give consideration to how receptive people might be to sharing their concerns and accepting support.

A pastor recently shared what he referred to as a Shame Triangle. Lower shame issues at the bottom of the triangle might include a job situation or health concern. These are issues that many people are willing to share with their church. As you move up the triangle, fewer people tend to share their issues or seek support. Many people believe they should know what to do (e.g. parenting, caregiving) and might be embarrassed or feel conspicuous if they acknowledge the need for support. Other examples might be marital problems or financial difficulties. At this stage, people are often more open to learning opportunities such as attending a class or receiving information or a book where their participate may signify a desire to do better (e.g. be a better parent, spouse, or caregiver.) People tend not to involve the church with higher shame issues unless trust is already established or an issue is becoming debilitating. Higher shame issues might include infidelity, gender preference, or a potentially dangerous habit.

As you work to establish pastoral care programs, you’ll need to determine where to focus your resources. As you know, many people who look fine on the outside may be struggling on the inside. Consider if you want to focus on issues where there is likely to be broad appeal (lower shame), or if you are ready to help people tackle more personal and private issues (higher shame). You may find there are ways to support people without creating church-wide programs to address every concern.

5. DEVELOP A TEAM – Once you identify issues you want to support with pastoral care programs, you might develop a team of people to participate and support each program. Developing a team also enables you to gain perspectives which can help focus attention on doing the things that may matter most to people to whom you are reaching out. People who volunteer and/or become program leaders or facilitators tend to be those who have personal experience with a particular set of issues and want to help others be successful addressing their challenges. You might ask people who believe may have interest. Also, consider putting an announcement in your church bulletin offering people the opportunity to volunteer and support a specific pastoral care program.

6. DEFINE ELEMENTS OF THE (EACH) PROGRAM – Decide what you want to do, identify the specific things that need to happen to develop and implement the program. This step involves the What, Who, How, When, Where. Just as important as developing the program is determining how to let people know about the program, get involved, etc. I refer to this step as the “plan your work, work your plan” step. You might set specific meeting dates and target milestones to work towards. Doing so can help move the process of developing and implementing a program forward. Remember a program may be:

Awareness oriented (e.g. bulletin announcement, poster, e-mail, “take-one”)
A topical workshop or seminar series
A recurring event (e.g. support group) or class (e.g. Caring for Aging Parents)
A process of on-going support (e.g. a touch program where you maintain contact with people over time and encourage them as they work through their situation.)

Maybe you want to enhance something you’re already doing. If that’s the case, you might focus your effort on formalizing the program, offering training for people who support the program, increasing awareness of your program, establishing processes to support the program, etc.

7. IMPLEMENT THE PROGRAM – People are often unprepared and uninformed to deal with life events, whether expected or unexpected. They need support, guidance, comfort, prayer and more. If not you, then who? As you implement a program strive for excellence not perfection. Get it going, get people involved, track participation, ask people for feedback and suggestions, etc. Good intentions are nice, but… Until you get your program in place and implemented, few people, if any, can benefit.

8. ENHANCE THE PROGRAM – As you get a program going and gain experience and insight, know that you can make adjustments. If you find there to be significant need, you can enhance and expand your program over time. If you find there to be little to no response, you can always phase out or discontinue a program. You won’t know unless you try.