CARE MINISTRY COHORT:

CLICK HERE to check out the Care Ministry Cohort website
CLICK HERE to register for the next upcoming information session

 

 

In today’s show,  we are going to be talking all about rebuilding your care ministry after COVID with my friend Melissa and we are going to be sharing this in the same framework that The Care Ministry Cohort follows. 

 

 WHAT IS THE CARE MINISTRY COHORT?

A cohort is a group of 15 people who meet weekly for 6 months walking through a proven process to build or strengthen your church’s care ministry.  

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For more information, you can go to careministrycohort.com.

 

How to rebuild your care ministry in 6 months

 

MONTH #1
Building a Plan

Melissa had a hard time with this module as she is not a big fan of administration work because she knew how to care for people yet was unaware of the process to follow.

However, later on, she learned to appreciate the workflows as she realized the steps are necessary when caring for people.

When assessing the care situation at church, she discovered that everyone had a different opinion of what care meant for them. This was an eye-opening experience for cultivating an all-inclusive program.

 

MONTH #2
Building Partners

Melissa shared that this month she started creating a resource guide for individuals or companies that support the church this way they could create relationships with them to carry out outreach and care for people in the community.

Partnering with other people expands your capacity to care for people because, in circumstances where the church cannot be all things for them, there is another solution offered.

 

MONTH #3
Building your team

Navigating through this module was a bit hard when church resumed after COVID as shared by Laura due to the changes that happened.

But this created room for people so passionate about care to come through as volunteers and different individuals came forward to share how they wanted to be cared for.

When identifying volunteers to support in the church there is a tendency to look at people who are successful in their businesses or marriages while ignoring people who have lived experiences.

It is important that create an all-round team of teachable and respectable people.

 

MONTH #4
Building Programs

There were some core programs that Laura and Melissa wanted to strengthen in their church.

Some of the most impactful programs that were strengthened were The Benevolence department.

This gave the church the opportunity to get to know people and set them up for a successful future.

Other programs include Prayer Requests, Meal Train and Spiritual Care. Success was also shown in the Prayer Requests program as it was completely transformed from what it used to be. 

It also took the load off the lead pastor as church members thought their requests could only be delivered to the Pastor. 

 

MONTH #5
Building Capacity

In the 5th month, we look at 4 key areas that will build the capacity for your church to offer care and scale. 

These are team wellness, crisis planning, ethics, and boundaries then policies and procedures.

With the team growing daily, it’s important to offer training and support to energize the church volunteers to be able to serve and remind them of their value.

 

MONTH #6
Building communication

This is an area that the church is still working on because you can create the greatest care ministry however if people do not know about it then all is in vain. 

Do people in your church know what is available and how can they access it?

It is important to talk about the good and bad that comes along with care and with the cohort you will be able to learn from other people’s lived experiences as well as enable you to live out God’s vision for your care ministry.

 

CONNECT WITH HOPE MADE STRONG

Websites: HopeMadeStrong.org

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Resources: 

The Care Ministry Cohort | Care Ministry Cohort information session 

Join the Church Mental Health Facebook Group! In the Facebook group, we chat about how to care for others, and what are your challenges as well as share tons of resources.  This is a great community of pastors, clinicians, and those with lived experience and we want to get to know you.