Staying in Touch and Helping Out Two Tools
The Window, February 2012

One of most important tasks in our church life is staying in touch. We want to be sure that all of our members are aware of programs and events at the church, including worship services, classes and learning sessions, and work projects.


One of the greatest blessings we share as a congregation is our willingness...our eagerness...to help church members who may have particular needs, or may encounter difficult and challenging circumstances. We have two new tools to help in our efforts.


The first, called ServantKeeper Notify!, will allow us to send e-mails, text messages, and voice-mails to church members. This service will be immediately useful in notifying members of any weather cancellations or emergencies. In a year with two major power outages due to a tropical storm and a snowstorm, the need is apparent. Currently we are limited in how many people we can e-mail with one message without turning our message into spam. Members with children and youth in the North Haven schools are familiar with the informational phone calls that come from the school principals. ServantKeeper Notify! will enable us to send voice messages to members’ phones in much the same way. This will be most helpful for our members who do not use e-mail or text-messaging. Finally, Notify! will also enable us to send text messages to members as well.


In addition to weather delays and cancellations, this tool will also be helpful in publicizing church programs and events, and sending reminders of group meetings and gatherings. We will need to learn your preferences for modes of communication, and we’ll try it out with a test groups first.


The second tool is called Lotsa Helping Hands. You may remember that we had a program called Sharing and Caring which helped members respond to needs within the congregation for rides, shopping, meals, light home repair. This is a very important ministry when people are hospitalized or incapacitated in some fashion. Sharing and Caring was coordinated by members of the Women’s Fellowship. They used an index card file to record the kinds of help members could offer, and then matched those offers with needs reported to them. Lotsa Helping Hands does the same thing using the internet. We can make a list of those church members willing to help others, and the kinds of help they can offer. We can then list needs that are identified, and contact those who might possibly help. You can go to www.lotsahelpinghands.org to see how it works. The Lotsa Helping Hands member care program will be overseen by the Deacons. The greatest need as we begin is for a Coordinator (or two!) and signing up helpful members. If you are interested, speak with Steve Simonson or Scott Morrow. These two tools will be very helpful as we endeavor to share the news of our church programs and care for our membership. We will keep you informed as we become more familiar and skillful with them!

Shalom, Scott Morrow