Chapter One First Essential: Recruit and Equip Thank you, Creator God, for gifting your people with compassion and enthusiasm to care for one another. We would ask that you help us encourage one another in this journey, that surely we might offer the ministry of Christlike healing to all who yearn for greater peace, new strength, and grace beyond measure. All this we pray in Christ’s name. Amen. I (Melissa) remember it like it was yesterday. My husband, Bill, was the solo pastor at a small program-sized church in a town of five thousand. I hadn’t yet been commissioned as a deacon in The United Methodist Church, but I worked on staff as the discipleship coordinator. It was a busy week day in the office when we received a call at the church. One of our members was in the hospital in Kansas City, just forty-five minutes east of us. Bill hopped in the car and headed east. Fifteen minutes down the road, his cell phone rang. Another congregant was in the ICU; it was urgent. Except she was in the hospital in Lawrence, thirty minutes west of our little town. Did I mention Bill was headed east? It’s a dilemma in which no pastor wants to find themselves: who “gets” my care today? But that was the choice Bill had to make. That was the day we (Bill and I, along with two other gifted souls from our church whom I’ll tell more about later) registered for The Caring Congregation Seminar, hosted by Rev. Karen Lampe at United Methodist Church of the Resurrection. I hope your moment wasn’t as potent as ours, but I imagine something—an event, a dilemma, an honest mistake—led you to this resource. As the twenty-first-century American church stares down the realities of our country’s declining physical and mental health, financial crises, and the inevitable “death tsunami” predicted by Rev. Dr. Lovett Weems, it’s becoming crystal clear that a pastor-centric model of care just isn’t sustainable. We can’t do this alone—and we were never meant to! The Case for Laity Long before the advent of smartphones, social media, and twenty-four-hour accessibility, ministry leaders still had to take care of the flock. And somehow, they still had time to tend to their own spiritual growth, and take on hobbies like breeding dogs (Rev. John Russell), or writing entire books on health care (Rev. John Wesley). The Apostle Paul, arguably the most effective church planter in history, planted churches and then left! How in the world was that model sustainable, and why did it flourish the way that it did? All human beings have certain gifts, skills, and abilities—but not by accident. God gave us these gifts and has called each of us to use them to be a blessing to the world. Paul talks about the church working like a body in 1 Corinthians 12:12-18: Christ is just like the human body—a body is a unit and has many parts; and all the parts of the body are one body, even though there are many. We were all baptized by one Spirit into one body, whether Jew or Greek, or slave or free, and we all were given one Spirit to drink. Certainly the body isn’t one part but many. If the foot says, “I’m not part of the body because I’m not a hand,” does that mean it’s not part of the body? If the ear says, “I’m not part of the body because I’m not an eye,” does that mean it’s not part of the body? If the whole body were an eye, what would happen to the hearing? And if the whole body were an ear, what would happen to the sense of smell? But as it is, God has placed each one of the parts in the body just like he wanted. In my time serving on the Congregational Excellence team for the Great Plains Annual Conference, I’ve learned that the key ingredient for an excellent congregation is excellent laity—people who are convinced of their call to ministry in every vocation, utilizing their God-given gifts for the sake of making disciples of Jesus for the transformation of the world. Pastors, it’s time to get out of the way. Your people have been gifted by God—some of them to care for others—and when we take the reins for ourselves, we deny people opportunities to be who they were called to be. The First Class The drive from the Caring Congregation Seminar to our bedroom community was forty-five minutes. After two days of soaking up all we could at the seminar, you would think we’d have been exhausted. Not so! On the way home, our team—comprising my husband; Carissa, our youth group leader; Alice, a gifted layperson; and myself—spent the entire forty-five minutes brainstorming, tailoring, and beginning the first and most vital step to a successful Congregational Care Ministry: identifying that first class of CCMs. The Congregational Care Minister is the foundation of the ministry. Without ministers, the system collapses, which is why it is so vital, especially in the early stages, to choose the right people with the right dispositions to serve. The following section will help you identify qualities in an ideal care minister. The Ideal Care Minister The Congregational Care Ministry is modeled after Jesus, who healed the sick, cared for the poor, and had compassion on those who suffered physically, mentally, spiritually, and systemically. Upon reading the Gospels, we encounter the Wounded Healer willing to touch the untouchables, interact with those on the margins of society, and deliver people from all sorts of ailments with compassion, dignity, and empathy. This is the example we follow as disciples of Christ and as care ministers. Easier said than done, right? I know I don’t live up to that standard all the time, and the beauty of the good news is that there’s grace when we don’t emulate Jesus as well as we would like to. And the beauty of the Congregational Care Ministry model is that, while we strive to embody Jesus’s example, we also follow a long and historical tradition of caring for others in our midst. Care didn’t stop with Jesus. Before Jesus was arrested and crucified, he sat at a table with his closest companions. He got up, took his outer garments off, wrapped himself in a towel, and began washing the disciples’ feet. It was a shocking display of servanthood—one the disciples didn’t quite understand. Jesus explained his entire ministry in that subversive act: he was the leader of a movement threatening to topple the empire, yet he took on the work of a servant. The way of Jesus is servant leadership, and he calls us to the same. That same night, Jesus commanded the disciples to love one another. It seems obvious, but with a group like the disciples—full of zealots and tax collectors and Roman collaborators—Jesus needed to say it out loud one more time. Because the only way people will know we follow Jesus is if we love one another. That’s it. The way we love one another, the way we care for one another—that’s the model we strive for with the Congregational Care Ministry. After Jesus ascended to heaven, the disciples were left to continue his ministry on earth. As the movement grew, it became clear that they needed to organize by defining roles and responsibilities. Acts 6 tells us that the needs of some of the most vulnerable people in their midst were being neglected, so the disciples chose a core group of seven diakonia, from which we derive the word deacon, to provide care and concern for those who needed it. In the New Testament, diakonia was the ministry of service, aid, and support. The word began as a word to describe a person who waits on tables, then expanded to someone who cared for all household needs, and eventually came to mean general service. It naturally implies a level of personal subjugation to another, putting a person’s needs above their own. Deacons in the early church were women and men who assisted in liturgical logistics; proclamation of the word and Christian mission; and general ministry in the church, which included a variety of actions. As the role of the diakonos developed, it became one in which servant leaders attended to public worship, the care of the poor, and administration. An early church collection of treatises known as the Apostolic Constitutions prescribes that deacons are to visit “all those who stand in need of visitation,”1 and Cyprian of Carthage called on those in ministry to “always pray for one another” and to “relieve burdens and afflictions by mutual love.”2 Ministry leaders, as you begin implementing the first essential, consider laypeople who embody servant leadership, prayer, and mutual love, care, and concern. Who comes to mind? Jot down their names. Let your list be as short or long as you are led, then pray over your potential CCMs. On the way home from the seminar, we had so much fun brainstorming all the folks in our midst who embodied such admirable and Christlike qualities that we found our list was actually too long! Our average worship attendance was around 175, so we only needed five CCMs in addition to our pastoral staff. We didn’t need as many people as we had listed, so we began narrowing down, utilizing the criteria provided in The Caring Congregation Training Manual and Resource Guide: 1.​Active member who has established a deep connection to the church. 2.​Regular worship attendance. 3.​Scriptural and theological foundation, and a willingness to learn. 4.​Knowledge and study of scripture to provide a foundation for care ministry. 5.​Active pursuit of growth in the Christian life through participation in a small group or some other form of Christian discipleship. 6.​Deeply committed Christian who lives out a life of faith through acts of piety (love of God) and mercy (love of neighbor). 7.​Giving financially in proportion to their income with the tithe being the goal. 8.​Safe gatherings or other types of certification to assure their understanding of boundaries. Each church needs to decide what type of certification will be required. 9.