Frequently Asked Questions
Answering Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why do you keep referring to C.A.R.E. as a ministry and not a program?
C.A.R.E. is not a program because programs die. C.A.R.E. is not meant to be numbers or growth perpetuated. Programs hang on the skeleton of the C.A.R.E. ministry. Programs such as elderly and hospital C.A.R.E. exist within the C.A.R.E. ministry. C.A.R.E. is a living, breathing ministry. It’s integrity rests in its name. C.A.R.E. is a ministry that exists to use the gifts of your congregation to meet the needs of people inside and outside of your church consistently and continually.
2. Why don’t you call C.A.R.E. outreach or visitation?
C.A.R.E. is not simply outreach or visitation. Although outreach is a very important avenue of the C.A.R.E. ministry, it is not the only avenue. C.A.R.E. focus’s on meeting needs through other avenues such as inreach, prayer, hands-on and hospitality. Not all of your people will use their gifts in the area of outreach because only about 10% have the gift of evangelism. C.A.R.E. is an all inclusive ministry that allows your whole congregation to be evangelistic by using their gift in obedience to the Great Commission.
3. Our church already has a healthy outreach and benevolence program in place why should we implement a C.A.R.E. ministry?
Upon close observation you will find that you do need a C.A.R.E. ministry. Many times various church programs may cause a sense of fragmenting among the people. C.A.R.E. gives your people an opportunity to come together and minister. Many people will get to know other members better than they had known them before. This will build health and unity among your congregation. If you are currently using programs that meet needs the C.A.R.E. ministry will enhance and enforce them. C.A.R.E. also gives people who would normally be unnoticed, a platform to use their gifts, bring glory to God and build a testimony.
4. When would be a good kickoff date for the C.A.R.E. ministry?
You have seen what works best in your church. Generally, any time during the summer or around holidays is not good. Think about either the new year, spring or around September.
5. What do you do with children and students?
The C.A.R.E. ministry also involves using the gifts of your students and children. Teens take an active role in C.A.R.E. As your C.A.R.E. cards are processed, your students should C.A.R.E. for the needs of their peers. Students may also C.A.R.E. along side of adults. This will build relationships between your students and the adults in your church. Children also have a place to serve within the C.A.R.E. ministry. On the Internet (SBC Address) you can find out all of the missionaries within your denomination and a list of their birthdays. Children can write cards and letters to them to affirm C.A.R.E. to those serving around the world. Children may also write to the elderly and shut-in in your church. Imagine one of your members finding out that their elderly mother, who is confined to a nursing home, received eighteen cards, three potted plants and two visits last month. What a testimony of C.A.R.E.!
6. How do people discover their spiritual gifts?
You have probably spent some time teaching on the subject of discovering your spiritual gifts in the past. Spiritual gifts are as biblical as John 3:16, the problem lies in having opportunities for application. The C.A.R.E. ministry gives your people an outlet to use their spiritual gifts and allows your teaching to turn into applied learning.
7. Will my pastoral workload increase?
Initially your workload will increase, but here you must count the costs. Will your people benefit? As your people begin to discover their gifts and become leaders they will be able to take the load off of you and allow you to focus on the work of the pastoral ministry. The C.A.R.E. ministry allows your people to C.A.R.E. and function as the body of Christ.
8. I do not have a clue about computers can I still implement the C.A.R.E. ministry? Yes! Don’t be discouraged by a lack of computer knowledge. C.A.R.E. can be accomplished without a computer if necessary. However, almost every church in America will have someone who is well versed in using a computer. Use the resources available to you. Be sure to give the person who is good with a computer the opportunity to use their gift to C.A.R.E. Remember C.A.R.E. is bigger than one person.
9. As pastor what is my primary job in C.A.R.E.?
The primary role of the pastor is to equip and encourage. Which happens to be one of your biblical job descriptions (Eph. 4:12) Make sure your people are as prepared as they can be and that they have an understanding of C.A.R.E.. Continually cast vision and motivate. Remember to exhort and show appreciation to your members even when your C.A.R.E. day gets hectic.
10. Should people that are already in leadership or on staff fill leadership positions in the C.A.R.E. ministry?
Ideally, you do not want to use people who are already serving in leadership positions to take leading roles in your C.A.R.E. ministry. The purpose of C.A.R.E. is to allow others in your congregation to become active leaders. Remember you want to let your people lighten the load on your staff. Initiate the policy of replacing yourself. Try to find the next person who could serve in leadership.
11. Do my people lock in to one avenue of C.A.R.E. or can they experiment?
The C.A.R.E. ministry allows your people to be free to find the avenue of C.A.R.E. that suits them best. Encourage your team members to experiment and use their gifts in different avenues. If you need more members to serve in a particular area on a particular night, feel free to recruit volunteers, but for the most part encourage experimentation.
12. How adaptable is C.A.R.E.?
The C.A.R.E. ministry is highly adaptable. C.A.R.E. is not a “boxed in” ministry. Make C.A.R.E. work in your church, however, take special C.A.R.E. not to violate the integrity and principle foundations of the C.A.R.E. ministry. The following are some area of adaptability.
One room?
Ideally, one room is best. It promotes unity and excitement. However find what works best for your congregation and your space limitations. Childcare. will most likely be separate from the C.A.R.E. arena.
12 months a year?
