Community Service Ministry coming soon!

A new ministry will be starting up soon with the goal of serving and reflecting Christ to the less fortunate in our community.

By Steve McMaster
Community Service Ministries Director
 
Since leaving the leadership of the Service Team of the singles ministry, I have felt called to help Lincoln Berean complete the vision of the Service core value by expanding it from serving within the church to also serving within our community.

The target group will be to serve faith-based charities and non-profit groups which serve the area’s needy: the homeless, poor, disabled, abused, unemployed, elderly and more.

The primary goal of this ministry is to equip LifeGroups and ministries with the necessary information to serve.  Last year, the LifeGroup that my wife and I lead tried to serve on two separate occasions.  We were frustrated after too many people showed up for one opportunity and when simple communication issues derailed the second.  As a result, it became clear to me that we needed an easy way for people to identify service opportunities.

With this as the objective, it was decided that this ministry would be primarily Web-based.  After a submittal and review process, projects will be posted on the Community Service Ministry page on Lincoln Berean’s Web site.  All of the necessary contact and project information will be included so that LifeGroups and ministry leaders will have all they need to go out and serve.

As someone who has been involved with United Way of Lincoln on various levels, I can tell you that there is an immense need – not just for work to be done, but also for hearts to be reached.  On several occasions when working on service projects in the past, people have asked me why we were there.  When they hear that we are representing a local church and are serving others just like Christ did for us, they are often taken aback and have to rethink some things they believe about God and about Christians.  In addition, on some occasions, ensuing conversations have led to more significant opportunities to share the Good News with the people who need to hear it the most.

Be sure to stop by the Community Service Ministry booth at the Ministry Fair next month.  By then, we hope to have the Web site up and running!

1 Peter 4:10 “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”