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Proven ideas and methods enabling you to master the art of care.
Articles On Theology of Care
"Greater love has no one than this; to lay down one's life for one's friends..." John 15:13
No, AI can NOT care! It takes a spiritual connection with God and people. God gives us a 'nature' to care.
Could someone find a place to be comfortable in my life?
Studying the life of another person is a level of care only surpassed by sacrificial service or giving our life for a friend.
Faith affects care. Care affects faith. Together they both grow.
This frequent mood of deep melancholy feels right.
I would quickly get overwhelmed when it came to helping people who were in a time of homelessness. The needs are complex and expensive. The people and the situations are diverse. It is hard to understand how a person got to this point, whose fault it is and if blame even needs to be a consideration. It is also expensive. While our church is generous as it helps people with financial needs, the cost of getting someone out of their car or off the streets is more than we have to give. Plus, we do not know if our reply to an urgent need is going to be so short term that the need will continue next week. Thankfully there are organizations like Bridge of Hope (click for more info) who we can partner with. It is one of the ministries I am proud to represent. It was exciting to receive this email last week from them last week. "With your help, we have ended homelessness for 26 moms and 55 children. This is more families than ever before, and this is only possible because of your support! Your generosity has allowed us to help families like Courtney's who fled an abusive home life. Courtney and her children were two weeks away from living in their car until friends like you gave to Bridge of Hope. Now they have a home and Courtney paid off the $50,000 in debt that she accumulated while trying to survive on her own. She is a licensed insurance agent and has a bright future." Overwhelming needs will tempt us to quit caring. But adding our small action and/or donation to the efforts and generosity of others accomplishes much more than the sum of the individual parts. These 26 moms with 55 kids, near my church, avoiding homelessness and building a life with a bright future become examples of care that makes a powerful difference. What was overwhelming has become exciting. There are individual acts of caring for people in our ministries and their are large and systemic problems that require many caring people focusing their efforts to solve the problem. When you care for individuals in your ministry and when you add your acts of care to a larger cause, what you are doing matters. Care makes the difference. Together we can build a culture that cares. Your life matters, Chaplain Dan Rev. Daniel R. Hettinger 303.905.0478
Care Ministry is about more than addressing the needs of people. Care Ministry involves discovering the God who cares and letting His compassion flow through us in our actions toward others. As Covid was affecting ministries, agencies, hospitals and every outlet of people service and care, I looked for answers to see how pastors, priests and ministries conducted themselves during previous pandemics. New to pandemics, I chose the one I had heard of the most, The Black Plague . I was drawn to the Reformer, John Calvin, who pastored through five out-breaks of the Black Plague during his pastoral ministry in Geneva, Switzerland. My readings led me to Calvin on the Christian Life: Glorifying and Enjoying God Forever by Michael Horton. Known for His theology on the sovereignty of God, I was pleased to see how the power of Calvin's theology flowed out into compassion and care for others. It should not have surprised me, but it was part of His ministry that I did not know about. His words describe what I have felt as the application of my theology progresses in relation to care ministry. “Because we truly feed on Christ in the Supper, we are drawn ‘both to purity and holiness of life, and also to charity, peace and concord’ with each other… We will take care that none of our brethren is hurt, despised, rejected, injured, or in any way offended, without our, at the same time, hurting, despising, and injuring Christ...; that we cannot love Christ without loving our brethren; that the same care we take of our own body we ought to take of that of our brethren, who are members of our body; that as no part of our body suffers pain without extending to the other part, so every evil which our brother suffers ought to excite our compassion. Grace leads to gratitude—a thanksgiving toward God that turns us outward to our brothers and sisters and then also out to our neighbors, whoever they may be… The one who wants to love God can do so by loving the believers…Because God serves us, we can serve our neighbors.” (Pp140-142) So, Christian theology as described by Calvin, is much more than a mere academic and useless series of religious rituals. It is a robust expression of love freely received and freely given. If we lack love for others, we must first draw close to God, confessing our cold heart, removing any barrier, and asking for a new experience of God’s forgiveness and love. When we are full of God’s love, care for the needs of others will follow . One of the beauties of a care ministry is it continually takes us to new and deeper experiences of God’s love as we question suffering and wrestle with our love and care for others. To love without God will still bear good fruit because of the value of love and care. But the capacity will be limited to finite ability and horizontal understanding. Today we remember 9-11, twenty years ago. Covid and Afghanistan add to our already sad and growing load of people who are in various forms and stages of grief and suffering. This is our time as faith-based care ministries to embark on an adventure without limits. With the strong theology of Calvin and the Reformers, they could sacrificially minister through a catastrophic pandemic and offer extreme care. Then they preached a strong message of repentance and holiness. It is why their ministry did reform the culture and continues to influence ministry nearly 500 years later. So as you apply your life to effectively caring for people during times of great need, you will be rewarded with much more than you can even imagine, if you develop a foundation of Biblical theology. You will experience the source and reason for care as God works in and through you. You will be engaging with God and with people and are doing divine work with eternal rewards. When you care, it matters, much more than you can measure.