​Expected to commit to at least three hours per week to this ministry.3 We found that some on our list embodied all of these qualities, while others weren’t as regular in their worship attendance as we’d have liked our CCMs to be. A couple others would have been a great fit, but we already knew how busy their schedules were, and we knew they wouldn’t be able to commit the amount of time each week we knew we needed. After a time of discernment, we had identified our five CCMs we wanted for our first class, and we began recruiting. Ministry leaders, take a look at your list of possible CCMs again. Identify how many you’d like in your first class of CCMs, and take a look at the criteria provided. Who stands out now? Recruiting Your CCMs Once you have narrowed your list down to the ones you believe would be a great first class of CCMs, it’s time to recruit! Here are a few tips for effective CCM recruitment: 1.​Pray, pray, pray. Pray for the church, the ministry, the people who have been called to care for others, and those who will be receiving care on behalf of the congregation. Ask God to give you eyes to see gifts in those who provide care well. 2.​Be picky and practice discernment. Don’t be OK with “any warm body” who will say yes to your begging. We don’t work out of a scarcity mentality! 3.​Face-to-face invitation to apply. Seek out individuals you’ve intentionally identified as possible CCMs. Phone calls, emails, texts, and pulpit/bulletin announcements certainly are helpful, but be careful with how you extend the invitation. Make it clear that there is an application process that will discern if being a CCM is a good fit. This is an invitation, not an ask, favor, or plea. Invite applicants to join you in sharing God’s care and concern to the congregation and community. Notice that the third point is an invitation to apply. Even if you already have a good idea of who should make up your core leadership team and subsequent CCMs, ask these persons to fill out an application. This is a vital step as the ministry continues to grow and more and more people are interested in serving as a CCM. You may receive some pushback and even criticism for this, since many churches function in a “first come, first served” or “sign up to serve” mentality. For some ministries of the church, that model is great! We want to allow opportunities for all people to serve in some capacity at the church. The Congregational Care Ministry is not one of those opportunities. CCMs will be deployed on behalf of the church to provide care to people facing some of their darkest, most confusing times in their lives, and it is imperative to vet and train those who will share in these moments. Determine your selection process ahead of time. We suggest a two-phase process: 1.​Each person is asked to fill out an application, which asks for a spiritual biography. 2.​Following the application submission, interviews are conducted with a pastor and staff member. Consider the following interview questions: 1.​What are two or three things in your life/faith story that are defining moments for you? 2.​Tell me about how worship plays a role in your life. 3.​What has been your discipleship journey so far? 4.​In what ways have you practiced Christian service? 5.​Tell me about any class or Bible studies you’ve participated in. 6.​Why do you want to be a CCM? What does a life totally surrendered to God mean to you? 7.​What does your daily practice of the spiritual disciplines look like? How do you explain grace? What is your faith autobiography? 8.​When have you had a challenging experience in your life? What did you do? Who was involved? How did you handle it? From whom did you seek help? 9.​Imagine you are in a one-on-one scenario, giving care. Who benefits? Where is God in this? The interviewer informs the applicant that someone will call soon. Close by praying with the applicant. After the interview, debrief with your interview team, share any notes you take, and make decisions. Not every member of your congregation will have the gifts and skills necessary to fill this role of caring for the congregation. In these cases, we try to direct people to other possibilities for volunteering where their unique gifts can best be used. Trust your gut and the collective experience of others. It is far better to redirect applicants to another area of ministry early in the discernment process rather than have a difficult conversation later about possible other places to serve. Some questions to consider as you practice discernment: 1.​Are they healed from past wounds? 2.​Do they need more time or experience to study? If so, invite them to apply again in the future. 3.​Would there be a better fit for their gifts in a different ministry area? Equipping Your CCMs Once your CCMs have said yes, it’s crucial to equip them well. CCMs will be partnering with pastors to offer some of the care previously done only by a pastor, so it is important that these persons have basic theological and biblical training. We suggest equipping your CCMs with theological and biblical training through an intensive study like Disciple Bible Study, Christian Believer, or a similar resource. It is also imperative to train your CCMs in the logistics and practices of the Congregational Care Ministry model. We invite you to utilize parts 2 and 3 of this book as a script for training the basics. These training modules work best when each CCM receives the companion resource, The Caring Congregation Ministry: Care Minister’s Manual. Training can be done over the course of a weekend, seminar-style. It can also be broken into one module per week over the course of a couple of months. The COVID-19 pandemic forced us all to reimagine former ways of connecting and learning, and we encourage you to continue offering digital options for accessible training. Decide what works best for your context and your CCMs. Once you have established the model for training, determine your dates. If other churches in the area or in your network are also implementing the Congregational Care Ministry, consider hosting a training together to share resources and teaching responsibilities. Secure a room large enough to accommodate your CCMs with round tables and chairs of no more than eight people at each table. If you are hosting a seminar-style weekend, consider kicking off your event with a worship service and closing with the commissioning service provided to you in chapter 5. Be sure to purchase a copy of the Care Minister’s Manual for each participant, along with any other commissioning gifts, which could include a Bible, anointing vials, congregational care card sets (can be purchased at https://thewell.cor.org/), official CCM name tags with the church’s logo, and official CCM business cards and stationery with the church’s logo (these come in handy during visits, especially in nursing facilities or hospitals, to leave a note if the person is sleeping when a CCM arrives or is unable to remember the visit). Continuing Education Once your CCMs have completed the basic training modules, we encourage you to regularly provide continuing education opportunities for your CCMs. The chapters in part 3 of this book serve as some jumping-off points as you consider offering continuing education. It is up to you to determine what “regular” looks like in your context. For some churches, quarterly meetings are sufficient and helpful; other churches host weekly meetings to unpack, share insights, and bring case studies to the group. Possible topics for continuing education could include member assistance, medical information, caring for the frail, hospice care, information technology, ministry to people with dementia and their families, self-care, development of a recovery ministry, and mental health ministry. The possibilities are endless! Assessing Your Community In this chapter, you have learned that the first essential to building your Congregational Care Ministry is to recruit and equip your Congregational Care Ministers. As you begin implementing the first essential, take some time to reflect on the following questions and ideas. 1.​What does an ideal Congregational Care Minister look like in your context? 2.​Brainstorm a list of laity who exhibit gifts that align with those of a CCM. 3.​Develop a plan for recruiting your first class of CCMs. Chapter Two Second Essential: Identify Roles and Responsibilities Gracious Loving God, we are grateful that you have given each of us unique gifts and experiences that have made us able to serve you in our individual ways. We lift up our hearts to you that we might receive your divine seed that encourages us to more fully devote ourselves to your healing ministry. Bless each one with the belief that they are able to bid your calling in Christ’s name. Amen. My husband, Bill, and I (Melissa) registered for the Caring Congregation Seminar knowing that it couldn’t be only our initiative. For the sake of the ministry in our church that had around 180 in worship on a Sunday, we needed to identify some laity to come alongside us and really build our Congregational Care Ministry from the ground up. The reality was, there were quite a few people who were already caring for our congregation; all we needed to do was give them the tools and training to make it “official.” We invited two amazing women to join us for the seminar: Alice and Carissa. Carissa was in her late twenties, loud and colorful. She led our youth group, had a toddler, and was systematically working on finishing her sleeve tattoo. She was a licensed social worker with experience in group homes for children in unfortunate circumstances. She had her own struggles and past experiences that formed her into a compassionate yet fiery advocate for the underdog and the misunderstood. Carissa knew anxiety