NEEDS AMONG US

At First United Presbyterian Church in Belleville, it is important to us that our church family knows that their church will support them through any spiritual, emotional, or physical challenges they face. It is from that value that our Needs Among Us program was born. Every few months (approximately quarterly), we invite everyone in worship that Sunday to share a need with their church. They don't have to have the solution, merely share a need. Then, the following Sunday we publish the needs, anonymously, and invite the congregation to respond to the needs. We have teams that then coordinate the needs and responses and essentially do the behind-the-scenes mobilizing. After a few years of collecting the needs among us from the congregation, we began a partnership with a local social service agency. We began by partnering with case workers to collect needs from 15 families. The goal being to fill in resource gaps for families in crisis. Over time, we have expanded to partner with up to 5o families throughout the year. Now, every few months, we not only collect the needs from the congregation on Sunday, but also collect the needs from the case workers of the 50 families in crisis we have connected with through Needs Among Us. When the needs are published during worship the following Sunday, they are all mixed together and anonymous. Living into our calling as Christ-followers, we are working to make our circle bigger and love our neighbors.

Getting Involved

Interested in learning more about Needs Among Us? Want to get involved in coordinating the needs and responses? There are two coordinating teams and plenty of behind the scenes work that happens. We have openings on the team every so often! Reach out to one of the pastors to learn more!