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The following information is taken from different parts
of the Church Care Web site that deal specifically and
exclusively with the individual volunteer assistance opportunities
offered by Church Care Indianapolis:
The Reason for Church Care
Churches, because they have no relationship with the legitimate
poor and needy (outside those they may have in their own
congregations), do not know who they are, what their condition
may be, or how they may be reached. Few churches maintain
a "helping hands" time/talent/treasure
inventory and thus do not know who within their church
might be willing and able volunteer responders to the
help requests that come to their church.
Conversely, agencies, because they do have a relationship
with the poor, know who the poor are and what real needs
they have - needs not addressed by the agency system.
They also know that if there are volunteers able and willing
to respond to such needs, they are almost always in our
community's churches. But, they don't know who the willing
and able volunteers are or how to reach them. The consequence of this plain truth is that the needs
remain and can only multiply. They are real, but there
is no way to attend them. There has been no bridge to connect
those in need with those who are able and willing to respond
to their needs. Church Care is that bridge.
Church Care is not connected with any formal office promoting
Faith Based Initiative. Nevertheless, Church Care makes
possible the efficient operation of what actually is and
has been a form of Faith Based Initiative, i.e., the partnership
between the secular community and the community's churches
to affect a fruitful volunteer response in the name of
Christ to the legitimate needy in our community.
Church Care is Year Round
Each weekday of the 17 years of our presence here, agency
people (case workers) have referred to Church Care the
poor people they are trying to serve - needy people who
have very real problems that are beyond their own means
or ability to remedy without help - problems that are
not addressed by the agency system. They are asking us
in case after case, day after day as these problems surface,
if Church Care can please find volunteer help somewhere
in our 1,200 local churches - someone to come and look
and hopefully respond to these people with legitimate
needs that won't wait until Thanksgiving or Christmas.
The Church, as we see every year, engages in a very public
way with the poor through the months of November and December.
We note too, as the excitement of the season passes, so
too passes the depth of the interest in serving the needy.
The needy are a revolving body-different people with different
needs. The body doesn't go away. It is always there, as
are legitimate needs that won't wait until the next "giving
season" rolls around - they surface only to slip
through the cracks without notice or remedy. It happens
every day of the year.
We need a way to perpetuate, in some measure, the spirit
of Christmas, day by day, through all the months of every
year. Church Care Indy tries to be that way. Church Care
exists to facilitate a visible and a powerful presence
of our local Christian churches (the one body of Christ)
working together to respond to the legitimate needs of
the poor as they surface and are identified, one by one,
case by case, every day of the year. All of these requests
come to us from agency people. Can Church Care find Christian
help and count on Christian response to legitimate needs?
We hope and pray we can. We hope and pray you will join
with others to make it happen.
Promises to Church Volunteers
- Any need referred for your response, you may feel
free to decline without guilt. There is no pressure.
The need will be cared for by another volunteer either
from your church or another. You may be asked at some
other time.
- Any need referred for your response will be legitimate
- checked out in every detail.
- Any need referred for your response will be manageable
- it will have a beginning and an end - no open end
situations.
- You are not signing on to any regular service.
- There are no committees to join or meetings to attend.
- Any need referred for your response will be specific
- no vague instructions.
- Any need referred for your response will be a need
that cannot be served by any funded agency or any church
not participating in the network - no duplication of
time and effort.
- Any need referred for your response will be located
in your church zone. That means it will be on your side
of the city.
- Your gift of talent and time is what you decide to
give. You are not identified with an agency or any particular
ministry. It's talent and time that you alone control.
You give today and wait for God's call to serve a need
specified by you.
- You are never asked to give your talents or your time
except those that you mark on the Talent/Time Inventory.
- Your talent/time given to the poor and other needy
through the Church Care System in no way affects any other
of your church ministry or agency relationships.
- Requests for volunteer help are in narrative form
giving complete description of the need situation and
sent to you as e-mail--e-request we call it. Your response
to a Church Care request may be delivered by e-mail reply
or by phone.
