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MINISTRY IDEAS
As you are aware just by looking around you, there are so many needs and so many ways you can be involved. Search your heart and set a goal to be involved in one way. As you and your church look at how you can be personally involved in poverty-related ministries, consider some of these possibilities.
Hunger Ministries
- Read about hunger in the US and then look around for it where you live.
- Learn about the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund. Get your church involved in observing World Hunger Sunday every year.
- Host a carnival, meal, or gather change for world hunger.
- Collect food items that are needed most for an existing food pantry.
- Ask your pastor or church staff if you could prepare little bags of nonperishable, easy-to-open food for them to keep on hand in the church office (peanut butter crackers, pop-top fruit juice cans, juice boxes, peanuts, oatmeal cookies, other items that don't have to be cooked).
- Buy fast-food gift certificates to give out to people you see who need a meal.
- Start a food pantry in your church.
- Prepare sack lunches for needy children in the summer or senior adults for the weekend.
- Deliver Meals on Wheels to seniors. Churches can go in together and divide up the days.
- Serve a hot meal once a week for the needy in your town.
Housing and Other Home Ministries
- Join Habitat for Humanity and help build houses for needy families.
- Volunteer to paint the home of a needy person (call your Department of Human Services or a home health agency for a name).
- Do yard work: rake leaves, trim limbs, clean up yard, and mow grass for a needy person, the elderly, or the disabled.
- Build a ramp for a needy person.
- Teach basic home repairs (fixing a leaky faucet, a toilet, a roof leak, etc.).
- Volunteer to clean house for someone.
Children's Ministries
- Provide funds so a needy child can go on a school outing.
- Provide self-esteem programs for children.
- Teach goal setting.
- Provide a place for children and youth to play basketball or soccer in a low-income area.
- Build a park or prayer garden in a low-income area.
- Be a volunteer babysitter for a teen mom finishing school.
- Donate infant and children's car seats to those who can't afford to buy them.
- Donate band instruments to your school to low-income children.
- Host a party at your local Head Start center.
- Donate coats, gloves, lice shampoo, and other needs to your local school.
- Offer a scholarship so a needy child can take art, music, or gymnastic classes.
- Provide affordable, quality child care.
- Sponsor a wholesome, fun movie night for children in an apartment complex (outside).
- Be a big brother, big sister, or a mentor for a child.
- Provide after-school activities for children.
Employment Ministries
- Call the employment office of a community action agency in your county and ask if they need business clothing, shoes, or jewelry for women getting job training.
- Start a job search/help wanted matching service.
- Provide transportation for low-income people to get to job appointments/interviews.
- Be a mentor to someone out of work.
- Start a Christian Women's Job Corps® in your association.
- Provide classes on how to get a job and keep a job.
- Teach life skills and goal setting to adults who need a job.
Senior Adult Ministries
- Involve your children and youth in sending cards to nursing home residents.
- Have a senior VBS in a nursing home or senior adult housing area.
- Call your local home health agency. Ask who needs a visit that never has company.
- Prepare an extra meal for seniors who live alone and deliver it for the weekend.
- Find a way to help seniors buy part of their medicines. Any little bit helps.
- Help seniors change light bulbs; take down their curtains to wash, etc.
- Make a phone call to an unchurched senior every week.
- Donate fans for the summer heat for needy seniors.
- Build a ramp/rail for a senior.
- Help seniors write letters, pay bills, etc.
Homeless Ministries
- Call your local homeless shelters and domestic abuse shelters and find out what kinds of programs they could use.
- Call and find out what they need donated: washcloths, shower caps, shampoo, underwear, whatever their greatest need might be.
Literacy Ministries
- Start an English-as-a-second-language (ESL) ministry. Call your associational or state office to find out how to have a training session for your church.
- Start an adult reading and writing ministry. Call your association or state office to find out how to have a training session for your church.
- Start an after-school tutoring ministry for youth and children.
- Gather school supplies, prizes, flashcards, and learning games for a tutoring ministry.
Home Health-Care Ministries
- Provide free health screenings at your local church. (Involve local Baptist Nursing FellowshipSM.)
- Start a free medical/dental clinic with the churches in your area.
- Donate used medical equipment (walkers, wheelchairs, shower chairs, etc.)
- Donate old reading glasses to an organization that works with low-income people.
Migrant Ministries
- Take bottles of water out to the fields where migrants are working.
- Have a "Cotton patch" VBS for the migrant children out by the fields where their parents are working.
- Donate gloves and warm shirts in the winter.
Other Ministries
- Offer free haircuts.
- Offer parenting classes.
- Fix the cars; do oil changes for needy people.
- Donate furniture.
- Sew unusual sizes of clothing for clothing ministries.
- Donate your good used shoes and clothing.
- Donate maternity clothes and baby items to a local pregnancy care center.
(Taken from "101 Ways You Can Feed the Hungry and Help the Poor," written by Diana Lewis, Missions Ministries Team, Arkansas Baptist State Convention. Used by permission.)
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