First New Orleans Meets Needs with The Care Effect Ministry
- by: Marilyn Stewart 02/17/10
The result was Care Effect, a 3-pronged initiative of mission service, outreach and congregational care that is exceeding expectations four months after its launch.
“A Bible study might have dwindled by now,” said Anna Palmer, missions minister. “But people have kept coming back. The excitement has continued.”
Care Effect’s three ministry arms are: City Care, a multi-faceted venue that includes a church plant and caring outreach to women in the French Quarter; Community Care, a meal delivery system to those in need inside and outside the church; and Connecting Care, a contact network helping members stay connected and involved.
The programs are delivered on Wednesday night.
“That’s the beauty of it,” Bob Moore, associate pastor of administration, said. “There’s a ministry for everybody and members don’t have to give up another evening to serve.”
"Our mid-week church event is more a scattering than a gathering, but it is wonderful, passionate, and inspiring,” Crosby said.
Caring for the City
City Care team members serve hot meals to homeless persons at “The Wall,” a popular gathering place by the French Quarter, and at the New Orleans Mission. Others tutor disadvantaged students or minister to youth in the juvenile detention system.
At Temple of New Life, a Central City church plant that meets outside on a street corner, a City Care team serves meals to families and children.
The church plant began a year ago and grew, but then dwindled almost to zero when services were moved inside to First Baptist’s fellowship hall.
Ed Scott, church planter, said he prayed, “God, I don’t know what you’re doing, but I know this isn’t working.”
A blighted street corner became the church’s new location and the work grew again after Scott joined a booster club for youth games at a nearby park and began building relationships.
Scott knew partnering with City Care would address hunger in the neighborhood and draw a crowd. Team members serve while Scott preaches. More than 80 decisions have been made for Christ.
Bullet holes can be seen in the park’s shed and a Fall time change and earlier nightfall has dwindled the crowd somewhat, “but the number of City Care volunteers has increased,” Scott said.
“God has supernaturally allowed us to meet,” Scott said. “My goal is not just to start a church. My goal is to change a community.”
At Rivarde Juvenile Detention Center, team members share the Gospel with youth whose offenses range from truancy to drug abuse. Some they ministered to have fallen victim to violent crime after being released.
“The [team members] are serving on the frontlines,” Palmer said.
Fuel for the Future, another City Care component, sends needy children home from school on Fridays with backpacks filled with kid-friendly, microwaveable and nutritious food. School personnel helped identify those in need. Backpacks return on Monday to be refilled.
Team members of the recently-added component Inward deliver small gifts to women employees in the French Quarter while prayer walking and asking God to open doors for the Gospel.
Reaching outward while connecting inward
Community Care teams deliver two to three dozen meals weekly to those experiencing illness, crisis situations, or disability. Members identify community members in need.
Moore said that God has used the program to meet needs in unplanned and unexpected ways. One volunteer, a survivor of breast cancer, delivered a meal to a woman facing the same cancer. A different week, the mother of a Down syndrome child delivered a meal to a family with a special needs daughter.
Connecting Care is a way to stay in contact with those who come to church. Stationery, pens, stamps and addresses are provided so members write cards to send to members and visitors.
Moore said those unable to participate in off-site ministries can be involved in Community Care.
“We make it as easy as possible to be involved,” Moore said. “We even supply ‘White-Out.’”
The program’s venues have served nearly 4000 meals since August at a cost of $1,000 per week. The program averages 90 participants weekly. 700 contacts through cards and phone calls to members and guests have been logged.
“Care Effect helps us present the full-orbed message of the gospel of Christ,” Crosby said. “Just as God chose to complete his revelation to us by becoming flesh, so we complete the communication of the good news with its demonstration through lifestyle ministry.”
“It takes more than words to portray the nature of the one true God and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus,” Crosby said. “God has always been known by his acts. His church is also known in the world through acts even more so than words.”
The Care Effect Team welcomes partners in ministry. For information on how to get involved, call the church office at (504)482-5775.
Reprinted with permission from the Baptist Message, official newsjournal for the Louisiana Baptist Convention.