3 Steps to Find Needs in Your City

Too Busy to Serve?

My current To-Do list

I don't know about you, but I tend to get caught up in checklists and always doing.  I add things to my list and check them off just to feel like I have done "enough" in a day.  It is easy to stay busy in worldly matters (even church matters) and "busy-ed" by many things.  Sometimes I even get a little selfish and lazy and don't do anything (when I have that Saturday with no children's sports, practices, parties, play dates, etc). 

There is a time for Sabbath and rest and rejuvenation in the Lord, but you know the difference in resting in His peace versus sitting on the couch, not taking a shower, watching several movies in a row, letting the kids forge for food in the kitchen, etc.   

God tells us there will always be the poor among us. He commands us to give openly to care for His people. Having a changed heart that I have devoted to following Christ, I can't keep from feeling compassion and being convicted to use my time and talents to serve the poor, the elderly, the orphaned, the lame, etc. Not only am I called to serve others, but I am also setting the example for my children to have that compassion for others. 

"There will always be poor people in the land.  Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land."

Deuteronomy 15:11

Remember from a previous blog post "Finding Your Gifts and Passions", I mentioned that if something is your passion you will find a way to do it in every season of your life (whether in a small way or a big way). Start serving and you will find your passion and the passions of your children.  

3 Steps to Find Needs in Your City

There are many needs in every city, but most people don't know how to find those needs especially ones that are appropriate for your children to come with you and experience serving together. 

1. Through Your Church 

Your church is a great place to start.  Check out your church's website and see if they list ministries they partner with in your community.  Or maybe there are serving events coming up that you can participate in.  Many times these connections will be on a page labeled Serve, Volunteer, Ministries, Missions, Local Missions, Outreach, etc. If your church isn't outward focused, go visit the website of a larger church in your area to find needs.

If they use a platform called Meet The Need * you will see a "shopping" list of specific days, times, and items that you can commit to, to give yourself away. When I searched my church's website I found a list of 104 needs within 15 miles of my home. Some of the needs I found were needing transportation, mentoring, serving food, clothes, toys, bibles, thrift store, and nursing home. 

If your church doesn't use Meet The Need, you will at least get the contact information of a person that can help get you connected to partner community organizations.  Follow up with a phone call, email, or even a visit. It may take more than one attempt to get connected. Be persistent. These ministries many times rely on volunteers' sporadic schedules to help in many functions.     

2. Through a General Search 

A general search on the internet is another good place to find needs in your city (Yahoo, Google, etc).  Search by the key words nursing home, ministry, homeless, thrift store, food pantry, hospital, children's home or whatever your passion is. Simply type the key word and your city, state.  When you call ask the following questions:

• Location? Hours operation?
• Who do they serve and how?
• Do they need volunteers - what for?
• Are there any age restrictions for serving? 
• How many volunteers can they accommodate at a time?
• Can you come to serve one-time or do they only need recurring volunteers?
• Are there any items they need?
• Is there any special training or paperwork required before serving?
• Are they a Christian based ministry? Not that this is a requirement - but good to know so you can gauge how open you can be about sharing your faith.

3. Through Your Daily Activities

Just like everything in life, the best recommendations come from referrals. Why should serving be any different?

• Ask people at your work, school, church, and clubs if they know of any organizations that rely on volunteers.  
• Inquire through your Facebook friends in your area.  
• Look around purposefully on your regular driving route to spot non-profits, church food banks, etc.  

Don't Just Show Up

In all of these methods you will want to connect by phone to inquire about the age restrictions of volunteers. Don't just show up with your children unannounced.  Depending on the area of town, serving activities, the clientele served, etc, you may want to make a site visit prior to serving with your family to see if it is an appropriate place for your children to serve.  Only you can make that discerning decision based on the ages and maturity of your children and the recommendation from the organization you will be serving. 

My boys with their friends
delivering new stuffed animals
to children in the hospital.  

Suggestions: 

• You may need to take the older children to some serving experiences without the younger ones (and vice-versa).  
• Or maybe just take one child at a time so you can actually enjoy the serving experience too.  This is great one-on-one time with your children.  
• For the children that may not be able to serve with you, have them do something ahead of time to take with you.  For instance, if you are going to serve the homeless in a bad area of town at night, you could have the little ones help cook a pan of food or make cards or crafts to give out while you are serving.  
• If appropriate, have your child bring a friend with them.  What better way to make a difference in another child's life by including them in your experience. 

