Whole-church care

We’re thinking this morning about whole-church care. It’s part of our series on seeing the church as Christ sees her.

You might have views on how the church ought to care for people:

Maybe you think it does ok.
Or you might feel there’s a lot of room for improvement.
You might even wish there was some way of saying how the church ought to care for people in need.

If we’re going to get whole-church care right, we need to see the church as Christ sees her.

These notes accompany a sermon on YouTube delivered at Bromborough Evangelical Church in February 2025. You can find more in the series in our sermon index.

First, know this:

You are loved

This is the 6^th of 7 sermons in this series.

First we looked at how the church is the bride of Christ – he delights in us, and will make us shine in beauty with his own holy righteousness.
Then we saw that the church is the body of Christ – he nourishes and cares for us, as a person looks after their own body.
We looked at ‘gathered worship’ – where we gather here to praise God, encourage one another, and fuel up.
And then there was ‘scattered worship’ – each of us still connected, serving God where we are through the week.
So evangelism isn’t so much a dull obligation – it’s the overflow of a Niagara Falls of blessing that has come to us and is to go into the world.

You can see that to be a Christian is so much more than being ‘saved from hell’ – though it is never less than that.

Your offence to God (your sin) demands his justice. Left to your own devices, that does mean hell: As you reject God in this life, he confirms your choice in the next. But you are loved. So much so that God found a way to forgive you while also satisfying his own justice. He himself came to earth to take the punishment your sins deserve. His desire is for you to turn to him away from sin, and ask for his forgiveness, trusting in Christ’s sacrifice to save you.

As you do that, you are counted among his people – you’re part of his church. No fear of hell; no condemnation.

But that’s nowhere near the end of the matter.

Wholly saved

If you’re a Christian, Jesus has saved the whole of you: Mind, body, spirit, soul. He cares about you. He cares for you.

So here’s the thing: His church must also care for you simply because his church is his body here on earth.

Read Ephesians 4:16 again. It’s a feature of Christ’s body that it builds “itself up by the proper working of each individual part.” Every one of us has a part to play in Christ’s care for each of us.

At this point, as you think about the way this church cares for one another, you might have some responses:

You might simply be feeling tired, old, or ill. Rather than being urged to give care, you could really do with receiving some.
Some here might feel let down by this church. You feel that this church hasn’t – or doesn’t – care much about you.
Or you might be ok yourself, but you’re frustrated. You can see holes in the care that we give and feel that the church really ought to “do something”.

This church is not perfect; none is. But remember that you are loved. If you’re a Christian, Jesus has saved the whole of you: Mind, body, spirit, soul. He cares about you. He cares for you.

So this church must also care for you simply because we are his body here in Bromborough.

But whose job is it? Is it all on the pastor? Some think so. We all have different gifts, so how can we work together? How do things change as we grow?

We must organise

Let’s take another look at Acts 6.

The church in Jerusalem was as young as it could be, with the apostles still among them, and Jesus himself only recently ascended to heaven. And yet, there were problems and complaints over care. There was an accusation of imbalance over the distribution of food.

What should the apostles do about it? Read Acts 6:2-4.There’s a little detail that’s lost in translation.

“It would not be right for us to give up preaching the word of God to wait on [lit. to serve] tables”
“But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry [lit. the serving] of the word.”
Essentially, they’ll serve the food and we’ll serve the word.

There’s no sense that either is more important than the other. Both serving tables and serving the word are ministries; they’re different, but they are both ministries.

We understand that the ministries of prayer and the word are now undertaken by elders in the church (incl. pastors).
And that role of godly administration is now carried out by what deacons.

But those aren’t the only ones to serve the church. Everyone is: Ephesians 4:12 says that Christ has given pastors and teachers “to equip the saints for the work of ministry [serving, same word again], to build up the body of Christ…”

Everyone is called to serve

We could draw a Venn diagram!

One circle for elders, whose primary role is prayer and ministry of the word.
That overlaps with a circle for deacons, with a primary ministry of godly administration. The overlap is one of godly servant leadership.
And then there’s the circle with most people in, whose ministry for the church relates to the gifts Christ has given you by his Holy Spirit – for the church.
The point is simple: We’re all there, and we all have ministries to care for one another in some way.
And none is more important than another – that’s why it’s flat, not hierarchical. We serve Christ as we serve one another.

But things overlap. Let’s look at this role of “pastors and teachers” – usually understood as combined in one role.