and depression deep within her soul, so when someone needed prayer and a listening ear as they navigated through anxiety or family problems that required intervention, Carissa was there for them. Alice was warm, inviting, and embodied a kind of grace and hospitality that was unique to her being. She also had been a nurse, experienced a painful divorce, and beat cancer three times. Who do you think we sent to care for those who were caught in relationship problems or undergoing cancer treatment? Of course it was Alice. These two women couldn’t be more different. Yet something bound them together. It was their love for Jesus and for people, their compassion and concern for the hurting, their drive and desire to bring light into the dark nights of the soul. They both relied on their past experiences to care for others in their own ways, and because of their differences, our ministry was able to care for more people with different types of concerns and struggles. Because of Alice’s experiences with cancer, she was able to care for a beloved member who had just been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Because of Carissa’s experience with underprivileged children, she was the go-to CCM for families that struggled to make ends meet. As we spent more time together caring for our congregation, we began to identify specific niches, roles, and responsibilities that enabled us to expand our impact as a caring congregation. Three Primary Roles The Congregational Care Ministry system works best with three primary collaborative roles: 1.​Director of Congregational Care. Typically, this role is embodied by a pastor. They are responsible for establishing and maintaining the Congregational Care Ministry. Responsibilities will include, but are not limited to, recruiting, training, providing ongoing evaluation, and caring for the CCMs. Gifts will include, but are not limited to, vision-casting, organization, care, system-building, and discernment. 2.​Congregational Care Minister. Laity become CCMs through a recruitment and application process. Once they are trained and commissioned, their responsibilities could include visitation, calls, one-on-one meetups, and care group leadership. Gifts will include, but are not limited to, compassion, empathy, interpersonal warmth, and the ability to define and stick to personal boundaries. 3.​Dispatcher . The Dispatcher receives all prayer and visitation requests, calls, and submissions, and works with the Director of Congregational Care to assign CCMs to each concern. Call and connect with each CCM every week to assign new duties and hear how assignments are going. For small to mid-sized churches, the Director of Congregational Care may serve as the Dispatcher. For larger churches, you may need a Dispatcher for hospital calls, plus separate Dispatchers for elder care or requests for personal prayer. Gifts will include, but are not limited to, organization, communication, technology skills, discernment. All three roles rely upon one another: The Director sets up the model and works with the Dispatcher to assign CCMs on an ongoing basis. The Dispatcher connects with CCMs weekly to get feedback and continue assignments, sharing that information with the Director. The CCMs receive care from the Director as they care for others, assignments from the Dispatcher, and support from one another. These three roles are crucial for the Congregational Care Ministry model, but you may find that, in your context, additional roles are appropriate. If your model already includes a number of teams like prayer teams, card-making groups, funeral meal teams, and so forth, you might identify leaders of each group who serve as the core leadership of the Congregational Care Ministry so that all groups collaborate to provide the best care possible. In larger contexts, assistants may help with some of the logistical pieces. In even larger contexts with multiple pastors, you might create a tiered approach to care in which specific worship services have one main pastor with a team of CCMs. This model is nimble enough to expand or be tailored down to your needs. During my time as a consultant, I have encountered churches establishing their Congregational Care Ministries from scratch. Other times, I’ve worked with ministry leaders to organize their already-existing care ministry under the umbrella of congregational care. In these instances, I worked with individuals to tailor it to fit their needs. A few tweaks were necessary, but in a system with laity already providing care, it’s a matter of organization and documentation rather than building from scratch. Establishing the congregational care model doesn’t mean you have to shut down other care ministries that already exist; it simply means that the church already has a DNA of lay care. Use that momentum and build upon it! That being said, this may also be a good time to help your team evaluate what is working well and what may be needed to transition. In all of my consultation calls, the most consistent work includes identifying and clarifying each CCM’s roles and responsibilities. In a smaller system, there may be less flexibility to “specialize.” The smaller the church, the more likely that each CCM will take on multiple roles and responsibilities. The larger the ministry grows, the more likely a CCM will specialize into a niche of care. Specialized Care As previously stated, each CCM has their own lived experiences that make them uniquely situated to care for people with specific circumstances. Some people are relational and are quite capable of making hospital visits, telephone calls, or sitting with people who need encouragement and prayer. Some CCMs have great administrative skills and provide amazing support help. Some CCMs may be professionally adept with finances, counseling, or medicine. It is significantly more meaningful to receive care and prayer from someone who has had similar experiences as you. Dispatchers and Directors must know their CCMs well enough to know who might be able to best care for whom. This takes time and intentionality. Ministry leaders, spend time with your CCMs, asking them questions about their lives, experiences, passions, and what makes them tick. When you train your CCMs, make it a point to get to know them during breaks, in between sessions, and beyond. In one local church appointment, I hosted a dinner party for our CCMs. After getting to know them on a more personal level, I felt better equipped to make discerning calls when it came to assigning CCMs to specific prayer and care requests. Dale had been burned by the church before. He experienced a faith leader at their worst, and because of that, he wrestled with doubt and how prayer “works.” So when someone needed care but felt resistant to a pastor and the religious platitudes that seem like a cliché during a faith crisis, Dale was able to care for them in a way that a pastor never could. Brittany was a teacher, who had spent her entire career in the community. She was soft-spoken, a calm yet unwavering presence to those for whom she cared. So when we found out that Dante, who needed care during a hospitalization, was Brittany’s student so many years before, we sent Brittany to pray with him. Chandler was every man’s man. He enjoyed golf, shooting the breeze, and painting houses. He had the uncanny ability to put anyone at ease with his easygoing attitude and lighthearted jokes. Chandler’s presence calmed those with anxiety and depression. Jasmyn was in high school when she was commissioned. Her life stage alone allowed her to care for young people in a way no adult could. She cared deeply for her peers by spending time with them, baking goodies for them, and providing a listening ear with the same perspective as those for whom she cared. You get the picture: each person brings their own gifts and experiences to the table, which uniquely positions them to care for others. This is why it is so vital to continue to get to know your CCMs while assigning them specific roles and responsibilities. Launch Team In my first church to implement the Congregational Care Ministry model, we identified our launch team early on with the intentions of growing into a specialized care model. There already had been some of that DNA in our congregation; a pair of two women had been visiting nursing facilities for years. Thankfully, they continued their work so that we could focus on launching additional care for the community. Eventually, this already-existing ministry was brought under the umbrella of congregational care, further expanding the “niche care” idea. They continued their regular visits as CCMs, while the others focused on calls and other responsibilities. Our launch team included: ​a Director of Congregational Care, who also functioned as the Dispatcher; ​a senior pastor, who functionally served as a specialist CCM, caring for all funerals and critical care needs; and ​three Congregational Care Ministers, who served as generalists at first. The more specific the prayer requests became, the more they grew into specialized care. Your context likely differs from my experience, so you may find that you need a different structure for your launch team. Regardless of structure or number of people, your launch team is a crucial part of establishing a sustainable and flourishing Congregational Care Ministry. Assessing Your Community This chapter discusses the three primary roles and responsibilities of the Congregational Care Ministry model and explains how the roles can become more specialized over time, according to each CCM’s gifts and experiences. As you begin implementing the second essential, take some time to reflect on the following questions. 1.​You’ve identified your CCMs; now, which of the three roles might they each fit into? 2.