We have been presented with a ministry opportunity at St. John's. One of our members has a strong desire to serve in a capacity for pastoral care and visitation. As there is always a big need for more pastoral care of the sick and homebound, we are presenting the possiblity of him going through the SMP program through Concordia, St. Louis and uplifting our ministry. In essence, he will follow the education through distance for 2 years as a vicar and then another 2 years as "pastor" untill he is certified as a Speicific ministry pastor.
I know there are quite a few individuals who are against this program, but I see many benefits if the program is followed correctly. One of them is that churches will be able to focus more on mission and evangelism if they uplift men to increase pastoral care. For us, this does not mean that I will not visit people in the hospital or shut-ins, but it means that if someone is in need of care longer than a few weeks, we will have someone to visit them for a longer period of time. He will also lead Bible Studies, recruit other members to be in visitation, preach, and lead worship.
This will allow myself and our evangelism board to greatly increase our evangelistic ministry in North Prairie. One thing that is coming up is what we are calling a "Prayer Walk." What I will be doing, and anybody who wants to join me, is walk through the village of North Prairie door to door and ask people if they have prayer requests. The statement will go something like this...."As Christ has given us all things, we at St. John's want to lift up prayers for our community to our loving God. Do you have any prayer requests?" We will not try to "sell" our church, we won't try to fool someone into Christianity, and we won't give them any literature. It is a simple thing to show that we care about our community and more importantly that our Lord does also.
Any thoughts on other evangelism ideas that show our community that we care for them?
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