The word “pastor” means shepherd, looking after sheep. Reading across the New Testament that typically means feeding Christ’s flock with the nourishing word of God, and protecting the flock from wolves.
As a “teacher” he equips, exhorts, encourages, and admonishes the church. In particular, he is to equip – for whole-church care. Thinking about those first deacons in Acts 6, part of that equipping clearly relates to social care: Physical needs, wellbeing, loneliness, money issues or poverty, hospital visits and worries.
Though he can’t just delegate all that, since all of those things have a pastoral, spiritual element. Money issues might be linked to idolatry; physical needs can bring someone’s faith to a low point, etc.

So if there’s anything clear here it’s that we need to get organised, but in a way that’s appropriate for us now and in the future. Acts 6 showed organisation; you see it again in the list of widows in 1 Timothy 5. So too, we must organise.

Practicalities

Let’s think about some practicalities for organising care in this church:

Should it all be on the pastor? Isn’t he paid to do care?

See the church as Christ sees her.
His primary ministries are prayer and the word.
That means that that is his primary means of shepherding the flock – feeding and guarding.
But he can’t do that effectively if he has no involvement in what’s going on. He must care for everyone, in some way.

Is it something for the deacons? Or maybe a care team?

Again, see the church as Christ sees her.
As his body on earth, we’re all to care for one another.
The danger of appointing only the deacons or a care team is that it effectively outsources the care.
The big advantage, obviously, is that if things are organised that way then things get done, nothing missed.

Many churches operate home groups (also known as small groups, life groups, or gospel communities – depending on the particular aims of the church).

Everyone is allocated to a home group. Speaking to WGP church leaders across Wirral, they reckon the optimum size is about 6-8 people (enough to get round a meal table).
They meet once a week or fortnight instead of a whole-church prayer meeting; you know one another much better.
You pray with more intensity, and if someone is struggling you are ready to offer the right level of care.

Even then, it’s sometimes good to have a dedicated care team to care for those who can’t join a home group.

And, it must be said, benefit from a plurality of elders.

There are a number of people among us who need your care. Together, we must organise care. But however we’re set up:

Play your part

We all have ministries within the church, and we are all to care for one another. Christ cares for his church, and as his body his church must care for one another. You must play your part in that.

But what is your part? For some, that actually means asking for and accepting help.

Asking for help

If you need help, please say so.

Some of you have spent decades helping others, carrying their burdens, and giving help, advice, and lifts for years.
It’s right in Christ’s sight that you now receive the very help you have given to so many.
Please ask.

Whoever you are, if you need help, say so.

Don’t assume we’re psychic.
I’ve known people complain about a lack of care from this church, and when you dig in you find that they didn’t let anyone know there’s a problem, or they downplayed it.

You might think you don’t want to be a burden, or that your problem isn’t as big as others, etc. So think of it this way: Christian growth comes through service. As others serve you, they’re growing. Your need becomes the path to someone else’s discipleship as they seek to serve Christ by serving you.

Here’s another situation I’ve heard over the years.

You fall ill and are out of action – maybe in hospital.
You say something like, “No-one from the church has been in touch. Nothing!” – ever said that, or heard it?
When you dig in, you find that they’ve had flowers from so-and-so, a meal brought by someone else, and multiple cards and texts of encouragement.
What was really meant was, “I’ve not heard from the pastor / elders / etc”.
But see the church as Christ sees her: He has reached out to you through his body (the church) equipped and nourished by that pastor’s ministry.

That said, if the pastor is aware of a serious illness he ought to be involved somewhere! It’s all interconnected, like a body.

Take action

Now you might have heard all this and be thinking, “Yes, this church really ought to do something about all this.”

You need to see the church as Christ sees her. You are the church.
If you think the church should do something, do something.
That might be indirectly or directly. Many times over the years I’ve been grateful for someone alerting me to an illness or a problem in someone else that I just didn’t know about. Or you might simply choose to jump in and offer that lift, or sit and read with someone, or do a bit of shopping.

Remember how there’s often a link between the social care people need (to do with physical health, money issues, etc) and their spiritual needs?

That means that simple practical care can often be so encouraging that it will prevent further spiritual decline.
That is why this is whole-church care. You can encourage each other and prevent the decline that comes from discouragement.

Hebrews 10:24-25 And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.

Summary

You are loved by Christ, and his love is to come to you through the care of his church both pastoral and social care – in different ways, from all of us to each of us.
That means we must be organised well to make sure that care happens, not least because we all have a part to play. We all have a ministry of care to one another.
So play your part. That might actually be in calling for help, or it might be in helping. But as you do that you are building one another up and encouraging each other in the faith. And that is whole-church care in Christ’s church.