​Are there additional roles necessary in your context? 3.​What might that look like? 4.​How will all of the roles collaborate to provide the best care possible? Chapter Three Third Essential: Establish the Documentation System Everything should be done with dignity and in proper order. —1 Corinthians 14:40 At the Caring Congregation Seminar some years ago, our team of four leaned in. We learned the theology, the practicalities, the logistics— all of it. I took copious amounts of notes, scribbling in the margins of my workbook. Our team was fired up; during the seminar breaks, we stood around the coffee station, wide-eyed with hope for the future. Our final session before closing worship was all about documentation. This session answered the question I had been asking since day one: This information is great—but how do we organize it? I was most concerned with keeping good records, staying organized, and making this system work for our situation. The session leader introduced the paperwork and talked about an organizational piece of software called Arena that helped them keep track of everything. It seemed like a dream, but we didn’t have the budget, or the need, to replicate their model. How could we tailor a program built for a megachurch like Church of the Resurrection to fit our church that had 180 in worship on any given Sunday? This chapter is all about establishing a documentation system that works for your setting. The Case for Records For every church, there is a history of the care and shepherding of the people. Usually, however, that history lies in the hearts and minds of the pastors who have served the church and the congregation. In order to give excellent care, it is imperative to build a recorded history. This history will help the caregivers remember what has been offered and what might still be in order for care. Missteps can be avoided, and good decisions are more likely to be made to achieve the best care. Records help maintain institutional and personal memory and provide a transition when pastors change, leave, or are not available. They help avoid “time flies” problems and address claims that you didn’t give care to a congregant. Documenting conversations relieves congregants of the pain of retelling a traumatic story repeatedly, and it reminds people that they are cared for and remembered. In the introduction, we outlined the three general steps to providing care effectively as a congregation: intake and dispatch, follow up, and documentation. In this chapter, we will discuss the logistical side of each step. More of the practical and theological details for “follow up” are covered in parts 2 and 3 of this book. Intake and Dispatch Developing a clear and concise pathway for intake and dispatch can be tedious work. You should be able to articulate in one sentence to an elementary-aged child how to request care at your church, while also taking into consideration multiple layers of strategic pieces. Know who receives all requests behind the scenes, how CCMs receive their assignments, and develop a predictable and reliable weekly flow to guarantee quality care on behalf of your church. Often, churches rely on word of mouth, and sometimes, congregants come to expect that pastors just know when someone needs care. Without prayer request cards, a call to the office, or at least an email, how can we know? I invite you to inventory your intake system and brainstorm ways to make requesting prayer as accessible as possible. Consider stocking your sanctuary with prayer request cards, and adding a digital way to request prayer and care on your church’s website and very specific locations on social media pages, like direct messaging or a button that takes someone to your website. Designate a CCM with tech and organizational skills to curate all of these requests each week. In many cases, an office staff person may be the point person for this kind of work. That can also be helpful, since calls to the church requesting care are common. Design a system that flows smoothly when curating and communicating all care requests to the Dispatcher. In its most basic form, that could be a shared spreadsheet with pastors and CCMs. Publicizing Prayer Requests Prayer requests are so important to the congregation, and many local churches make their prayer requests public in the bulletin or worship slides on Sunday morning. Whether a person has a new baby, faces a life-threatening disease, or sends a loved one off to college, people want to enlist their community of faith to pray with them. It is wise to keep this list fresh and up-to-date with no one on the list for more than two weeks. If there are long-term prayer concerns, consider making a list that is available online. Such lists might include military support and long-term health concerns. Many congregations continue to lift prayer requests up by name during the worship service. A word of caution: as more and more worship services are livestreamed, it is absolutely crucial to consider how you will guarantee confidentiality in the digital age. Do not share names and details of a prayer request without permission from the one for whom you are offering prayer. Confidentiality is always a high priority as the church seeks to be highly sensitive to the needs of the faith family and the community. Each church should evaluate exactly how they best communicate the prayer requests of their community. One essential method is to create a covenant prayer team and online prayer lists for people in the military and people with chronic illnesses. The covenant prayer team would receive lists of prayer requests throughout the week. Only the first name would be given to this team and a general description of what is requested for prayer, which keeps daily prayers flowing throughout the congregation. How Prayer Request Cards Work A tried and true method for collecting prayer requests is to make prayer request cards available during worship. Attendees are encouraged to write their requests during the service and drop them into the offering plates. People who worship online are also invited to submit their requests on a digital form accessible on the website and on any social media platforms. Weekly, the Director and Dispatcher curate and assign each care request to a CCM. Collect prayer request cards and any other forms of care requests your church utilizes. Enter the requests into one location. Google Sheets provides a simple format to record contacts. Assign a CCM to each request, then contact the CCMs with their new assignments for the week (email is an efficient way to communicate with your CCMs). After CCMs have followed up with their assignments, they should document the interactions with the care recipients. The following weekly flow has proven to be predictable and efficient: ​Monday: Dispatcher works with the administrative assistant to curate all prayer and care requests. Dispatcher meets with the Director of Congregational Care to assign CCMs. Dispatcher sends email to CCMs with assignments for the week. ​Tuesday—Sunday: CCMs read and acknowledge their assignments for the week. They make care calls and visits then document their interactions. ​If non-emergent requests for care come midweek, via phone or online, they are held until the following Monday’s curation day. If emergency requests for care come midweek, the Dispatcher and Director discern whether to assign a CCM or a pastor for care. The nature of the emergency determines this decision. If your church has a prayer team, consider how to handle prayer requests midweek. Hospital Care Systems It is crucial for a church to keep track of hospitalizations in order to provide adequate care for those hospitalized and their families. Here are a few of the systems a church could easily utilize: Hospital Notebook (paper or digital) ​Full legal name of patient ​Names of family members or friends who will be there during hospitalization ​Reason for hospitalization ​Location of hospital and time of admission ​If surgery is scheduled, when the person will arrive and the time of the surgery ​Who will visit from church? ​How often will visits be made? Hospital Board in Church Office This is much the same information as contained in the hospital notebook. The notebook, however, contains more information. The hospital board gives minimal information to be used by staff and CCMs who are keeping track of people in the hospital. ​Use a dry-erase board, chalkboard, bulletin board, or a card file that can be kept in a confidential area of the congregational care offices. ​Fill the board with information about the hospitalization: -​Legal first and last name of person hospitalized -​Name of hospital and room number -​Reason for hospitalization (If surgery is scheduled, identify the type and time of surgery and anticipated length of surgery, if known). -​Pastor or CCM assigned to visit and dates of visit Follow Up At least once a week, CCMs should receive their assignments for care with the expectation that they follow up with the assignment in a timely manner. It is helpful for CCMs to receive guidance on the best way to follow up with a particular assignment—for some, a phone call is sufficient, but for others, a face-to-face interaction is preferable. In cases of illness, you may even choose to host a video chat via Zoom, Google Calls, FaceTime, or another platform. Regardless, a simple phone call is the first step in following up. CCMs must have the care requesters’ phone numbers available to them so that they do not have to spend time hunting down contact information. Often, prayer request cards include a prayer for a person, requested by someone else. People pray for their friends, family, and loved ones, and it is natural to request prayer from the church. However, because