When a volunteer adopts an EVENT need and says they are bringing multiple people with them to serve, have you ever wanted to know who those people are and have each of them receive automated reminder emails?  Want to see the serving activity of your small groups and families?  Well now you can!

Registration is quick!

If a volunteer changes the quantity of people coming to anything greater than 1 then a pop-up appears asking if they’d like to register a “group”.  That individual names the group and registers everyone in their group to meet that need by entering the following information for each group member.

• email
• name
• phone
• age range

Each individual becomes a Pending Member of the Master Organization (if they are not already approved). The system will remember the group so that the user can utilize it at a later date.  Group members can always be deleted or added.

Note: do not check the per user limit when posting the need if you want to allow your volunteers to utilize group sign-up.

Reporting is easy!

Data for each volunteer is captured on your current Needs and Commitments Reports.

• See what individuals and groups have sign up for particular need.
• Search easily by group name to see all the serving activity of a particular group.
• Sort by individual to see how he/she as served by themselves or with a particular group(s).

Emails Go to Everyone!

• Each group member receives a confirmation email with unique access to their personal serve account (through a temporary password).
• Each group member can edit or cancel their own commitment at their convenience.
• Each Group member receives automatic reminder emails at 21, 7, and 1 day prior to the need date.

Posted in Community Outreach, Events, Families & Individuals Serving, Uncategorized
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Across the Street and Around the World is the catch phrase we use at The Crossing Church in Tampa,FL  for our Outreach and Missions programs and for the past several years our partnership with Meet the Need has made our local missions (across the street) more effective and efficient through their volunteer management, event management, goods posting and other needs management tools.  The Crossing Church connected members, partners and the community together  through Meet the Need to meet the needs of its’ members and attendees very effectively in local missions but it is  in recent years we have discovered the power of using the Meet the Need tools in the realm of International  Missions (around the world).

Meet the Need has helped tremendously to solve some of the key challenges we were experiencing within our international missions programs:  Short Term Team Leadership recruitment, Short Term Team selection, Short Term Team material needs fulfillment and Missionary Material Needs fulfillment.  Prior to utilizing Meet the Need, if these needs were communicated it was done via word of mouth, platform announcements, bulletin communications and manual emails to the church body.  This was a cumbersome, inconsistent process that in many cases was simply lost in the priorities of church communications and/or not communicated at all.

Effective Communication

With Meet the Need we are able to clearly communicate our International Mission leadership needs and requirements. I am sure that you would agree that Short Term Mission Trips pose some of the highest risk to your church and as a result require the highest level of leadership and training.  At The Crossing a short term mission team leader is required to have an application, background check, interview process, reference check, thorough training through our Culture Link Leadership program as well as attendance as a co-leader in one of our trips.   In the past, communicating the Short Term Trip leader needs was difficult in addition to what the leader requirements were.  This was resolved when we incorporated Meet the Need in our program.   We now post our leadership needs and requirements to an audience of 2,000 in our church and over 25,000 members in the Tampa Area with all of the details necessary to answer the preliminary questions.   By posting the leadership opportunities we have been able fill the leader positions and cover all of the common questions helping to fill our training classes with better informed and qualified candidates.   

We realized the same success in recruiting team members for our trips.   By posting our team member opportunities on Meet the Need we have been able to give detailed descriptions of the trip that include location, dates, nature of the trip, number of team members allowed on the trip, cost and team member requirements to a vast audience  in the Tampa Area.    Prayer team members for the trips are recruited as well as other “home church” positions are posted building visibility and partnership within our church and in the community.  Interested team candidates are responded to quickly via Meet the Need’s automated notification emails and team leaders are able to promptly begin application and training processes with the potential team member.

An added Bonus!

