How Can We Help? 

Church strategies for responding to global crises

Katrina. Tsunamis. Earthquakes. Now a heartrending refugee crisis is playing out across the media. Believers are urgently asking their church leaders, “Are we going to respond?” “How can we help?”

Many churches have been caught less than fully prepared to answer these questions. How can congregations respond well to a sudden, overwhelming world event? How can you facilitate your people’s compassionate response as well as expand their understanding of God’s global purposes?

I am not an expert on crisis response, but I offer these suggestions to help us think about some of the issues. These recommendations primarily relate to a crisis in another part of the world. A local crisis offers additional avenues for involvement.

1. Recognize the phases of the situation. Most crises have both a short-term, emergency phase and a longer-term, rebuilding phase. These are very different and generally call for different responses. We address them separately below.

2. Respond quickly to the short-term emergency with financial help through already trusted partners. Almost always, the best way for a church to help meet immediate needs of a global crisis is through financial gifts. Two types of organizations are prepared to act speedily:

• Mercy ministries with crisis-response departments (World Relief and Samaritan’s Purse among others; many denominations also have an emergency relief department). These organizations specialize in knowing how to respond in a variety of crisis situations. They are also poised to be able to get on location quickly, assess situations well, and deliver aid as effectively as possible.
• Agencies and partners with personnel already on the ground in the crisis zone. This may include missions agencies with missionaries who live in that location or national partners in the epicenter of the need.

3. Carefully analyze requests for help. Every organization knows that a crisis moves people to open their wallets. Sadly, a few agencies which raise money for emergency aid divert or waste funds. Others try to launch relief efforts for which they are not equipped. Don’t be afraid to ask hard questions:

• Does this organization have the expertise and capacity (personnel and delivery systems) to provide goods or services where most needed?
• Are other organizations already addressing this need, perhaps better?
• How can we be sure that the aid we provide through this organization will have maximum benefit?

4. Give your people a missions perspective on the crisis. Does your congregation really understand the situation? Perhaps you need to present a coherent overview of what is happening.

Pictures of a dead child in the surf circulate quickly, but your people will likely need to hear from you that local churches are quietly serving displaced persons in that same location. Whenever possible, provide your congregation with a first-hand perspective on the crisis written by a believer or worker on the ground. Where can you find reliable reports? Check the websites and blogs of mission organizations you trust.

While it is natural to feel an urgent need to “do something” in a crisis, the most powerful contribution is prayer. Consider beginning a daily, short-term email blast circulating prayer requests that will guide your people in powerful intercession for those who are suffering.

5. Commit to meeting longer-term needs. Quite often, the crisis will fade from the news before the greatest impacts of the disaster will even begin. Will your church be one that continues to walk alongside those who suffer, long after the media trucks leave? If so, you will need to develop a plan around the longer-term needs and goals of those on the ground. Here’s where there are often opportunities to involve your people’s skills in hands-on help. To keep your congregation engaged, you will need to continue to update them on the story of the ongoing need and how you are helping to address it.

6. Don’t rush after the crowd.When possible, churches should respond to crisis situations with thoughtful, prayerful generosity. But don’t be tempted to divert funds from critically needed long-term ministry.

Before getting heavily involved in crisis alleviation, some leaders make it a policy to step back and assess if other strategic funding priorities are getting pushed to the background. For example: In the emotional drama of the refugee crisis in Europe, we must not forget that there are major humanitarian needs in places like South Sudan, Iraq, and Somalia. And missionaries still need their monthly support, schools around the world need to continue to educate future leaders, and the gospel needs to continue to go out via media.

7. Develop a response strategy before disasters arise. Do you have a predetermined plan for addressing global crises? Such a plan should include:

• By what criteria will we quickly determine whether and how we should respond when a crisis occurs?
• Do we have clear guidelines for creating and publicizing a special giving fund for emergency relief?
• Should we establish a line item in our budget for crisis needs?
• What organizations will we prioritize as conduits for emergency relief funds?
• What is our training and deployment plan for sending individuals or teams to serve special needs?
• Do our global partners have contingency plans to address a sudden crisis? This should include strategies for individual missionaries caught in an emergency situation. But it may also be wise to plan how to come alongside partners’ ministries at a time of crisis.

8. Identify emergency relief resources in your congregation. Ask those who specialize in crisis response to provide a list of expertise most often needed in times of emergency and its aftermath. Do you have people in your congregation with those types of training and skills? Those often needed: medical personnel of all kinds, social workers, trauma and grief counselors, all types of building tradespeople, drivers, cooks, project managers, translators, etc.

Consider regularly providing some emergency response training. Why not offer a class in collaboration with other churches in your area? You may want to develop and prepare a rapid response team.

A Few Resources on Refugees

• The Refugee Highway is a global network of ministries, churches, and individuals who reach out to refugees at various points on their pilgrimage to a new homeland.
• One of GMI’s Missiographics, “Stepping Beyond the Tents,” is a great information and teaching tool to stimulate deeper discussion.
• World Relief partners with churches in various ways to address the refugee crisis including resources for churches.

Sidebar stories: Partnerships Shine in a Crisis. Read how New Hope Church’s partnerships prepared them to respond to the Middle East crisis. Networks’ Value in Refugee Crisis offers a networking opportunity.