Does Your Church Have a Benevolence Ministry?

[Sister Alvear]

We have many "helps" in our church. Tonight we gave some gro. to some that needed food, bought 2 tickets to another city for 2 people to go to a hospital for tests, sold candy apples to help a young couple, recieved a offering to help in another area of Brazil...we are always reaching out as much as possible.

[True Believer]

YES

Originally Posted by Pastor Poster

Do you....

1. Give out money? No, we along with other churches in our area give to the local food pantry/shelter. They then give out food, money, and clothes to those in need.

2. Give out groceries? Same as above

3. Pay bills for people?Same as above

4. Buy clothes? We do have clothes drives for the homeless.

5. Give away school supplies? Yes

6. Have a homeless shelter? No, but we do go out to the park every saturday morning and feed the homeless. We have feed as many as 300 people. The first week they did it they handed out sausage biscuits. The homeless couldn't believe that they actually got real meat. They said the other people that come to feed the homeless use bologna that they (the homeless) feed to the ducks because it tastes so bad. The point here is to find out what they need and try to supply it. We asked them what is needed the most and they told us socks and soap. So we collected socks and soap for them. We have many come every week. By many mean about 30-40 every sunday. God has really blessed that ministry.

7. Help battered women? No

8. Offer free marriage counseling? No

[Sherri]

Originally Posted by Pastor Poster

Do you....

1. Give out money?
2. Give out groceries?
3. Pay bills for people?
4. Buy clothes?
5. Give away school supplies?
6. Have a homeless shelter?
7. Help battered women?
8. Offer free marriage counseling?

We've done all of these but number six. Seems like this is the time of year that everyone starts coming back around asking for handouts. We usually require some type of reference. However, there are times that I just hand them $20 or so for groceries because I'm in a hurry. I guess if they buy booze or cigarettes with it, that's between them and God.

We are sponsoring 125 inner city kids this next week, buying tennis shoes for them to go back to school in. That's our present project, but we have others during the year.

Originally Posted by Pastor Poster

Do you....

1. Give out money?
2. Give out groceries?
3. Pay bills for people?
4. Buy clothes?
5. Give away school supplies?
6. Have a homeless shelter?
7. Help battered women?
8. Offer free marriage counseling?

We just started up a few weeks ago and have limited funds, but we are in the works of identifying local nursing homes and orphanages (take care of the widows and orphans) to donate time/labor, materials, and finances to.

Small steps...

Originally Posted by True Believer

The point here is to find out what they need and try to supply it. We asked them what is needed the most and they told us socks and soap. So we collected socks and soap for them.

Very VERY good point.

[Jesuswins]

We have had a food pantry for the last few years. But every Christmas since I can remember we have always done baskets with about $100 worth of food, plus a big ham or turkey as a special project each year. We give these out to the families in our church, or their extended family, that need a hand UP (not a hand out).
We also have gotten our youth involved and taken gifts to teens in group homes and our teens got to go and have a party with them and pass out the gifts and minister to them.
Our Vacation Bible School sponsored a local child that was part of the "Make a Wish" program.

[Kutless]

This is a great time of the year to YARDSALE!!!!!!!

We have rec'd multiple donations from folks who simply do not want to re-store all the stuff that didn't sale. We will pick it up and use what we can. We have come across some things that are quite valuable to the indigent population.

I know this would not apply to every area....but we also have travel groups that collect all the hotel/motel soaps and lotions to donate. These are especially good for the homeless population.

Let's not forget how important water is now that its hot most places. During the state fair we passed out free water. Each bottle had our church label on it.

[trent4]

Our church gave a homeless man a place to live until he was able to get housing.

[Margies3]

We take up a Benevolent Fund offering the first Sunday of every month.

The deacons administer this fund in our church. We maintain a food pantry that we all bring non-perishable foods to whenever we can. If there's a buy one/get one sale, we usually take the free items over and put them in the food pantry. When someone needs grocery help, we let them go through the food pantry to get what they will use. Then one of the deacons or his wife will take the person to Kroger and shop with them for perishable items (if we don't know them and therefore trust them). When Walt was in ICU, they just either gave me Kroger gift cards or else went and did the shopping and loaded up my fridge and freezer. That was such a blessing!!!

If someone needs help with utility bills, we write the check to the utility company and mail it ourself.

Twice a year we do huge FREE clothing give-aways. We always have loads of clothes to give to anyone who wants to come in and take whatever they want.

We do not offer a battered women's shelter, but we do know how to hook someone up with one in this area if they need it.

We also collect gently used coats, mittens and hats and give them to the school board so they can pass them out to any child who comes to school without. And we've had them call fromt he school many times asking if we could take a child shopping to get them shoes that fit them. We always do that and add a couple of large packages of socks at the same time.

Our pastor is always available for counseling for anyone who wants it, always at no charge.

[KwaiQ]

Originally Posted by Pastor Poster

Do you....

1. Give out money?
2. Give out groceries?
3. Pay bills for people?
4. Buy clothes?
5. Give away school supplies?
6. Have a homeless shelter?
7. Help battered women?
8. Offer free marriage counseling?

Yes, we offer donuts and coffee to the homeless and our people volunteer in a homeless shelter. We also go to nursing homes and sing songs, etc... with a small (5-10 min) sermonette.