we cannot know if that person has been given permission to share what they have written on a card, CCMs should follow up with the person who has requested prayer (the requester), not the person for whom they’ve requested prayer. For instance, if Matt writes a prayer request for his mother’s health (who may or may not be a member), do not call the mother; rather you start with a call to Matt. Sometimes people will request on the card that the church call the mother or the friend or neighbor, but always call the requester to see if the party who is most affected would want us to reach out. Encourage the requester to reach out on behalf of the church. Then the CCM could ask if the person would like the church to participate in their care. I learned this the difficult way when a CCM in my first church called to pray with a woman struggling with illness, and it turned out that the woman had shared her illness confidentially with someone else! It feels counterintuitive to follow up with the one requesting prayer, but we must do so in order to do no harm. Sometimes, though, it is appropriate to call the one for whom prayer has been requested—it may be a well-known prayer request in the church or community, or the requester has secured permission to share. Often, I have encountered CCMs unsure about whom to call in order to provide the best care possible, so I created a flowchart to help them discern. Documentation Immediately following a care conversation, the CCM should document the most important information, which includes: ​name of congregant, ​date when care was given, ​reason for care, ​type of visit (phone, in person, etc.), ​CCM responsible, ​pastor responsible, ​last time the person was contacted, ​follow-up date, if needed, and ​other notes. This information can be stored in a shared drive, on paper, or on some other platform. Regardless of the mode, this information should be kept in a safe place for confidential purposes, while also being accessible to, at least, the Director of Congregational Care. We do this for accountability and information sharing, should another CCM be providing care for that person in another CCM’s absence. A word on confidentiality: the trust that people give to you as pastors and CCMs can never be overlooked. You must be vigilant in this regard. To this end, set guidelines on the type of information that should be kept under lock and key, accessible to the pastor only. If the documents are digital, be sure they are either password protected, require a church-issued email address, or both. Helpful Tools The size of your congregation will dictate your dispatch and documentation system and the tools used to build it. For larger churches, programs like Shelby or Arena will be necessary in order to store all information. Mid-sized churches might consider monday.com, a platform that creates Gantt charts, flowcharts, organization charts, and surveys. For small to mid-sized congregations, there are free tools just a click away. As technology progresses, it is likely that new platforms will emerge with features appropriate to the Congregational Care Ministry documentation system. I invite you to continue to be on the lookout for the best way to document the care at your church. Google Drive has proven to be a very reliable platform to build and store a documentation system. Google Drive is a free file storage and synchronization service that allows multiple users to view and edit documents, when shared with them. Google Drive includes a suite of applications that will enable you to work efficiently and effectively. We mostly used Google Sheets (a shareable and collaborative spreadsheet) for intake and dispatch, Gmail (email platform) to share information and assignments with CCMs, and Forms (an easy survey) for documentation following a care call or visit. To get the best out of your Google Drive experience, follow these guidelines: Create a Google Account for the Church. This will serve as the primary account to communicate with CCMs through Gmail and to store all prayer requests and documentation in your Google Drive. If you already have a personal Google account, I encourage you to create one solely for the church’s care ministry. I learned this the hard way when I left a church and accidentally deleted all their care files to clear up some space in my own personal account! Request That Every CCM Create a Personal Google Account. If each CCM already has one, it is just fine to use those. We ask that every CCM has a Google account to ensure a higher level of confidentiality. It also creates a sense of continuity for the ministry, especially as email addresses are shared with those for whom they are caring. Build a Document for Curating All Prayer and Care Requests. This document will also be the dispatch document that you share with your CCMs. Naming it “Confidential Care Dispatch” may be helpful. It communicates that sensitive nature of the information, so that it is not shared with others outside of the Congregational Care Ministry. It also communicates to CCMs that this document includes their assignments for the week. You will not need to create multiple documents. Keep adding requests to this initial document, and archive the requests that have already been handled by moving them to a separate tab. This document should include the following columns: Date, Prayer Request, Requested By, Requester’s Contact Information, CCM Assignment, and Additional Notes. Documents work best if they each have clear titles around the level of care. You may want to consider adding a column that identifies the level of care needed. ​Critical care (physical and mental) -​hospitalization -​hospice -​cancer, chemotherapy, radiation treatments -​mental illness, including suicide attempt or admittance into a psychiatric facility ​Continued care -​cancer in remission -​recovery from surgery -​rehabilitation or post-operation -​relationship problems -​problems managing stress -​spiritual issues and questions -​mental health problems (bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression, anger, addictions, obsessive-compulsive disorder) ​Long-term care -​homebound - resident of care center (coordinate with pastor) -​grief of family member -​long-term financial problems, unemployment, chronic illness/pain ​Care by another team -​critical relationships (counselor) -​financial problems (financial advisor) -​other pastors ​Archived -​no further action is required -​congregant may transition back to care lists at any given time -​archives maintained for one year Build a Form for Care Documentation. CCMs should use this after every care call or visit. Questions should include name of care recipient, name of CCM, date of care, type of visit, details of visit, follow-up notes (important dates coming up, next visit, hospital changes, discussion topics, etc.). Generate a Sheet from Care Documentation Responses. As CCMs utilize the Care Documentation Form, those responses can then be generated into a document. Once the document is generated, responses automatically update into the same document that can be shared with all CCMs, which is beneficial since the document provides brief but clear information and allows caregivers to sort by name, follow-up date, CCM assigned to care, and so on. Each Week, Send an Email with Three Attachments. Include a greeting, thanking CCMs for their work, then include (1) Confidential Care Dispatch Document; (2) Care Documentation Form; and (3) Care Documentation Responses. Every week, I sent virtually the same email, similar to this example: Dear CCMs, Thank you so much for providing such wonderful care on behalf of the church! You are making a huge impact on the lives around you and in our community. Please see the attached Confidential Care Dispatch Document to view your new assignments for the week. Once you have followed up with your assignments, be sure to document your interactions on the Care Documentation Form. If you would like to look back on past documentation, feel free to look at the Care Documentation Responses Document. It may give you some reminders concerning someone you’ve been caring for a while. I hope you have a wonderful week. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or concerns! Paper in the Digital Age It may be the case that some of your CCMs are not comfortable utilizing the types of technology previously mentioned. Digital documentation should never be the reason a person chooses not to serve as a CCM. While digital documentation and communication are most effective and efficient, please keep in mind that not every CCM will possess the skills or hardware to function on a platform that requires computer or smartphone capability. Consider how you might incorporate a paper documentation option for those who become anxious when operating digitally. Perhaps they turn in paper copies of documentation and an assistant logs them into the digital storage system. Assessing Your Community No matter your church’s size or budget, you have tools at your fingertips to create and sustain an organized system of care that takes seriously confidentiality, efficiency, and compassion, all in one. In this chapter, we outlined how to establish your documentation system. Now, it’s your turn to do it! You should be able to clearly articulate your documentation system with your CCMs during training so that they feel equipped and empowered to care for the congregation. Ideally, this system is communicated to your CCMs after they receive theological and practical training and prior to their commissioning. Consider the following questions to guide your work: Intake and Dispatch ​Articulate in one sentence how congregants can request care at your church. ​Who receives those requests, and what happens next? ​How