FAM Spotlight: NewCity Church
One of the core values of our church is Philanthropy. While we do not believe that good works save us, we do believe that God has called us to a faith that is active and filled with good works. As our pastor says, “We were saved to engage in philanthropy in order to reflect the great Philanthropist.”
In response to this call, our church seeks to care for the vulnerable in our community and partnering with Project Belong was a no-brainer for us. We also loved how Project Belong provides the members of our church an opportunity to step into the work of caring for vulnerable children in a variety of ways, depending on how “ready” and how “deep” you are wanting to be involved.
Our DGA mentors are such wonderful people. I think they would all agree with me that they are simply “regular” folk who learned about the opportunity to step into a relationship that could be life-giving and decided to step into it through ordinary obedience.
Fostering and adoption can seem like BIG and overwhelming life decisions. For some of our church members, this avenue of investing in a long-term relationship felt quite doable, and honestly a natural overflow of the kind of relationship-building we encourage at our church regularly.
I also hope that entry into mentoring was easier knowing that our Family Advocacy Ministry would provide support, care, and prayer for the mentors throughout their journey.
Three times a year (this frequency was set by the mentors), we hold a support meeting for our DGA mentors (and their spouses). The meeting is completely optional and our simple purpose is to provide space for our mentors to gather with other mentors and share their encouragements, discouragements, struggles, and also help share resources they have come across that might be helpful for other mentors and mentees.
We also ask for specific prayer requests, pray, and eat dinner together (food being a must at any NewCity gathering!) We decided to offer these support meetings because we recognize that being in relationships with folks who have come from hard places can be challenging. There often is a need to not only come around those who are in hard places, but also around those caring for them.
Navigating life is just tough. Everything feels easier, more doable, and, honestly, more enjoyable when we do it together. The Mentors Support Meetings are our church’s way of doing good together.
I believe my role overseeing the Mercy Ministry at our church, and being an Advocate for our Family Advocacy Ministry, has a twofold purpose: 1) To provide opportunities for our church to do earthly good for our neighbors, and 2) To help grow our church’s faith by obediently responding to God’s call to care for the vulnerable, the poor, the orphaned, and oppressed among us.
Yes, we want to see flourishing in our neighbors, but I also want to see our church live out their gospel faith… for their own good. This has truly been some of the most exciting and fruitful highlights of leading this ministry for me. I get to see my church family grow deeper in their understanding of the gospel and live more joyfully and purposefully as they do good works.
Another highlight has been seeing some of our DGA mentees start attending and becoming part of our church family. Some of our mentees have done such a tremendous job with connecting their mentees to other members of our church. Now, these mentees aren’t just connected to one person but to several who hang out with them, eat with them, pray for them, and care for them. This is such a beautiful model. We want our mentees to truly feel like they are welcome and belong in our church family. We unabashedly desire for them to one day know our great Savior and pray that their connections to our church family help lead them there.