Put Your Faith into Action

I hope these tips have been helpful in getting started to find the needs in our city so you can serve as a family together.  I am gathering the summer serving activities for my family (using he methods above) and I will share that schedule in my upcoming blog posts.  In the meantime . .

• begin your research
• gather your list of options
• start connecting 

We would love to hear about your experiences - please comment so we can learn together and share ideas.

*Note - Tonya Nichols, the author of this blog, is a Director at Meet The Need Ministries. She encourages, supports, consults, and equips church and non-profit leaders across the nation to be more outward focused.  

15 Family-Friendly Serving Ideas

I am glad you have joined me for this journey to lead our families to serve as a lifestyle. Having a variety of ideas for your family to serving together is important.  It is through serving that your children (and you) can find your God-given purpose.  Do something different each week.  Let them choose where and how to serve to have buy-in and feel empowered to make decisions for the family. 

Here is a great blog from a friend that I wanted to share to get you started thinking about ideas to serve with your family this summer. "The Kids are Out of School - Now What?" 

Please share a comment on any family-friendly serving ideas you have.  I will build a page of ideas as they are shared.  

Over the next two weeks, I am planning specific weekly summer "field trips" for my family. I will share the planning process, resources, and my experience in researching needs in this blog.  

Friends of a Feather . . .

I was so proud of my 10 year old last weekend.  He was playing at the park with a few neighborhood friends. There were some kids being mean to one of his friends. They took a ball and wouldn't give it back. My son advised his friend to go home and tell his mom, because the boys were not budging on giving the ball back.  

After my son and his friend walked away from the situation, my son went back to get his friend's ball and return it to him.  How he handled this situation showed great maturity and self-control. He knew when to walk away, let things cool down, and when to act.  His compassion kicked in and he stood up (without physical force or negative talk) for the underdog.  

Our kids see more than we realize.  This summer's journey for purposeful moments to serve others is just a drop in the bucket in comparison to the moments our kids see us serve others unintentionally (from the heart and in the moment).  Who their friends are and the values they see them demonstrate are invaluable.  We can plan all the activities we want and they are good times that honor God and teach our children, but nothing replaces what their little eyes see and ears hear in the daily moments as we lead them to be more like Jesus.  

"Encourage young men to be self-controlled.  In everything set them an example by doing what is good.  In your teaching show integrity, seriousness, and soundness of speech" . . . Titus 2:6-8

Finding Your Gifts and Passions

Today I co-taught the "Discover" class at my church.  It is a class that gives Christians a glimpse of who God has made them to be. We dive into personality, spiritual gifts, and passions.  All this coming together to paint a beautiful "masterpiece" of each person as seen by God and connect the dots to using these talents for serving His Kingdom.

"For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago."  Ephesians 2:10 

Discovering why God considers you a masterpiece is one of the first steps in serving Him.  Once you know your spiritual gifts and passions, it is easier to lead your family in discovering the same.  Then it is through serving that your purpose comes alive.

Spiritual Gifts

Spiritual gifts are given to believers and followers of Jesus Christ.  They are given by The Holy Spirit.  Every believer has at least one gift, but no one has ALL the gifts.  Below is a list of the spiritual gifts noted in the Bible.

administration, apostleship, craftsmanship, discernment, evangelism, encouragement, faith, giving, healing, helps, hospitality, intercession, knowledge, leadership, mercy, miracles, missions, music/worship, pastor/shepherd, prophecy, service, teaching, tongues, wisdom

The first time I saw the word "administration" in the Bible, I flipped with excitement.  I wasn't just "anal" in my detailed, organized actions - they were God given traits that could be used to glorify Him. He gave them to me! It was then, that I began to regard my traits and talents as gifts and really use them. Do you know your spiritual gifts? Are you using them?

Passions

Below are a few thought provoking questions to ask yourself when trying to find your purposeful passion ("purpassion") in Christ.

• What was the most fulfilling time in your life?
• What breaks your heart (for your city, family, neighborhood, etc)? 
• What do you like to do the most - hobbies, skills, etc?

Note: "purpassion" is a word I made up - see the definition to the right.

Discover for Yourself

There are hundreds of spiritual gifts, personality, and passions assessments out there.  When I was a Local Missions Director I did a lot of research on these types of assessments.  The most comprehensive and cost effective ones I found are through PLACE Ministries.  If you haven' taken a personality, spiritual gifts, passions, abilities, passions, and life experiences assessments before or if you need a fresh look at yourself, I highly recommend taking these assessments (either online or in workbook form).

