This is the 4^th article in the series on setting up your own outreach program, or ministry of helps.

You have Prayed, taken an inventory, and achieved a vision. Now it is time for the real work to begin. Since you have some high level information such as what your ministry is, what resources you have, and a place to work from, this next 2 steps are crucial.

Who will you serve and who will you partner with. If you step out in faith alone with some guidance as to whom you will serve you may spend allot of time going in circles. When Jesus sent out the disciples, He sent them out in pairs. The Scripture states, where 2 or more our gathered, I am in their midst. It is important for numerous reasons who having at least on partner before moving too far in your ministry.

Whom to Serve.

                These are going to be your lambs. You will be praying for them, crying for them, pushing yourself to the limits physically, mentally and emotionally. So it needs to be a group of people you have a real love for. Yes there are times I believe God may choose a group of people you have a prejudice against. He will do that to teach us love and to break down those barriers.  If with all the praying and seeking God, you still do not know who you are to serve. Ask yourself who do you gravitate towards? When you are with a specific age group, cultural group do you feel recharged afterwards? If the answer to that question is yes, this may be a good indication of your potential service community.

Partners in Crime.

            You need at least one partner that shares your vision. It can be a spouse, family member, friend, church member. If you have no one in your life that shares this passion you must find someone. It is hard enough with a partner; it can be dangerous without one.  You will be more effective if while you are sharing God’s love with someone you have a partner who can be supporting you in prayer. I can pack meals for 50 men in 30 minutes. With my wife and daughter it takes 10 and is much more joyful. When we minister to the homeless in our town, the men enjoyed the picture my (at that time) 9 year old daughter drew for them as much as the food, Bible, Tracts. She gained allot from it too.

Article One
Article Two
Article Three

Proverbs 29:18 (King James Version) where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

What is the vision God has given you for your ministry of helps? You have prayed to God to give you guidance. You have prayed and taken an inventory of your resources to determine a sacred location for your ministry. It is now time to determine the vision of your ministry. Vision is a scary word. Do not let the weight of this word stop you now. You must take hold of this word and stay on its back for at least 8 seconds (sad PBR reference LOL).

Most people see vision as a word of prophetic inclinations. I do not see it as meaning you need to know what the end result. It is impossible for mere men to know the end result without direct revelation from God. In the verse above it says you need to have some vision, otherwise you will perish. So if the word means end result and no man knows what the future holds unless told by God I think the definition goes beyond the prophetic. So I think of this word as meaning part prophetic and part a modified word that makes more sense to our modern minds. It is a word not as heavy as vision. That word is focus. Yes we need to know the end state, but be willing to admit that the end state is in God’s hand. We need to have a focus, a map of where we need to travel. That allows us to keep on track. Vision statements are normally too grandiose or high level to allow us to manage our ministry on a day to day basis. We can quickly get off track. Once off-track, it is easier for the enemy to attack and potentially destroy us. That is why you need to now pray again and take a personal inventory and see what focus God has for your ministry.

Now the next statement I will say is not 100% true. I believe normally God has already placed you and equipped you to be successful in your focused area. There are times; He has led us to be what I call a fool for Christ. When that happens I believe there is a reason for that. I can hear you say it, what do I mean being a fool for Christ. Well I will tell you; some times you may be equipped for a certain ministry. Say you are a successful physician, you own your own facilities, your considered successful by the worlds standards. A sane woman’s assumption would be that your focus would be one providing these services to the poor. You try to do that, and you fail. You then feel led to start a soup kitchen or maybe a ministry fixing vehicles for small poor churches and you are successful beyond reason. I have seen it happen, but in my opinion it happens for a purpose. The purpose could be for many reasons. I also believe this is an exception and it not the norm. So take that inventory.

When I talk of taking an inventory, do not forget your passions, interests, financial resources, networks you have developed. Like I mentioned earlier, I believe normally God has you already well placed in order to successfully implement this ministry. If you have a company that makes soap, maybe providing other helps ministries with soap to give to the people the help. If you have a passion for knitting, you have many friends, who knit, belong to a knitting guild. Maybe God is calling you to knit baby blankets for women who are in women’s shelters. If you have a passion for the elderly, then maybe you can knit socks for people in assisted living, nursing homes, and hospitals.

I love food; anyone who sees me knows that. LOL God has always placed homeless men in my heart, so my family and I buy Bibles, tracks and makes sandwiches for homeless men. We then drive to where the homeless congregate and drop off a package with 2 sandwiches, one bottled water, a bible and a tract and one dollar in the bag. My daughter writes a note with a blessing in the bible and colors a picture for them. So no matter how few resources you may have, let God, your heart and your mind get together. Determine the focus/vision of your ministry. Once this is done, the fun can begin.

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