Pastoral Care at SBCRC (Part 2): Filling in the Cracks
This is the second of four posts on the subject of pastoral care here at SBCRC. As in the last post, the focus here is on “pastoral care” in a broad sense, on efforts made by church leadership (i.e. the pastoral staff and council) keep in contact with individuals and families within the congregation and alert to particular needs they may have. We are working to make small groups the primary vehicle by which this accomplished.
This raises the question about the 60 or so individuals and families not in a small group. What about them? How are we keeping in contact with them? Despite how encouraged we are by the level of participation in small groups, these are important questions.
THE CORE AND THE RIND
It was asking these questions that led us to form the Pastoral Care Team. The focus of this group is simply to keep in touch with members not presently in a small group, to care for them, and to remain alert to particular needs they may have.
There are two levels of involvement one can have on the Pastoral Care Team. First, there are those who meet regularly to discuss the needs that have come up (as well as celebrate good news), determine what contacts should be made (and who will might them), and pray for our congregation. We’ll call this “the core group.”
Second, there are those not interested in attending the meetings and overseeing pastoral care of the congregation as a whole. They simply are willing to keep in contact with a selected number of people, give them a call, maybe meet them for coffee.
For lack of a better term, we’ll call this “the rind group.”
MS. A AND MR. B ILLUSTRATE
Both Ms. A and Mr. B are part of the pastoral care team. Ms. A is part of the rind group and can commit to checking in with three individuals or families a month. She’s most interested in contacting people newer to the church. Mr. B is part of the core group. He commits to making six contacts a month, and, while not contacting the same people each month, he prefers to keep ongoing contact with a smaller pool of people rather than someone new each time.
At its next meeting, the core team determines not only who they’ll be contacting before the next meeting but also compiles lists of names for people on the rind team. I pass these names along to rind team members– including five names to Ms. A. Ms. A chooses three from those five. Over the next month, she may talk on the phone with one, meet for coffee with another, and chats with the third after the service. Before the core team’s next meeting, she emails me an update on her contacts, noting any particular concerns or needs they may have expressed. I add this to our database.
That’s right, I said, “database.” Nothing says “pastoral care” like an Excel spreadsheet.
IN DEFENSE OF SYSTEMS
I realize all this sounds a bit clinical. But that is not reason in itself to dismiss it. After all, the same could be said of vacation itineraries– it’s just dates, times, and locations. But the point of a good itinerary is to enable a great vacation. It creates space and structure for people to enjoy being together.
Similarly, the point here is to create a system or structure through which this level of pastoral care can occur for everyone in our congregation. In a description like this, it may sound clinical, but it won’t be experienced as such.
THE APPEAL
We are still in the beginning stages of implementing this new system. If you are interested in being either a member of the “core” or “rind,” we would love to have you on board and now is a good time to. As mentioned, you are free to determine the number of people with whom you make contact in this capacity and the type of person whom you’d like to provide this kind of care for.
POSTS IN THIS SERIES
Pastoral Care at SBCRC (Part 1): A New Model
Pastoral Care at SBCRC (Part 2): Filling in the Cracks
Pastoral Care at SBCRC (Part 3): Council Members in Small Groups (To be Completed)
Pastoral Care at SBCRC (Part 4): Levels of Pastoral Care (To be Completed)