iCare: A New Vision

"We connected more deeply as a body, used that energy and combined resources to help others, and re-engaged our primary vision to make a difference in our world."  --Kadi Cole, Grace Church director of advancement

Average Weekly Attendance: 3,000 (two campuses)
Senior Pastors Jeff Bogue and Bob Combs
Information Provided By: Kadi Cole, director of advancement

In the last year, we began to sense that our church needed to re-engage our outward focus. We spent a day as a staff brainstorming and outlining who we felt, as believers, we are called to serve. We developed an eight-week sermon series with a challenge to each person to engage “iCare” in 5 ways:

iCare about my…

Family (they are my first neighbor)
Neighborhood (those in my natural path of life)
Church (serving through church ministries)
Community (people in the greater Akron area)
World (serving people globally)

iCare Dare:

A – Attend church every week
B – Read your Bible every day (we e-mailed a daily devotional)
C – Join a small group (they used corresponding curriculum)
D – Do something every week (challenged to serve each group)
E – Engage iCare as a family (we created kid friendly options)

We did this initiative at our Bath Campus (average weekly attendance of 1,700) in spring 2009. Nearly 600 adults joined a small group for the first time. We collected 620 bags (approximately 6,200 meals) in the series-long food drive, and several rooms of furniture were donated for urban families. We had a maxed-out blood drive, more than 475 participated in individual service projects with their iCare groups, and more than 1,000 individuals participated in “Feed My Starving Children” to assemble and pay for 228,096 meals. In the seventh week of the series, we canceled our regular worship services and sent out more than 1,500 people in serving teams to “blitz” the community with everything from community work projects to park clean-ups to nursing home visits.

In fall 2009, we did iCare at our Norton Campus (average weekly attendance of 900), with 450 adults joining an iCare group and more than 5,000 hours of service to the community performed. More than 400 people took part in the blitz, and more than 100,000 meals were made with Feed My Starving Children.

Overall, iCare was an amazing time for our church. We connected more deeply as a body, used that energy and combined resources to help others, and re-engaged our primary vision to make a difference in our world. We are still seeing the results of the momentum from this initiative. And, more importantly, our small groups and outreach efforts that began with iCare have continued on. Our groups are staying connected with out partner ministries and continuing to build those relationships.

Tell Us Your Ministry Breakthrough Story ...