A Recent Full Circle Article from Pastor Deanna
What Is Called to Care? Called to Care is the ongoing ministry of wellness for our whole congregation. This is the current Called to Care team at First Congregational Church: Maridel Johnson, Kathleen McGuinness, Karen Mills, Brenda Nicholson, Carol Nicolay, and Deanna Murray. We are a group of representatives from our church’s care teams: Parish Visitors, Faith Community Nurses, Stephen Ministers, Diaconate and Pastoral staff.
What do we do? We meet once a month to coordinate the needs of those in care. We pray over a confidential Pastoral Care list which includes the names of people in our church family, and we seek to make sure everyone on this care list has someone to contact them. When invited, we pray over the prayer requests on the green prayer cards which often includes those connected to our church members who have a care need.
In between our monthly meetings, we set up and make visits, make phone calls, send emails or handwritten notes, check in with folks in need of a little extra support, respond to calls to the church office or the Pastoral Care hotline, find a Parish Visitor for someone, refer a name of someone requesting a Stephen Minister to the Stephen Ministry team, go to the hospital when called anytime, find others in our church family to help with a special need like getting someone moved or helping someone get to the grocery store.
How do we know who needs this ongoing ministry of wellness? Often it is by a phone call or an email that we learn of someone having surgery or who is in the hospital. Or a concerned church member friend stops by the church to tell us. Please call the church office or contact any one of us if you wish to inform us of yourself or someone in need of care. Pastor Deanna may be reached at 360-734-3720 ext. 1103, or deanna@fccb.net.