C.A.R.E. should be done twelve months a year. You do not want to get behind on caring for the needs of your church and community. Also, C.A.R.E. is too important to put on hold. Frequency is up to your judgment. C.A.R.E. can be done four weeks a month or two weeks a month or even once every two months. Just make sure you deal with time sensitive needs and keep up with the prayer request of your people. Find what suits your church best.
Can I adapt leadership?
You may find that you don’t have enough leaders initially to fill all of the positions within the C.A.R.E. ministry. Adapt your C.A.R.E. program to fit your available resources. For example, you might have your Co-Captain’s do the job of assignment leaders until you develop more leadership.
Caring for people that aren’t on assignment sheets?
If one of your members wants to C.A.R.E. for a need that is not on an assignment sheet by all means let them. The goal of C.A.R.E. is to see your people use their gifts to C.A.R.E.. It is not utterly imperative that they follow an assignment sheet. You want them to C.A.R.E.!
13. Will this help my church grow?
I know this question is in the back of your mind but let me remind you. Growth is God’s business. What I mean is that our job is to sow. God will reap. Let me ask you this, will C.A.R.E. make your church healthy? Yes! And healthy churches grow.
14. Will I need to add staff?
Maybe not initially but as C.A.R.E. grows so should your vision. Just as you would prepare for a child to grow, you should plan for your C.A.R.E. ministry to develop. Your people need to see you and your staff giving it your all. As they see your hard work and effort, when you reach the point that you can’t do anymore, they will accept new staff to help shoulder the load. By the way, an effective C.A.R.E. ministry is like adding two new staff positions.
15. How does C.A.R.E. relate to Sunday school or small group ministry?
I’m excited about answering this question. C.A.R.E. will revolutionize most small groups for several reasons! One, most of our classes don’t need work in the area of teaching they need work in the area of application. C.A.R.E. allows members to apply what they learn. Two, it allows class leaders an outlet to meet needs. Needs can be meet indirectly every week and directly every month. Three, it promotes unity among the class. Classes work side by side accomplishing ministry by using like gifts. Four, it opens lines of communication. If someone enrolled in one class is ministering to the needs of someone in another class. They are trained to ask if there is a need that I can relate to your class leader. We encourage classes to seek and meet the needs of their members before they move on to other people.
16. How do you balance the avenues of C.A.R.E.?
One of the greatest concerns about the C.A.R.E. ministry is that all of your members will want to do one certain avenue. God has already balanced the avenues of C.A.R.E. by giving your people specific gifts. You can count on about a fifth of your members to choose each avenue.
17. What about my deacon’s ministry?
Wow! Lets talk about liberating deacons to do ministry. The majority of the work a deacon does is behind the scenes and can seem overwhelming. Our deacons practice family ministry. Each one is given a certain number of people to minister to and is expected to C.A.R.E. for their needs. Every month our deacons receive results of C.A.R.E. concerning the families they serve. They then are not staring at a list of names with no needs meet. In turn, they are sparked into action filling the gaps that were not meet by the C.A.R.E. ministry. On our C.A.R.E. reports every prayer request is listed. You should have seen the look on the teenage girls face when her deacon told her he had been praying for her softball tryouts and asked how they went.
18. What if nobody at my church is hearing what I’m trying to say about C.A.R.E.?
If no one is catching the vision that you are casting you need to do several things. The first thing is to understand that we are here to support you. If you are not getting encouragement from anywhere else no you can get it here. The second thing you need to do is pray. Do not feel any pressure from anybody but God. If you have been pushed or pressured by this ministry then we apologize. It is important to get God’s direction and that requires praying and asking God to show you where He is at work in your church. The third thing you need to do is evaluate your motives in regard to why you want to do C.A.R.E. They need to by pure. The fourth thing is to ask questions about your leadership ability. Have you done a good job of casting vision and leading your people to C.A.R.E. If from behind the pulpit is the first time your leadership hears about C.A.R.E. then you haven’t communicated well.
19. What has been the reaction of the churches around you?
As you C.A.R.E. throughout the community, you may eventually find other churches accusing you of trying to steal membership. The integrity of C.A.R.E. is not in persuading prospects but in simply caring for them. Your message is, I C.A.R.E. for you is there anything I can pray for you about. You are not debating, defending or discussing anything just caring. Don’t allow criticism to hinder you. Remember, you don’t want to settle into the “church as usual” mentality. Not everyone will be doing a C.A.R.E. ministry, but don’t be concerned trying to be like everyone else. We are to C.A.R.E. for people, no matter what denomination or background they represent.
20. I’m an excited staff member but my pastor’s heart isn’t in it, what do I do?
Halt the whole process! Do not go any further until your pastor is on board and leading 100 percent. He is the leader of the church and yours is a subordinate position. Cast the vision to your pastor after much prayer and planning. Communicate to him exactly what will be required of Him and how you believe it will benefit His ministry
21. Is it a good idea to get someone from a church that is already doing C.A.R.E. to come and communicate the ministry to my people?
No, this is not a good idea! That would be good for other churches that are doing C.A.R.E. egos but bad for your church. The reason is that no one knows your church like you do. Your people do not need to see someone else’s heart they need to see your heart. Come to a seminar, you and your team digest the manual and start implementing the process. If there is a need for special consultation please feel free to call or check the web site.
