Step 1. Prayer
The most crucial step is to find out God’s will regarding the ministry. You know that having a program to support the sick is always going to be within God’s will, but what you don’t know is what kind of program, when to start it, what it should cover, who should run it, and what God wants to accomplish with it. Therefore, the church needs to seek those answers first from God. A program like this could go in many directions. Find out in which direction God wants you to go, and you will be successful. Try to do it without including God, and your struggles may fall flat even though you have good intentions.
Once you know that God wants you to move forward and have a general idea of your direction, you need a planning committee to brainstorm how to implement a program.
Step 2. Defining Your Program
- What is the goal of your program? Do you want to provide only a worship service they can attend virtually, or do you want to provide a virtual Sunday school class or regular group get-togethers through Zoom or something similar? Do you want to include the option to contact them to offer help services?
- Determine program eligibility requirements. Those with a medical condition lasting six weeks or longer? Anyone incapacitated if living alone? Is there any limit to how long it will last?
- How will it be managed? A leader or an oversight committee?
- What type of training do the volunteers need?
- How many volunteers will you need?
- Do you need any insurance or legal protection for a program where you go into someone’s home to help them?
- What type of consent, privacy concerns and records do you want to have?
- Do you want to restrict your program to medical needs only or expand it to help those with other catastrophic losses such as fires, suicide, destroyed homes, etc.,
Step 3. What Types of Situations Should be Supported?
Most churches are familiar with the type of medical conditions and serious injuries that occur in their congregations. Members share prayer concerns regularly, thereby identifying the situations addressed in this program. Here are some examples:
- Disabled due to chronic illnesses–a medical condition lasting over six months.
- Individuals with developmental disabilities – mental or physical.
- Catastrophic Accidents – Injuries requiring more than six months of recovery time.
- Catastrophic loss – death, divorce, fire- leaves a family with significant alterations to life.
- Mental Health – Addictions, Depression, Memory Loss, Mental Illness, Dementia
- Caregivers for all the above.
Step 4. Identifying Barriers to Participation
Many homebound individuals cannot come to church due to fear of exposure to infection, inability to gain access to their Sunday School classrooms, or structural barriers preventing them from accessing the worship areas for their age group. For others, the issue concerns bathroom designs that are not user-friendly. Still, others cannot see or hear the media or materials used during worship or class time.
Just as hundreds of medical conditions exist, so does the need for accommodation. Each church must survey its members to determine what types of needs exist. Many families suffer in silence but will happily share their needs with you if you ask. I recommend checking your membership roster to identify who used to attend church but hasn’t come in months. Visit them to find out why. Even if it’s not a medical reason, you will gain important information about your church.
Step 5. Data Collection
You need data to determine your church’s needs. How you gather your data depends on its size.
If your church
- is large, you’ll probably need to design an electronic survey. If it’s small, you may be able to do it 1:1.
- Allow those surveyed to remain anonymous or to identify themselves at the end. Some people do NOT want anyone to know about their medical conditions.
- Keep the survey short and easy.
