Caring for people in their times of need has always been a challenge for the local church. It is a challenge not because people do not care for others, but because the needs can become overwhelming. This is what was facing the early church in Acts 6. The Hellenistic widows were being missed in the member care. The apostles did not consider this an unworthy issue. Rather, it was a priority issue and they devised a plan.
In those days, as the disciples were increasing in number, there arose a complaint by the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution. The Twelve summoned the whole company of the disciples and said, “It would not be right for us to give up preaching the word of God to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we can appoint to this duty. (Acts 6:1-3)
The early church adopted this model of serving others and it became part of the church’s theology and culture. In Acts 2:44-46 we read, Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. In a growing church, we see an intentional strategy to care for everyone and help them when life gets complicated. They embrace the one another’s of the gospel.
A healthy church is one where the care of the members is the responsibility and privilege of everyone, not just the pastor(s) or deacons. The pastors and deacons should model the behavior that is to be emulated by the people in the church, but the full weight of caring for people in their times of need cannot be solely upon the shoulders of the pastors and deacons.
A church that views member care as pastoral care has an inadequate understanding of:
- The imago dei (image of God) – Every creation of God is valuable as a person because of the image of God in him or her. This means we serve everyone and this cannot be done by one person or even a small number in the church (deacons).
- The fellowship of the church – We are to live life together as part of the local body of Christ. This means that our lives are integrally related to others as members of a faith family. Family looks out for one another and helps one another.
- Office of deacon – Deacons are servant leaders who model servanthood. They are not Lone Rangers who should be expected to carry burdens by themselves. A deacon should know he can (and must) ask for help and church members should be ready to say “Yes” when the need is shared. The goal of the apostles in Acts 6 was not to weigh a group down as the only servants but as the lead servants.
- Office of pastor – Member care is part of what the pastor does as part of the local body of Christ and as the lead servant leader in the church. When a church expects the pastor to be everywhere and visit everyone, he will not be healthy in his own life, marriage and ministry. This was God inspired the apostles to avoid in Acts 6.
- The blessing of serving people in times of need – Helping people is sometimes awkward and inconvenient. Push through the awkward. Remember, you cannot sling grace from a distance. Incarnational ministry is hands-on and personal.
A healthy church has a culture of caring for people. It’s more than being friendly. It’s being relational. Create the environments that put people together to get to know one another (ie, small groups, ministry teams, church gathering events, good ole church fellowships, etc). At our church, we operate on this fellowship principle, “When we hangout together, we find out we like each other.”
One other step several of our church members have taken is to create a member care team. This is a team of men and women who write cards to people when there is a life event, take care baskets to persons who have had surgeries and couples who have had a baby, write cards of encouragement to staff and ministry leaders and much more. This was something that was initiated by church members who wanted to help the church love people well.
MichaelStovall 