To volunteer, please fill out our Talent
Bank Inventory or Contact Us
if you have any questions.
About the "Waiting" Volunteer
Christian Service Pool - Individuals or Small Groups
Church Care processes "need" referrals as they
come, and they come every day. We don't know where or
when or anything about them until we receive them. Church
Care Indy is not project oriented, meaning we are not
recruiting to a certain ongoing ministry work, but rather
to a Christian volunteer outreach service pool that waits
to be called - but waits ready to respond if and when
the call comes. What can Church Care do with legitimate
referrals for Christian help if nobody across our church
community will say, "Yes, I am willing to receive
and examine certain pre-selected types of need situations,
to accept or not as my time and circumstances allow -
if and when I receive a request"? The volunteers
signing up with Church Care have not obligated themselves
to anything except to allow Church Care to e-mail them
a help request (PDF 64k)
for their consideration. All correspondence between Church
Care and any volunteer or church is private information
and held strictly so. (See Confidentiality
- Church Care's Policy.)
Church Care does not see the Christian mission as "ending
poverty." The Scriptures tell us poverty (the poor)
will always be with us, but if we give God his way, they
will be a cared for poor and the Christian churches will
be their caregiver. Indeed, the poor and other needy are
God's way of drawing us to charity. Out of Charity (practiced)
comes Love. Out of Love (practiced) comes God's Peace
and Joy. So - what if we volunteer in charity to serve
a stranger in need, through Church Care, expecting to be
called - waiting to be called, but are disappointed because
we are not called right away or are not called often?
We pose this question because it could happen. It doesn't
matter. If, for whatever reason, you are not called or
not called often - the full value of your free will "giving"
of self to God in this way stands "still full value"
- undiminished. It is the Christian's part to be available.
It is God's part to call him/her when He wants them.
But, watch for this - it is true. You will see when giving
yourself to God for this purpose - "serving one of
the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did
it for me", God will surely respond to your gift.
While we wait for His call through Church Care to serve the
stranger - as we wait, and pray, He will reveal to us,
one after the other, need situations present, but not
apparently so, in our personal environments. He will give
us new grace to recognize them and act upon them. He will
satisfy our hearts, calling our attention to the little
ways we can reveal to others close by, His kindness, His
goodness, His care and His love.
The Lord chose his apostles, asking not for their abilities,
but for their availability. He promised them, as he promises
us, to be our sufficiency for whatever we lack to carry
out what he has called us to be and to do. "Be not
afraid," he said. Church Care will never have to ask
any volunteer for "too much" if we can build
this "Waiting" Volunteer Christian Service Pool
to be many volunteers across many denominations. Please
be a "helping hand". Fill out our Talent
Bank Inventory or Contact Us if you have any questions.
Volunteer in the Church Care office
At the bottom of the Talent Bank
Inventory form, we are asking for help in the Church
Care office. If you are in a position to give just a little
of your time in one of the several volunteer service as
mentioned, please use the form to ask questions about
those service areas and/or to let us know what you would
like to do.
About Prayer
See our Prayer Page. Will you
pray for Church Care, our support needs, and for specific
situations of need for the poor that we post on the web?
If you are willing to pray, please let us know that Church
Care and those we serve can count on you. Please contact
us.
About Financial Support
Church Care Indy is a 501(c)3 organization. Donations
to Church Care are tax deductible. Church Care is not
funded. All staff and board members are full or part-time
volunteers. Volunteers do all the work that you see exhibited
through the Church Care web pages - including the construction
of the Web site itself and our new e-Newsletter as well.
We can put out the work. We have been doing it now for
17 years, but we can't also pay normal operational expenses
without help. Church Care has no money. Church Care is
a local Christian mission depending solely upon Christian
resources - Christian churches, individuals and business
people for free will donations. Some who read this will
not, for various reasons, be able to volunteer time and
talent, but can provide much needed financial help. Click
Contribute to Church Care.
Any amount will help us keep our doors open
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