And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ (Matthew 25:40).
As did the world in biblical times, the city communities today have many people with many needs. All those with needs around us are our neighbors, whom Jesus commanded we love as we love ourselves. It may well be that many churches, community partners, and volunteers in your city want to show the love and compassion of Jesus by helping to meet the needs of the people around them.
Where Can Those in Need Go for Help?
Our experience shows, however, that people with particular needs often don’t know where to go for help. We also know that many caring individuals would like to volunteer their assistance in some way but aren’t aware of local organizations to which they might give their time and talents. Further, sometimes local groups might miss opportunities to work together because they are not aware of each others’ activities.
We believe it is important to raise awareness of the types of care available by various organizations in your city. This helps those in need to get help more easily. It also helps those providing care to attract volunteers and to more efficiently use their resources as they discover opportunities to work together with similar care providers.
Demonstrating practical CARE for people is an important step to being a lighthouse. In this area of the website, we refer to many caring resources. If you need help, we want you to go to these organizations and ministries to get the help you need.
How Can You Help?
Or, if you are able and willing to help others in need, we invite you to help any of these organizations achieve their respective missions of care. And, if you are a local care provider, we hope you will use the information provided below to seek opportunities to leverage your efforts with those of others in your city.
In your city, each church pastor certainly must meet the needs of their own congregation. Concurrently, however, the Light of the World Foundation also is challenging churches in each American city to show more outward evidencethat churches and social services are working together in unityin reaching out to love their neighbors. Addressing this challenge, the Light of the World Foundation began the We Care Initiativein 2019.
For an example of what you can do in your city, see an example of what was done for one city, Bowie, MD – see We Care Bowie Brochure (PDF).
We Careprovides churches with the framework your city needs for developing and maintaining unifying relationships with other city churches and government and social services. Ultimately, this framework enables churches to efficiently coordinate church, non-profit, and governmental philanthropic organizations in showing Christ’s love to their neighbors.
Again, referring to the Bowie, Maryland prototype program, the We Care Bowie Initiative has been approved and endorsed by Bowie churches, social and city government services. Recently, several pastors designated Community Care Coordinators (CCCs) to serve as members of the We Care Bowie Network.
CCC roles and responsibilitiesinclude coordinating city church programs plus developing newcare programs as needed in your city.
If you would like to become a Light of the World Foundation affiliate, please complete the following Affiliate Application Form.
As a Light of the World Foundation affiliate, you will receive:
– a template for creating a ‘We Care’ brochure for your city
– instructions for establishing a sharable spreadsheet of ‘We Care’ providers (names, addresses, emails, phone numbers, etc.) in your city
– a document providing CCC roles and responsibilities
– access to Light of the World Foundation resources to assist you in establishing a We Care program in your city
We look forward to working with you to ‘help the least of these’ in your city.