The Blog by Chad Holmgren - Pastor of Children & Families.

Monday evening our elders voted to approve recommending to our congregation that we establish a Shut-In Care Coordinator (A Deacon/Deaconess). The Shut-In Care Coordinator (if approved by the congregation) will work closely with and under the leadership of the Elder Board to serve shut-ins by helping to meet tangible and spiritual needs. The Shut-In Care Coordinator idea is very much in the vein of the proto-deacons that we read about in Acts 6:1-7.

Last year, a team led by Joe and Gail Asaro, started this process by thoughtfully and intentionally reaching out to members who for physical reasons, are no longer able to be involved in the life of the body as they once were. The team sent cards, made phone calls and visited with our shut-ins. This team served as kind of a trial run to the Shut-In Care Coordinator idea. The elders asked the original team to commit to serving for six months which ended in January. As elders, we think that formalizing a Shut-In Care Coordinator as a deacon/deaconess position will help elevate our level of intentionality and care for those who find themselves in that season of life and provide some structure to that care.



Here are some questions you might be asking yourself and the plan in place at this moment:

1.      What are the qualifications for the Shut-In Care Coordinator?

This Shut-In Care Coordinator will serve in a deacon/deaconess role in our church, just like our finance, missions, and member care teams. This means that the Shut-In Care Coordinator must meet the biblical qualifications of deacons listed in 1 Timothy 3:8-13. The Shut-In Care Coordinator should demonstrate a disposition of sensitivity and mercy towards others and have administrative abilities.

2.      What will the duties of the Shut-in Care Coordinator be?

The Shut-In Care Coordinator will assist the elders in caring for the tangible and spiritual needs of our Shut-Ins. This will include helping to maintain a list of members who are shut-in, assembling a team (if needed) with input from the elders to assist in caring for shut-ins, maintaining regular contact with shut-ins, communicating as needed with the elders concerning pressing spiritual needs or significant life issues and reporting annually to the Elder board.

3.      How long will the Shut-In Care Coordinator serve and how is this person chosen?

The Shut-In Care coordinator will be selected in the same way our other deacons are selected. The Shut-In Care coordinator will be presented by the Elder Board to the Church for approval and will serve for a one-year term not to exceed three consecutive years. 

Our desire as a church is to care well for one another in every season of life. We want to maintain the unity of the Spirit, and we don’t want any member to feel neglected or forgotten. Since this represents a constitutional change, the elders plan to bring this matter before the congregation for a vote at our April 28th Members' Meeting.