One of the biggest bonuses we have realized through leveraging Meet the Need in International Missions is the ability to post material needs for our teams and Missionaries.  Our teams post needs for supplies that in the past were paid for out of trip funds but are now fulfilled by church members and the community again building partnership and connection to the Short Term Mission Team and the mission within the trip while saving precious trip funds for other outreach activities.  Missionaries are able to post material needs to a broad audience offering another way to partner with them to our church and those in the community.  Posting material needs has saved thousands of dollars for Short Term Mission Teams, blessed countless numbers of people groups and built partnerships that would not have been realized prior to leveraging Meet the Need’s tools in International Missions.

Across the Street and Around the World, Meet the Need’s partnership with The Crossing Church has helped us to be more effective  and efficient in being the salt and light to the communities we serve.

Posted in Missions & Outreach
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Do you ever feel overwhelmed?  Like there is too much to do with being a spouse, a parent, serving in ministry, being a leader, being a friend, a child, etc.  You see all there is to do, but just can’t do it all on your own.  God makes these seasons in our life to call us back to Him – because guess what?  . . . We can’t do it on our own, we need Him.  I found comfort in God’s word in a season in my life, where I felt just this way.

7 Steps from Jesus

In John 6:1-15 there is the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand.  In that story there is a “formula” for what to do in life when we feel overwhelmed, when we see a crowd coming and just don’t feel like we can do it.

1. Ask for help – In verse 5 Jesus (although he already knew the answer) asked for help.  We should ask God for help and put down our pride and ask those around us for help.

2. Don’t focus on what we don’t have – In verse 7 Philip pointed out what they didn’t have.  Quickly Andrew changed the subject to what they did have.  We need a community of believers to help keep our focus on the positive.

3. Give what we have to God – In verse 9 they gave the five small loaves and two small fish – small things, but in God’s hands can be big.  We should surrender all we have to God our talents, our mind, our body, and our soul.

4. Be still – In verse 10 Jesus instructed the disciples to have the people sit down – take a break, prepare in mind and body to fully receive what the Lord is about to do.  We should slow down and be still in His presence.

5. Give thanks – In verse 11 Jesus gave thanks to The Father for what they had. Give thanks for the small things in our life that God can use to perform a miracle.

6. Expect a miracle plus leftovers – In verse 12 they were all fed and there were even leftovers!  Anticipate that God will provide abundantly more than we can imagine when you put your trust and faith in Him.  I don’t know about you, but I’ll take a “doggie bag” from God.

7. Tell others – In verse 14 the people began to tell others about this miracle.  Be sure to share what God has done in our lives with others.  This is our testimony of God’s love.

Rejoice in the Leftovers

Now don’t get me wrong, our God is not a genie where as we do certain steps, we will get hat we want.  However, our God is one that wants our whole hearts, to surrender to Him, and seek His guidance.  As we seek his wisdom, what we ask for will align with His will.  It is when we are in His will, that He will provide all that we need . . . plus leftovers! Next time you feel overwhelmed, be encouraged in His word.

Posted in Families & Individuals Serving
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We’ve redefined faith.  More and more today, the message from the Christian community is that faith is about this life.  Faith believes God will heal.  Faith knows God will get us out of this difficult time.  Faith trusts that God has a greater plan for our lives.  Faith understands that if we’re faithful in our service and giving, then God will pour out blessings on us.  Countless sermons, songs and books reinforce the benefits of faith with stories of miracles in the lives of those who demonstrated unwavering faith.

What’s disturbing about redefining that word is there may not be a more fundamental concept in the Bible than “faith”.  It’s how people in the Old Testament, before Jesus came, were saved (Hebrews 11:2).  It’s how people in the New Testament are saved.  It’s how we’re saved today.  Believing and communicating a completely different meaning of possibly the most important word in Christianity is a serious matter.

In an attempt to be relevant and encourage the unchurched to consider Christianity, we paint a “here and now” picture of faith.  Yet in trying to become relevant, we’ve become increasingly irrelevant.  People expect miracles and are disappointed.  Bad things – often really bad things – happen to them.  So we tell them to be more faithful or to be faithful longer, and God will come through.  Yet doubt creeps in if life doesn’t improve or we encounter the next major setback.  Or we praise God for rewarding our faith if situations turn out like we hoped, reinforcing our belief that faith is about this life.

