I am hoping that those of you reading have spent the last week praying about this exciting, rewarding journey you are about to take. Some people now would start buying non-perishable items. They may start to determine who they will be serving. Maybe you have thought about searching Amazon for books or looking for internet resources to educate yourself. I would say, slow down little puppy. It tain’t time to run with the big dawgs yet.

I believe the best next step is to find a place to dedicate to your ministry of helps. I believe many times our most fruitful areas of ministry are where God gave us the most gifts. I consider all I have to be gifts of our wondrous God. If you have just one large closet, maybe a clothing ministry would be where you should start. If I have a storage room in the basement, maybe non-perishables, plastic children’s toys are where you should start. If I have a 20,000 foot warehouse, maybe a ministry that takes furniture or cars and finds people in need. If all I have is a corner in a kitchen, then I can stack bins and focus on rice, flour, grains. If I have a nice freezer, I can start with frozen foods. If I just have a place in my back yard, I can dedicate a garden to grow fresh produce for those in need. If I own a restaurant, maybe dedicate one day a month, week, year that I can open it free of charge to those in need. So walk around your house, your church, your business. Once again pray that God would show you to your personal ministry promise land. Once you find that place. Dedicate it to God. Remove any items that do not glorify His name. Then pray over this place or anoint it with oil that you dedicate it to God. Then walk in that statement. Do not place your coat here, or tell your child to stand in this corner when you are disciplining her. This location is now a sacred place. Treat it as such and it will become a blessing that will bring light into your life, home or church.

I plan to start creating a series of posts geared to help churches service their members and their communities. Over my years in ministry I have helped numerous churches set up pantries and different reach out programs. Hopefully if your family or church has wanted to help those really struggling now, these posts will be of value.

Anyone can do it. You do not have to be a 1,000 plus congregation to make a difference. You do not even have to be a church at all. You do not need to have much money or even money at all. I was the youth pastor many years ago of a small home fellowship. We had around 50 members. There was a large 900 member church not too far from us. We had a good relationship with that churches youth group, since ours was so small. The youth group had started a small pantry, and we decided to focus on helping out people in our area who had need. That year through prayer and people really getting excited about the program, we created over 14 food baskets. The large church created 4 baskets. So size does not matter, faithfulness and providence do

 One of the adult members had decided to give the turkey his company gave out to the employees during the holiday. When he mentioned it to another co-worker, that co-worker told him to donate his turkey also; shortly nearly everyone at that company donated their turkeys also. We ended up having double the turkeys than we had baskets, so we were able to also donate turkeys to some homeless missions in the area.

If you make the service of those in need a part of your church’s worship life, they can be very successful. It is more than just reaching out though; it can really infuse your church/family’s life.

Let’s now talk about practical application now. In my opinion the first step is spend one week, praying about this new ministry opportunity. If you are part of a church wanting to do this ministry, you have to be on solid footing. Once the word gets out, people will depend on it. So you cannot just jump in. I believe the most successful ones are well prayed out during the initiation phase. If you are a family wanting to do something, the same goes for you.

This week you will be praying for a couple of things.

•          Should you start your own or join someone else’s ministry of helps
•             God’s providence
•             Dedicating space to the ministry
•             That it will be fruitful in promoting the Good News