Meeting the Needs of the Body, Mind & Spirit
Family Shield Ministries received the following e-mail through the website in March of 2003.
“My wife and I live in
a motel in
Family Shield receives over 5,000 calls, letters, and
e-mails each year from individuals with a wide-range of needs. Some are
physical or mental needs, and others are spiritual. It took fervent prayer,
almost a month, many telephone calls, letters, and e-mails, but we were finally
able to partner with Lutheran Church Charities in the
It’s a fact! The Body of Christ must sometimes offer help
with physical needs before it can effectively share the Gospel. It is often
during times of crisis that individuals cry out to the Lord for help. God uses
times of crisis to draw us closer to Him!
Congregations and Christian non-profit ministries must
meet the needs of the body, mind, and spirit! Jesus didn’t just tell people
about God’s love and forgiveness. He also met physical needs! Jesus and His
disciples fed the hungry! Jesus also healed the sick, the blind, and the
crippled. And He told those He assisted about the
Today many congregations divide various aspects of
ministry between different boards or committees. They may include: the Board of
Evangelism, the Board of Education, the Board of Human Care, The Board of
Elders, and The Board of Social Ministry. This separation of duties is logical,
but can cause us to forget that we must work together.
Let me share two examples of how my congregation worked
together to meet the needs of families within their community. I was chairman
of the Board of Evangelism. As chairman, one of my responsibilities was to
attend a monthly council meeting. It was there that I learned the Board of
Social Ministry was offering financial assistance to families and individuals
who lived in our community. Sometimes they helped people in the community who
were unemployed with financial support to help pay their rent or utilities. At
other times they delivered food and other needed supplies. I asked if these
families were invited to our worship services. I was told, “No.” We recognized
that some of these families that were helped had no relationship with Christ.
We began talking about how the two boards and their volunteers could work
cooperatively. I was told that those on the social board were people that felt
uncomfortable sharing their faith. They liked to show their faith through
actions!
I knew our outreach committee could help. I asked the
Board of Social Ministry to give the Board of Evangelism the names, addresses,
and telephone numbers of the individuals they assisted on a monthly basis. The
outreach committee, who were trained and equipped to share their faith, began
visiting the families who had been assisted through the Board of Social
Ministry. We decided brief doorstep visits would be the best approach. They rang the doorbell, and then explained
who they were and what church they were associated with. They extended an
invitation to visit the church and to send their children to Sunday school.
They gave them a brochure about the church and tracts that shared the Gospel.
Families were warm and friendly. Members were often invited inside to talk
further. God opened many doors for further discussion about the Christian
faith. Those we visited knew that our
congregation had assisted them when they needed help. They knew the members of
this congregation cared about them and their family.
Here is a second example of how we worked together. Our
church had a Christian school. I learned
that no one was responsible for contacting unchurched parents with children in
the school to invite them to the church and Bible
studies. The Board of Evangelism again requested the names, addresses, and
telephone numbers of families with children in the school who did not attend
our congregation. This time the committee decided that making a telephone call
first would work best. Again, the results were very positive. Many families
began attending the worship services and Bible
studies due to these calls and visits!
Please note that communication and cooperation is
critical! God does not expect us to do the work alone!
Are your church's various committees and boards
communicating effectively? Does one hand know what the other hand is doing in
ministry? How about your Christian non-profit ministry? Are you working
together? Why not consider how you can work together in sharing God’s love with
those in need!
"And Jesus was
going about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and
proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and
every kind of sickness. And seeing the multitudes, he felt compassion for them,
because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd. Then
He said to His disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His
harvest.'" (Matt. 9:35—38)
Kay Meyer is the
founder and president of Family Shield Ministries, Inc. and host of its weekly
radio program. The program is heard each Saturday on AM 850 KFUO at