Understanding the Truth in Faith

God didn’t meet the expectations of so many people because we taught them to expect what God never promised.  We gave them false hope for a better life but their life isn’t getting any easier.

“Here and now” faith is a fundamental departure from the definition of “faith” in the Bible.  Faith means the opposite.  Faith is:

• Hope for the next life through belief in Jesus Christ as our savior
• Therefore, I can endure all things, and
• Whatever outcomes occur are for God’s best, no matter how difficult

Hebrews 11:1 is considered the standard Biblical definition of the word faith.  It says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  That may seem on the surface to relate to hope in this life and most take it that way.  Except the entire rest of Chapter 11 goes on to talk about the people in the “Hall of Fame” when it comes to faith – and all endured extreme sacrifices, suffering, loneliness, rejection, torture, prison, poverty, homelessness and often worse.  There are almost no mentions of earthly rewards for their faith.  In fact, the chapter concludes by saying that none of these great people of faith received what they hoped for in this life.

However, the point reinforced throughout Hebrews 11 is that they all did receive what faith does truly promise – eternal life.  “Having confessed they were strangers and exiles on the earth”, “they desired a better country, that is a heavenly one” because “God had provided something better for us”.  That’s faith!  Of the “author and perfecter of faith” Himself, Jesus Christ, Hebrews 13 says “who for the joy set before Him endured the cross”.  All of Jesus’ disciples suffered mightily for their belief that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, but they did so because they knew a better home awaited them.  This life is short and tough – the afterlife is long and amazing – so they accepted incredible hardship, torture and many even death.

It’s not a pretty picture to present to those who aren’t Christians – much less attractive and relevant than saying faith is about rewards in this life.  In fact, it’s not a pretty picture for those who are Christians because it means living our lives differently than we do now.  It means our life may not improve – it could even get MUCH worse.  But we’re called to take a strong stand for Christ despite possibly being mocked or rejected by non-Christian friends.  We’re called to accept any outcome that God provides – not pray for a particular outcome.

Truth is Something Bigger …

The world wants improvement – it wants results.  But the church should not conform to the world, nor should Christians.  Ironically, the more we try to be relevant and make Christianity palatable, the more unattractive it becomes.  Non-Christians know that something is missing in their lives – but they can see through the shallow faith, the near-term hope, preached by the church and their Christian friends.  They know deep down it’s an attempt to “sell” them – and they’re not buying it.  They know truth is something bigger and more demanding than a better life.

If they do come to church and adopt our definition of faith, there’s a good chance their expectations will be missed – circumstances may not turn out like they prayed and hoped for.  We know what happens when expectations are missed – when companies promise and don’t deliver – we take our business elsewhere.  In this case, so many leave the church and God behind – and they’re unlikely to come back because they feel like they gave God a fair shot.

But it wasn’t God who disappointed them – it was Christianity who sold them a rosy and wrong definition of faith.

Posted in Articles, Missions & Outreach
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Sharing your faith can be done so many different ways; God gives us many opportunities.  Lonely, lost, needy, hurting people can be found in everyone’s daily paths in every corner of the earth.  But, why does God instruct us to “go”?  As followers of Jesus, He ask us to step out of our comforts of home and family to extend His love to the outermost parts of the earth.  Jesus’ disciples were sent by Him to surrounding areas to spread the good news.  Paul took many mission trips and wrote about his desire to take more.  Paul saw the value in traveling and spreading the gospel to others, going out of his way physically, financially, emotionally and spiritually.

Think about a time when you helped someone in need and the realization that followed that opened your eyes to how truly blessed you really are by God.  No matter your personal situation, God can always show you someone whose hurts, needs or status in life makes your own seem minimal and covered by God.  When this happens, God is choosing for us to experience answers rather than explaining it to us.  Our hearts, behaviors and relationships change by serving others. And, in the process hope, joy, and the love of Jesus are given to those in need.

