How does Church Care serve the poor?

Church Care Indy does not, in a direct way, serve the poor. Church Care's whole purpose for being is to help churches reach out to the poor. We identify the legitimate poor. We help identify Christian volunteers willing to reach out to the poor. We bring them together so that both the servant and the served may be edified by the kindness, the goodness, the care and love of Christ. In this way, we help the churches make Christ visible outside the walls of our community's church buildings.

Who may be served by church volunteers through the Church Care system?

Any referred person or family who registers need situations found (through the screening process) to be legitimate and feasible. Church Care takes referrals only from churches or agencies. We do not take calls from the street for several reasons. 1) We have found it necessary to work with people who, before they reach Church Care, have told their stories to someone else. 2) Taking calls from the street swamps our system and jams our telephones. 3) 100% of direct calls are for money or money equivalents. Church Care has neither. See Who Does Church Care Help?

From start to finish, how much time does the screening process take?
The Church Care research starts when the interview information is transferred from the paper intake form into the computer database. It is impossible to predict - so we don’t try. How many volunteers are in the office, and how many referrals are pouring in? It differs from day to day. The finished report is e-mailed to the referring church only when the verification work has been completed. In this regard, the Church Care office can make no promises, nor should the referring church attempt to do so. Church Care Indy cannot demand a quick response from an agency, a case worker, service provider, a hospital, a church pastor, a landlord or a former landlord, an employer or a former employer, a homeless shelter, a food pantry, the trustees office, the utility companies, or any other creditor or verification source. Almost always a request for verification must be a message left on voice mail which means--wait for the return call. Many times it means make another call, leave a message, and wait and wait some more.

Is the Church Care Talent Bank Inventory also used to serve our own church members and attendees?
Yes, both as to serving and being served. We are eager to serve our brothers and sisters in need, but sometimes we find it is our own who have the need to be served. Fill out the Talent Bank Inventory.

Note: The Church Ministries List should be a separate form as to avoid any confusion. Church ministries are seeking pro-active committee members. The Church Care volunteer service pool is a waiting resource. Volunteers respond to referred need services on a case by case basis, as needed - no committee, no agendas, no meetings. Most often the needs they are asked to serve have a beginning and an end - if otherwise, it is very specifically noted and appropriately discussed with the volunteer.

Can a church subscribe to Church Care screening services only?
Yes. Our churches are besieged by requests for money or money equivalents, vouchers, utilities, rents, foods and clothes - each church responds differently and few, if any, have the staff, skills or time to check the legitimacy of the stories that they are told. Though Church Care's primary focus is on "Helping Churches Help the Poor" in face to face ministry, every church would benefit tremendously if they simply used Church Care's screening services in every situation where they are asked to pay someone's bills or hand out goods without first checking for truth. The Church Care screening process is saving participating churches many thousands of dollars that might otherwise be paid in "bogus need" situations. See Annual Support Contribution.

How does an interested church proceed? What are the steps?
Register your interest with Church Care using our contact form. Are you interested in full or partial participation or financial contributions only? There are multiple options. See Suggested Annual Support Contribution or see how the process works - step by step. Our contact form gives you the opportunity to comment or to ask questions that may not be answered to your satisfaction. We will respond back to your inquiries as soon as possible to get the process rolling.

How may interested Christians be involved if their church is not a full participant in the Church Care network?
You may register as an individual and/or a small Christian group may register. Involvement may be for financial support, for physical volunteer participation, or both. If you fill out the Talent Bank Inventory, Church Care will email for your consideration thoroughly screened need situations that match those you have agreed to consider. Also see the How You Can Help page for more information.

May any person wanting to serve the poor work through Church Care?
No. We serve in the name of Christ. That is our intention - to serve Christ by helping churches serve the least of His brothers and sisters in His name. Any person who does not believe in Christ as Savior and Lord would not be comfortable in the Church Care environment or with its intentions.

Is Church Care affiliated with any particular Christian denomination?
No. Church Care is independent and not associated with any denomination. We serve Christ by serving His one body. We help show the oneness Christ prays for by helping churches serve the poor under one banner - in the name of Christ we serve His poor. We believe there should be no scriptural justification for any Christian Church to withhold their compassion and care for the legitimate poor in our community.

Is Church Care funded by United Way or by city, state or federal governments?
No. Church Care has chosen the hard way to go. History shows clearly that Christian dependence on government funds soon works against concerted Christian action in public places. We are dependent solely upon donations from individuals, Christian churches and Christian business people for our operational expenses. We will continue to seek capital improvement funds through foundations and other private institutional sources. We depend upon Christian sources for our operational expense needs. In the volunteer business, that means keeping the doors open and the services outgoing month after month.

Please be as generous as possible, that your donations might make our way and our time here more productive in helping our local churches help people with legitimate needs.

If volunteers need materials in their work, who pays for them?
Church Care finds the volunteers, but we also take the responsibility of finding the money to purchase any materials required. The answer, however, involves the situation. Sometimes the volunteer (by choice) does pay for the materials, but Church Care does not ask those who volunteer their time, talent and labor to also stand the cost of the materials that may be involved. Certainly, if they choose to pay, that is their privilege and blessing. Sometimes their own church benevolence committee is the source of those funds. Other times, their church will front the total cost in order to get the project and the volunteer going. However, they may seek reimbursement of all or some stated part of the costs through Church Care. Church Care contacts several other churches participating in the Church Care network for parts of the total. Churches have been more responsive to requests for outlays of this type than they have for the payment of rents or utility bills of people to whom they have never talked or haven't seen.

For outreach purposes, what does Church Care consider to be the church neighborhood?
The poorest of the poor live downtown - urban street. The Christian resources, human and financial, mostly live in suburbia - not a good match. In order to give all participating churches a fair share of the care needed in those places where the poor live, Church Care usually considers the church's neighborhood to be that whole quadrant of the city in which the church itself is located.

Doesn't the Church Care Service Outreach duplicate or overlap existing benevolence programs in the church?
No. Any existing outreach programs continue to function exactly as always. Church Care simply expands outreach to 40 plus areas of service giving the local agencies a way to refer into the churches for volunteer help in the many areas of need they cannot address. Actually, Church Care can be simply incorporated into and made a part of that present ministry which manages and oversees the activities of all outreach.

Doesn't the Church Care Service Outreach duplicate or overlap existing benevolence programs in the agencies?
No. This is a matter of Church Care policy. Whether a referral has come to Church Care from a church or from an agency source, the initial resource search will be in the agency system. If the service requested can be handled by a funded agency, it will be referred to the agency. Church Care has installed in its computers contact data and service descriptions for all 1200 funded agencies now serving the Indianapolis area. Referrals to churches are only those which the agencies cannot or will not address.

How does Church Care decide to which church a screened and legitimate hands-on need will be referred?
Needy persons who are affiliated with a church are first referred to their own church. Those with no church affiliation (85% are not) are referred to a participating church in the church zone where they reside. Need requests to churches are made on a rotating basis within their zone area in order that no Church receive more than an even share of referrals. Churches within a zone or within adjoining zone areas may be requested to work cooperatively in meeting certain needs not easily accomplished by a single church.

Have a question that wasn't answered here? Please contact us.

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