Wendy Hammond

I'm all about ministry "with," not ministry "to." How about inviting the group for a get together and asking them to come up with a name that resonates with them?

I was never really in to the crossover stuff, although a couple of years ago I was representing World Renew at a Christian festival and Amy Grant was there. We were excited to hear her sing and one of the interns with us asked if she was a good singer, he'd never heard of her. Made me feel super old!

This is a great topic! Diaconal Ministries Canada has a number of resources, in case you haven't seen them: https://diaconalministries.com/

We (World Renew, Diaconal Ministries Canada) very much agree that COVID is presenting such an important opportunity for churches to grow in new ways.

So glad these conversations are happening!

You had asked for creator stories.

One excellent example from within the CRC was discovered by Jodi Koeman, World Renew Church with Community Coordinator, when she was connecting with churches to find best practices around diaconal responses to COVID.

From Mosaic Church in Bellingham, WA. “Our communities are both very active on a communal level and an individual level. Part of our initial heart was not to centralize everything within the ‘church’, but rather to engage with organizations that already exist and are doing great work. Part of the motivation for this is our understanding that many people in our cities do not trust the ‘church’ and therefore, want nothing to do with their message. Rebuilding that trust means that we go and serve, trusting that as our light shines, they will see our work and glorify our Father in heaven. As a result of this mindset, our people are already serving all over the place,” said senior pastor Matt Atkins.

Just a note about the “experimentation” language - we need to be careful in how we view and approach those who are from different backgrounds. In Death and Resurrection of an Urban Church, Rev. Mike Mather says, ““The church, and me in particular, has done a lot of work where we have treated the people around us as if, at worst, they are a different species and, at best, as if they are people to be pitied and helped by us.”

World Renew-US and Diaconal Ministries Canada are available to help churches with diaconal and community transformation.

Great tips here, Jodi!

A note about food/clothing/toy drives - while it makes us feel good to give, we need to be sure that we are doing it in a way that helps rather than hurts. Last year Andrew Ryskamp, CRCNA Diaconal Ministry Initiative and Ron VandenBrink, National Director Diaconal Ministries Canada did a webinar on this topic: https://network.crcna.org/deacons/helping-helps-christmas-and-beyond

It may be different in Canada, but I'm not so sure that our churches are all that great at embracing people of different ethnic groups or ministering to the poor. Sure, they are seen as recipients of our charity but to effectively combat poverty is a different story. That's why I really love the model found in Walking with the Poor and When Helping Hurts. If we recognize that poverty is the result of broken relationships with with God, with self, with others and with creation, and that all of us are poor in some way, then helping people with those relationships will allow us to minister to both the materially poor and rich alike. 

Pastor Jim, I love hearing about God is using you to bring so many to faith. You are a blessing.