Consider these commands from God…

Deuteronomy 15:11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor.

Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 25:35-40 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

James 1:17 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

James 2:14-17 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

God can use all of us in so many ways; all we have to do is step out in faith as a humble servant and allow Him to do it.

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Rafe Wright Executive Pastor of Missional Life at Christ Fellowship Church in McKinney, TX sat down with Meet The Need to talk about how they impact the community through local missions by empowering their members and using MTN.

“There are exciting things happening in the ministry of Christ Fellowship and Meet The Need has been a very big part!”
Rafe Wright, Executive Pastor of Missional Life

Christ Fellowship’s local mission and community impact ministries consist of benevolence, evangelism and outreach ministries that mobilize and send people out into the community to impact others in daily life. They have also created work life ministries to teach ways of how to become the hands and feet of Christ at their place of employment. Christ Fellowship has even launched an online church to be more accessible to people who can’t make conventional services in their community.

A Broad View of Local Missions

Christ Fellowship helped establish 3e McKinney to be a source of support and help for the greater community and school systems by providing mentoring, teacher support, and community-wide events.  Through 3e McKinney multiple churches unite and create “Plug and play” opportunities. These events allow people first-time serving experiences to ignite a passion in their heart. Using the MTN event viral roll-out process ,larger churches host these major events and allow smaller churches to support the volunteers and attendees by equipping them spiritually and giving them avenues to use their gifts.

The vision of 3e McKinney is to engage, equip ,and to empower. The goal is to engage the body of Christ and equip those individuals to empower others. Meet The Need serves as a local missions tool for 3e McKinney (read more about 3e McKinney) and many of the other 40 plus churches that are a part of that network including Christ Fellowship Eldorado, TX.

“Our goal is to raise the reputation of Jesus in our community”!
Rafe Wright, Executive Pastor of Missional Life

Christ Fellowship uses shared case management for posting families and benevolence needs to track what has been given to individuals in the system. They have also gotten their community partners on board to post needs directly from their dashboard instead of sending emails and making phone calls. This is what alleviates addition work for you as workers in the body of Christ. Meet The Need is a major empowerment tool for internal leaders. With MTN you can create teams and track and manage outreach teams in the community.

Communicating to Members

Large churches like Christ Fellowship roll out Meet The Need in a sermon series or as an action point of service to the congregation. They also allow for internal members to request goods or services that they are needing. Following the Top 10 Keys to Enliven Your Church , Christ Fellowship has multiple “on ramps” or points of introduction to their private labeled MTN campaign. Using methods like Facebook, video communications, e-blast, and a live person kiosks in locations around the church allows members to better address a need and access opportunities to serve.  All of these efforts have allowed Christ Fellowship to have 70% of all attendees adopting needs. To hear more of how Christ Fellowship McKinney changed their local missions impact click here to view the webinar.

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Using Meet The Need to Get Your Ministry’s Needs Met

As a ministry using Meet The Need there are a few steps to take in order to make sure your needs are seen by enough people to get them met. While many ministries have seen instant success in getting their needs adopted there are a few best practices that have proven successful to ensure your maximum potential using MTN.

1. Connect with your Partners

Do your church partners know you’re using Meet The Need? Many organizations hear about MTN from other organizations, directors, conferences, trade-shows and from local churches. From there you sign-up to start posting needs but have you made a connection to your local church so that they can make sure they are showing your posting? Forming church connections is a crucial step in broadcasting your needs to the community.

2. Put a button on Your Website

Is MTN on your Ministry website? Many ministries rely on the church to do all of the broadcasting for them. While the church connection is a critical step to getting needs seen; it shouldn’t be your only method of advertising what you are in need of. Each ministry should have a button on their website homepage that takes visitors   (potential volunteers/donors) to a shopping list of opportunities to support your organization.