do CCMs know what their assignments for the week are? ​Develop a predictable weekly flow for CCMs to guarantee care. Follow Up ​What are the ways that CCMs will follow up? ​What tools will you offer to CCMs so that they feel well equipped to discern how to handle all types of prayer and care requests? Documentation ​How will we guarantee confidentiality with documentation? ​Consider usability for CCMs when documenting; what might work best for them? ​How will all information be stored? Discerning Which Tools to Utilize ​How many separate calls/visits per week does your care team collectively implement? ​How familiar are your CCMs with new technology? How adaptive can they be? ​How much storage do you need to maintain clear records of care? Chapter Four Fourth Essential: Evaluate Great God of new visions, we come to you believing that your Holy Spirit is guiding us as we seek new life in your church. Inspire and call us to step out by faith into this season of perpetual creativity and transition. Let us not grow weary or fearful. Rather, pour within us new energy and enthusiasm as we seek to be co-creators with you. All this in Christ’s name. Amen. I (Melissa) don’t know about you, but my favorite jeans have a little give to them. They’re the right length for my short frame, and they stretch just the right amount in the right places for my build. But around week twenty of my pregnancy, they stopped stretching—while I kept growing! My husband, on the other hand, has a different kind of favorite jeans. They don’t stretch at all. In fact, they shrink! When he needs a new pair of jeans, he purchases the Levi’s 501 Original Shrink-to-Fit Men’s Jeans. Here’s how it works: buy them at least two inches too big (it’s no wonder there’s not a women’s equivalent); let them soak in really hot water, drip dry, towel dry, then put them on while they’re wet; wear them until they’re dry. As the jeans dry, they conform to your body’s shape and size. Church systems are like jeans. You can build a great system that works perfectly for your size and context, and it’ll have a little give at first. But as your congregation continues to grow in number and volume of care needed, there’s only so much stretch. Eventually, the congregation will outgrow the system, or the congregation will grow down to the size of the organizational system. That’s how I see the Congregational Care Ministry, which was born out of the large United Methodist Church. The care and concern ministry leadership built a system that was sustainable for tens of thousands of people. The way they organized their various groups that fell under the care ministry, and the way they documented it all was a couple “sizes” too large for our context, and if Bill and I would have attempted to replicate that same system in our appointments, it would not have worked. That is why it was so vital for us to inventory the actual needs of our congregation and start with the basics. We created a plan to gradually build our care system, and I invite you to do the same. Starting Fresh Two years after we established the Congregational Care Ministry in our first church, my husband, Bill, and I were appointed to co-pastor another church in our conference. The church was quite a bit larger with a higher average worshipping age (and therefore more care needs), but the care model still relied on care provided solely by the pastors. We knew it was an unsustainable model, and we needed to move swiftly to establish a Congregational Care Ministry within the church in order for the church to stabilize and ultimately grow. We followed Rev. Karen Lampe’s evaluation model: establishing phases within the first five years. Year One During the first year, recruit and train your team as you evaluate what care needs are most important for your congregation. Where are you sensing urgency, anxiety, or frustration from the congregation? What types of prayer requests are you receiving the most? Evaluate your systems for prayer request intake and begin building the need for a Congregational Care Ministry (see next chapter for tips on building the need). Evaluate your congregation’s needs and the care/support classes or groups that already exist in your congregation. What works? What doesn’t? What needs to be pruned? What is missing? You should ask these questions each year as you continue to evaluate. The first month in our new appointment, we listened and learned. We met with congregants, made hospital and nursing home visits, and tried our best to connect with the community. We learned that the town had a wonderful health care system and that many people chose to move to the town after retirement because of the care and nursing facilities. Many long-time members had grown into the life stage that limited their mobility and relegated them to their homes. We also learned that prayer requests were by word of mouth, spoken out loud during prayer time on Sunday mornings, or calls to the pastors’ personal cell phones. During our listening phase, we observed a sense of anxiety that prayer requests would slip through the cracks—and they did. We observed a sense of urgency as congregants would leave voicemails for non-emergency prayer requests in the evenings and on weekends. We also perceived a deep need for face-to-face interaction for those who were bound to their homes or a nursing facility. The need for care was high, and there was no system in place to guarantee quality care for our people. We did the math: if Bill and I worked around the clock with no breaks or days off, we still would have had only twelve minutes to devote to those who had care needs each week. We determined that the most critical needs at the time related to prayer request intake and visiting the elderly population bound to their homes or nursing facilities, and we got to work. We enlisted someone at each worship service to write down the prayer requests spoken out loud with the names of the requesters (remember, we were new and didn’t know most of the people yet). We had no way of knowing how to follow up until we enlisted our volunteer who did know the congregation. What a help! In the meantime, we developed prayer request cards and added them into the pew backs. Every Sunday, when we moved into prayer time, we reminded the congregation to write their requests down on those cards and place them into the offering plate if they wanted a follow-up call (even if they lifted up their request out loud in the service). We were honest with them that we needed help remembering names and keeping all the care needs organized. We also began publicly building the need for a Congregational Care Ministry early on (guidelines for this are in the following chapter), and we identified laypeople in our congregation who exhibited gifts of compassion and care. We began recruiting our first class of CCMs at the church, and by month four into our appointment, they were commissioned and began offering care on behalf of the church. I want to stress this major point: empower great people. It will help your ministry thrive. I’ve seen pastors try to do it all or not play ball with their colleagues. Share the joy, empower people to use their gifts, and help them pass the baton to one another. I liken a good ministry team to a sports team: it has the right people in the proper positions. They call upon one another and help one another become great players. Having a team is so much easier than going it alone. Plus, you will be sustained and supported in your ministry. Years Two and Three In the second and third years of the plan, look at which ministries are working well, what needs to be pruned, and what needs to be created. Establish any care classes or groups that would be helpful care offerings for the community. Be sure to look outside the walls of the church as well. What resources does your community offer, and who might become partners in your work? Create a database of medical and mental health entities, support groups, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) groups, drug rehabilitation centers, hospice care centers, and so forth, and reach out to each of them. Share these contacts with your CCMs, so that they can refer care recipients to other resources in the community. After some time living into a new system of care, we began looking beyond our visiting team. As we built trust with the congregation, we noticed the prayer requests became deeper and more personal. People in the congregation approached us about how to become a CCM, and others began wanting to create groups. A young man began leading an AA group in our church, and two women launched a Financial Peace class. Another woman pitched her idea of a prayer team. It was clear we needed to move beyond our core group of CCMs and expand. We commissioned a second class of CCMs to respond to the prayer requests by praying with them over the phone, and we established the prayer team, led by the woman who pitched the idea. All prayer requests submitted were shared with the prayer team, which met weekly to spend an hour in prayer together for the church, community, and the specific prayer requests. We also began making more connections with folks in the health care and social services community during this phase, which became incredibly vital when a flood left our town completely cut off in all directions for weeks. Our church became a major player in the town’s rebuilding efforts because of the connections we had made in the community. The following year, almost exactly, we began social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our congregation had grown accustomed to our CCMs providing care on behalf of the church, and it was heartwarming to see that kind of attitude infiltrate our community. The voice of the CCMs brought calm and