Tell Someone: The Ripple in Social Ministry
By: Jenny Jaroneski, Social Ministry Associate
Some of the most frequent questions we hear in social ministry have to do with connections. Where can I find…? Where can I go…? Do you know someone who…? Who can help me…? It all comes down to – if you can’t help me… who can? The good news is, in our community we have access to numerous resources, organizations and charities that all serve different purposes.
With so many people and so many different needs, the dilemma that we often find ourselves in, is that we can only do so much effectively. No single organization can meet every need for every person. The goal is to work together to meet different needs to the best of our ability and work together to meet ALL the needs to those who come to us. But that also means that we need to be able to find each other and know what each organization is doing to serve our neighbors.
Trinity’s Social Ministry has formed relationships with organizations and ministry partners to help make connections between people in need, volunteers, donations, and resources to make a greater impact in our neighboring community. Working alongside organizations with processes in place that specialize in areas of need allows us to make a larger impact on our community than starting a whole new project on our own. We are able to reach a wider audience with a variety of needs in a larger area.
The organizations we work with do their very best to be good stewards of the resources and donations that are entrusted to them. That means that marketing is often left to grass-roots tactics with low budgets and rely heavily on word of mouth. The good news is that word of mouth happens to be one of the most effective ways of getting the word out!
Looking back to the Bible, in John chapter 4, Jesus encounters a woman from Samaria at a well. He asks her to give him some water. After conversing with her, she leaves and tells her family and friends about the man she encountered. They all come and hear what he has to say and leave believing that he is the messiah. There were no billboards, no TV, no radio, no Facebook… just word of mouth. Because of what those people heard from the Samaritan woman, they were led to faith in Christ!
Let’s take it one more step. How many people did they then turn around and tell? And how many people did those people tell? It creates a ripple effect. The word spread and more and more people heard the news and came to know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior all because of the woman at the well!
In social ministry we have the opportunity to be that woman at the well. When we encounter others who ask us to give them water, food, clothing or some other need but we not only fulfill the need of our neighbors, we tell the story of Christ through our actions.
The people that we serve and partner organizations that we work with tell others about the ministry at Trinity Utica and the ripple continues. More people are told about the work we do and who we serve. Not just the neighbors we serve… but that we serve our GOD! The ripple is moving outward and as it does… we get to tell everyone it touches about Jesus! How cool is that!?
So continue to tell others about what we do. Continue to share that we partner with other ministries and organizations. You never know who you may come in contact with that might know someone who can help contribute to the need or who might be in need themselves. Most importantly… you never know how far the ripple will reach of people who will come to know Jesus because of the ministry we do and the relationships we form.
John 4: 13-14
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”