The PLACE assessments give you a comprehensive look at yourself from God's perspective with valuable Biblical teaching.  You can read more about them on their website.  To purchase, go to their online store and search for the following:

• PLACE Online Assessment $14.95 (2 or more $9.95) - for adults
• PLACE Assessment Tool $8.95 (workbook for adults)
• Student Online Assessment $6.95 (7th - 12th grade) 
• Student PLACE Assessment $8.95 (workbook)

Note: I receive no gain from recommending PLACE Ministries resources.

Next Steps

Since my boys (ages 10 and 7) are still too young to take the assessments and get meaningful results, I am having purposeful conversations and prayers with them over the coming weeks to dive deeper to see how God is shaping their young hearts.  These conversations will help me in determining the best places for us to serve together over the summer (and beyond).

"Thank you Jesus, for giving me opportunities to share Your love through helping others discover Your purpose. There is nothing more fulfilling for me than to be able to help people to realize their giftedness in You and encourage them to put their faith in action by serving others.  Lord help me to transfer this passion You have given me to lead my family in the same way.  In Jesus' name - Amen"

Purposeful Serving - Join me?

Equipped with a Passion 

Throughout my life there has been a common "string".  It is the passion God has woven into my life even before I was seeking Him.  This passion has found its way to be lived out in every season of my life.  I can't keep from doing it.  This passion is  . . . serving others.  Specifically, leading people to serve others.

Serving in College:
Can you find Joe & myself in this pic?

• As a child, God placed me into an adopted family of servants. My grandmother and father were perfect examples of Christ's love to me and others in need.   
• As a teenager, I was involved in many civic organizations. I was the go-to person for these organizations to find community projects to make a difference.  
• In college, it was through serving that I met my husband, Joe. As hundreds of students were led to serve in the community, God was preparing me for His purpose.  
• As a young professional credit analyst, I continued serving through civic organizations - starting projects to benefit single moms, the homeless, the elderly, children, etc.

Called into Ministry

Then I really started seeking God and dedicated my life to His purpose.  I started having children and left corporate America to use my gifts of administration, leadership and service to mobilize His Kingdom.  

• God has led me to organize numerous service projects where thousands of individuals served in various ways as the Local Missions Director at The Crossing Church.  
• He challenged me to dive deeper into helping individuals find their God-given purpose and put their faith into action as the Equip to Serve Director at The Crossing Church.  
• He continues to call me to equip an encourage hundreds of leaders in churches and ministries across the nation (and now around the world) to serve others as a Director at Meet The Need.

Family Focus

I was led last year to work part time to take better care of myself and spend more time with my family. This time with God and my family has been immeasurable. Although much of my time is spent in a van taxing my 2 boys to various sports and activities, we are together. I take every moment to seed into their lives the Christ qualities of servanthood.  

As usual, God has chosen to take me the opposite route to get me to where I am today. Most people start small (serving one person or group) and then build confidence and experience and grow larger. Nope, not me. God threw me in the deep end with thousands and he slowly has worked me to be more intimate (to the most important role He calls me to) in serving my family and modeling service regularly for them. 

God is good at what He does. I am a planner and He continually out plans me without me even knowing it! He had led me to this point. Which is why I am writing this blog (my first personal blog).  

Summer Challenge

The summer is just around the corner. School and sports will be on hold for 10 weeks. This the time we do home repairs, yard work, and get caught up on all the things we have put on hold during the busy school year. It is also the time God has laid on my heart to do some "planting" in the lives of my family. I am committing to take weekly "field trips" to serve the needs of others. It will be just like going on a missions trip, but in our own city.  

We will plan where we are going, prepare our hearts through scripture for those we will be serving, serve wholeheartedly, and I will share all our experiences so you can be encouraged to do the same.  

• plan serving activities
• prepare our hearts
• put our faith into action
• post about our experiences 

All for the glory of God so more will experience the love of Christ and come into The Eternal Kingdom.  

"then make my joy complete . . . being one in spirit an purpose .. .Each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others." Phil 2:2-4

Will you join me this summer to "make your joy complete" and commit to put your faith into action?

If so, subscribe to my blog by entering your email address in the "Follow By Email" box on my blog page. You will then receive an email and you need to confirm your subscription.  You will get weekly updates with specifics on

• how to find your family's passion and purpose
• ideas to serve others together
• ways to change your lifestyle to serving throughout the year