assurance through these uncharted times. Folks who were not CCMs picked up the phone and called one another to check in and pray. They organized a good old-fashioned phone tree, scheduled Zoom calls, sent cards, and left care baskets on people’s porches. Individuals made fabric masks for others, ran errands for the elderly population, chalked driveways, and planted flowers for one another. This is what happens when pastors get out of the way and let the church be the church! Years Four and Five Years four and five, dream big, hairy, audacious dreams! Does your community need a recovery ministry? Perhaps you can develop a mental health ministry as you partner with other community groups. The idea is to keep dreaming! As you continue to evaluate, we encourage you to think beyond the current realities and forecast for the future. What are the trends that will continue to rise? What are possible future roadblocks in the community, the congregation, and the ministry? What are future needs that you need to consider now in order to be prepared to address them when they arise? During the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing, we began dreaming about digital care and connection for those feeling isolated, while also keeping in mind the very bleak realities of the impending economic crisis, rates of unemployment, communal grief, and increases in addictive and destructive behavior patterns. We began planning for ways to address those very specific needs in our community. The needs are great for the church to rise up and provide a healing space for those who suffer. Classes and Groups As you continue to explore ways to care for your congregation, you may have people approach you about starting a group experience. We are constantly assessing the current needs of the congregation. Group ministry can be very beneficial because common experiences provide empathetic responses and teach others appropriate responses to others’ needs. Groups can provide times to teach curriculum to large numbers of people, and it can be a time-saving way to minister to people who are facing similar situations. How you conduct group ministry is important. Many times congregants will want to start a support or care group. Begin with a three-to-five-week class to gauge interest of the group. There is a great advantage in having a start date and an end date to the group. Having an end date is not typical of a support group, which can become unhealthy as people are allowed to linger in their circumstances instead of graduating and moving on. Make sure you have good facilitators who are skilled at leading such a group. Set standards for them, such as checking in with you at least once a month through email or a debriefing session. Help your leaders develop a curriculum that begins and ends with prayer, includes handouts, and has a definite spiritual component. People can find great secular resources outside the church, but most of the time they are coming to church to receive something they could not receive elsewhere. For instance, many hospitals provide grief care, but by coming to a church, the person expects that there will be a spiritual component. Many counselors provide support groups for those going through a divorce, but a divorce recovery group at a church will include a very nonjudgmental faith approach. The question to ask is, How does this group offered at the church differ from one offered in the community? Once you have decided to have a group, publicize it in your usual ways (bulletin, newsletter, email, Facebook, and other social media). Go through lists of recent funerals to identify potential members of a grief class, keep your ears open for recent or difficult divorce situations, notice if there is an increase in parenting challenges, or if your community has been particularly hard hit by a slow economy and job loss. You want your groups to succeed. These classes and groups must address the needs of your community. If the class experience is good, you may want to make it into a regular support group. Be cautious about calling it a support group, however, as that implies a long-term commitment. I encourage you again to continually assess your congregation and community. There may be some great ministries ready to be born as you try to address ever-changing needs. It is vital that you stay alert, nimble, adaptable, and grounded in your own spiritual life in order to be effective in ministry. How to Establish a New Group Ministry Create a standard process to determine the need and appropriateness of a new group ministry. Ask questions designed to help those who are proposing the new group. The answers to these questions form the plan for the support group. Lay leaders are champions at such efforts. It is always important, though, to offer a chance for regular debriefing with the leaders. Encourage and praise them in their efforts. Consider the following questions: 1.​What is the purpose of the proposed ministry? -​What does God want to accomplish with the proposed ministry? -​Describe how this group is in accord with our church’s purpose and policies. 2.​Whom will the new ministry serve? -​Who is the primary audience for this ministry? -​Who will benefit or be served? 3.​Which needs will the new ministry serve? -​Consider spiritual, physical, emotional, and relational needs. -​What kind of services will the new ministry provide to meet these needs? 4.​How will we provide those services? -​What will be the ministry strategy for providing those services? -​What will be the operational plan? -​What is the process for providing the services? 5.​Describe the leadership structure that the new ministry will require. -​What are the various roles and responsibilities needed to support this ministry? -​Describe the proposed structure of this ministry. 6.​What resources will the new ministry require? -​Identify training, facilities, computer access, mailboxes, need for staff assistance, finances, announcements, etc. 7.​What is the vision for growth and expansion? -​What growth is expected? -​What is the “dream” for this ministry two years from now? 8.​How will the effectiveness of this ministry be evaluated? -​Include measurement systems that will gauge whether the ministry is successful in accomplishing its purpose. For example, this could include measuring increases in the number of people in the group, or group evaluation forms. 9.​Does the ministry already exist in the church? -​Is there similarity between this ministry and one that your church already offers? -​Should this new ministry be coordinated with other ministries? -​Should this new ministry replace an existing one? Assessing Your Community In this chapter, we provided a framework for evaluation in which you are able to develop a five-year plan for care in your context. Consider the following questions as you implement the fourth essential. ​What are your church’s current primary needs? ​What are your community’s current primary needs? ​What resources already exist in the community that would be good to share with your CCMs? ​How might your church offer a faith-based response to those communal needs? ​What needs do you anticipate in your church and community in the coming years? ​What care groups already exist? What needs to exist? What needs to be pruned? ​What’s your big, hairy, audacious dream for care in your community? hat would it take for that to become a reality? Chapter Five Fifth Essential: Build the Congregational Need Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will succeed. —Proverbs 16:3 Early in our new appointment, my husband, Bill, and I (Melissa) realized that buy-in from the congregation was crucial to the development of the Congregational Care Ministry. The long-standing tradition of an ordained pastor making every care visit and call became an obstacle in the early stages of development that required thoughtful, theological maneuvering from the pulpit, in our internal communications, and in interpersonal conversations. It required strategic choices on our part as pastors with our leadership teams. We also discovered that thick skin and an unwavering commitment to healthy ministry systems played integral roles in establishing the ministry. It required finesse, compassion, persistence, and vision, committing wholly to the good of the entire community and not to the few loudest complainers. It’s one thing to establish a care ministry, recruit and train volunteers, dispatch and document, and continue to evaluate your ministry. It’s a whole other thing to convince your congregation that the Congregational Care Ministry is the right choice for the congregation to support as well as for those seeking care through this new ministry method. For decades, care has been a primary responsibility of the pastor, and in many cases, congregants expect the pastor to do all visits and care calls. We know that’s not a sustainable model, but it is the ministry leaders’ responsibility to help our congregations come to the same conclusion. In this chapter, you will find examples of how to build the congregational need through various channels in order to maximize the impact your Congregational Care Ministry can have in the community. All examples are real-life ones: we used these very words in our context to help build the congregational need in the face of opposition. We will also provide suggested time lines for a plan of action that includes a communications strategy to build the need strategically. Conversations One of the most strategic ways to gain buy-in is to have open and honest conversations with individuals about the need. In our case, we knew the workload was too much for us, and instead of pretending we could do it all and acting like we could handle it, we made it very clear that we were no heroes. When pastors allow themselves to be vulnerable, admitting to our own shortcomings and mistakes without beating ourselves up about it, we build trust with our congregation. They begin to see the humanity in a pastor rather than viewing them as the “hired help.” Bill and I had conversations with individuals, but we also had strategic meetings with our leadership teams to remain open and transparent about where we were headed in our development of the Congregational Care Ministry. Consider having conversations with the following: ​Staff/Pastor Parish Relations Committee (SPRC)—This team oversees the work of the pastors and staff. Our conversation with the SPRC included strategic plans for other ministry initiatives we had, hours spent on care each week in relation to other ministry responsibilities, hours needed for new initiatives, honest evaluation of personal boundaries and sabbath, and presenting the Congregational Care Ministry model as a solution. ​ Church Council —This team functions as the strategic body of the church, composed of representatives from all existing teams. Our conversation with the church council included SPRC’s approval for the Congregational Care Ministry model and a deep dive into how the ministry will function, along with a reassurance that the pastors continue to provide care alongside CCMs. ​ Influencers —All churches have those natural leaders whom others respect, even when they do not hold official leadership positions in the church. Often, since we were new to the church and community, these influencers reached out to us. Other times, we invited them to coffee or dinner. Our conversations included a short overview of our plans for the next phases of our ministry, including the vision for the Congregational Care Ministry. When you can gain the trust of the church influencers, they will publicly support and endorse the ministry. ​ Laity to Recruit —Early on, we identified leaders who were already providing care to others in the congregation in some capacity. We invited those individuals to one-on-one coffee meetings, which included a transparent conversation about our need for help in providing adequate care on behalf of the congregation. We shared the vision for the Congregational Care Ministry and invited them to consider applying to be a CCM. Church Communications As you move toward commissioning your first class of CCMs, you must cast the vision for the ministry from the official internal communication channels of the church. For us, these included Sunday morning bulletins, a midweek eNote, and a monthly newsletter. We made sure to communicate clearly and succinctly, casting vision, defining the program, and sharing personal experiences to build the need. Bulletins included brief descriptions and images advertising our commissioning service. Midweek eNotes included a bit more description of the ministry, and the newsletter included the most text, providing a rationale for the ministry, along with details and plans. From the Pulpit Another way we built the need for our congregation was by hosting a “State of the Church Address,” much like a town hall meeting for the church. We hosted one evening to share information and stories about ministry at the church over the previous year. We found that our congregation enjoyed hearing stories of how their ministry had impacted the community and each other, and it was a wonderful time to celebrate ministry that had already been done while looking to the future. We were able to cast vision for the Congregational Care Ministry, and once the ministry had been implemented, we made heroes out of our CCMs by telling stories of care and transformation. Additionally, every single week, pastors have a somewhat captive audience for a block of time. We used that time to build the need and make heroes out of those who answer God’s call to use their gifts. A key sermon series that drove the need home for a congregation was one called “Healing Wounds.” We preached about all sorts of ways to make amends and care for our own hurt while reaching out to others. The last sermon was titled “Scar Stories,” in which we explained how those who have gone through hurt can allow God to heal those wounds into scars. God then uses those scars to help heal others; we become wounded healers. That set us up to be able to discuss the Congregational Care Ministry model, which led into our commissioning service. Commissioning Your CCMs One of the best ways to help your congregation live into this new model of care ministry is to continuously champion your CCMs—in conversation, through storytelling, and from the pulpit. Once your CCMs have been trained, I encourage you to commission them publicly during a worship service in order to affirm their ministry. It is a sort of credentialing or endorsement in the eyes of the average layperson, and when the pastor lays hands on and prays a commissioning prayer over the CCMs, it becomes a very serious and solemn way to reinforce care ministers as ministers. Choose a strategic time to commission. Consider when your congregation tends to reengage and attendance is higher. For us, we commissioned in the fall after school had started and before the holidays kicked into high gear. Other strategic times might include the beginning of the new year, right after Easter before the end of school year activities, at the end of a strategic sermon series about care, or right before a pastoral change. Pastors: give a gift to the pastor following you, and set them up for success! Regardless of when you commission, ask every CCM to attend every worship service for commissioning so that they are visible to all. For those who cannot make that work, ask them to submit a photo to be displayed on a slideshow while the others stand onstage during commissioning. Time Lines for Building the Need The time line for establishing the Congregational Care Ministry in a local church depends largely on the pastor’s current appointment. As you consider how you will strategically build the need in your context, consider the following time lines. If beginning a new appointment . . . ASAP Conversations about CCM with the SPRC at introductory meeting and following meetings. Get district superintendent/regional support prior to the introductory meeting, if possible. Request a list of names of possible CCMs from your SPRC or transition team. July 1 New appointment start date Month of July Meet leaders; home gatherings to meet congregation in small groups Month of August Home gatherings; connect with possible CCMs, invite them to apply; begin building the need from the pulpit and at home gatherings Month of September CCM training First Sunday of October Commissioning October—December Weekly small group meetings with CCMs for support and continued education November—December Incorporate at least one “hero-making” CCM story into a sermon. If mid-appointment . . . Current Quarter Individual and team conversations. Build the need into at least one sermon. Connect with possible CCMs. Next Quarter Complete CCM recruitment. Train. Build the need into at least one sermon, providing more details about the upcoming Congregational Care Ministry. Following Quarter Commission CCMs. Utilize all internal church communications to continue communicating the new shift. Last Quarter Incorporate at least one “hero-making” CCM story into a sermon. Assessing Your Community In this chapter, we provided tangible examples for how to build the need for your Congregational Care Ministry into conversations, strategic team meetings, church communications, and from the pulpit. Now, it is your turn to develop your time line and strategy for implementing the fifth essential! ​What will be your consistent messaging? ​Who do you need to have conversations with? ​Through which channels will you communicate the shift to the Congregational Care Ministry model? ​How will you incorporate building the need into sermons? ​What is your time line? Part Two Equipping Your Congregational Care Ministers Essential Material for CCM Training How to Use This Section Congregational Care Minister training is a critical part of the Congregational Care Ministry. You cannot develop this ministry or offer your congregation appropriate care without a well-trained team of Care Ministers, no matter your church’s size. Even a team of one or two people must receive the training. This section of the book (Part Two: Equipping Your Congregational Care Ministers) provides the essential information you’ll need for training CCMs. Each chapter covers a basic, foundational topic, and offers a variety of tools, methods, and techniques for CCMs to use. These chapters (6–12), along with The Congregational Care Ministry: Care Minister’s Manual, provide the necessary material to create a training process. Here’s what you need to know: ​The CCM training must be designed and conducted in a way that makes sense for your particular church. ​The pastor or other leader in charge of this Ministry should create a training process, using the chapters in this section as the foundation. ​We strongly suggest you develop your training topics in the order of these chapters, from Theology to Documentation. It is especially important to begin your training with Theology. ​Read through each chapter in this section and the corresponding chapter in the Care Minister’s Manual. Decide what material will be most important for your CCMs (perhaps all of it!). ​Draw from all the tools, methods, explanations, sample documents and instructions offered, in order to design effective training for your setting. ​Carefully review the chapters in Part Three of this book, and Segments 7–10 in the Care Minister’s Manual. These chapters address specific issues which may also be important for you to include in your training.