3. Drive Traffic to your Website

What good is a button if no one knows its there? Great you have a button on your website now what?  Well it’s time to start driving traffic to your site. You can send an email out to all of your current volunteers letting them know that you now have a new way to receive volunteers. As people call to inquire about opportunities to serve start directing them to you website where they can select the categories and shifts that fit their gifting and availability. Think of all the free time you will have to focus on other things now you’re not coordinating volunteer schedules.

4. Are Your Volunteers Approved Members of Your Organizgtion

So you have a  decent number of regular volunteers how do you connect with them? When you start to drive traffic to your MTN button on your website and people adopt your needs they become a pending member of your organiztion. Now go into your dashboard and approve their membship. This allows them to now receive automatic email about new opportunites to serve. Now you just have to post needs and let our system do the work of informing your members.

5. Post Fresh Needs

Posting Needs is a lot like shopping on the cereal aisle. There are so many brand and types to choose from. Do you want Fruity Q’s with chocolate or with Marshmellows or Fruity Q’s with Chocolate and Marshmellows. Decisions, decision, decisions… With so many needs out there make sure that you consistantely post in order to increse the chances of your need getting met. You can’t just post 1 or 2 needs and wait for a confirmation email;you should continue to post fresh needs to be seen. Also it’s not a bad idea to refresh the description of what your need says so it reads as a new posting.

Check it out!
We’ve created a simple reference Document that talks about the Top 5 Keys to Getting Your Ministry’s Needs Met. Download it Here.

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“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”  -Proverbs 22:6

Why Serve Others?

Serving others in need is what we are commanded by God to do.  Serving as families and teaching our children this virtue is what we are called as parents to do.  We read in Colossians that as we serve others it is really Christ we are serving.  Do we take the time to really ‘see’ Jesus in the face of the person we’re serving?  Do we recognize that he is at the heart of what we’re doing?

Serving is kind of like Christmas – it is fun to get together with other Christians and serve, there’s activity involved, it feels good.  But we can make the mistake that just like Christmas we can forget that Jesus is at the heart of it, that it is something that we should continue to do all through the year.  Serving ought to be a daily lifestyle, not just focused on events a couple times a year.

In order to make serving a lifestyle we need to get involved regularly.  Any ministry can only survive with ongoing year-round volunteer help.  We have to be the church outside of the 4 walls – Be the church in our homes, work place and communities.  We need to cultivate this lifestyle in our family – our children need to see it and they can be involved too.

Our Family

I would like to share one simple way our family has served together year after year.  It has been great for our family to participate in an annual community event called Relay for Life.  We camp out together and walk a relay (all night long) to raise money to support a cure for cancer.  Cancer  is something that has plagued our family for generations.  Teaching our boys about this disease and how God is our ultimate healer has been a blessing.  Talking to cancer survivors and praying withe those currently in the battle has really brought home how others sometimes suffer.

Our kids have been a part of the body of believers in making a difference in the lives of others.  This has been one great way to teach our children about the needs of others, to give them an active role in serving and a reminder of how blessed we are.

Serving takes the focus off of us and makes us think of others.  As we continue as a family to seek ways to get involved in serving outside the walls of the church building our prayer is that our children grow up in that lifestyle and be a part of what God is doing in the real world.

Posted in Community Outreach, Families & Individuals Serving, Missions & Outreach
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Partners With

Imagine a collaborative effort focused on bringing more hope and help to those in need.  A powerful way to broadcast needs of your local community.  As a volunteer wouldn’t it be great to have one resource as your “go to” platform for helping others?  Is it possible to unite multiple resources to offer a variety of needs all in one place?  Now it is!  Meet The Need is proud to announce a partnership with Christian Volunteering!

Christian Volunteering’s vision is to match hundreds of thousands of volunteers with urban ministry opportunities.  For over 11 years Christian Volunteering has been doing just that.  This partnership will continue to propel the national expansion and vision of Meet The Need.

You can now see needs posted through Christian Volunteering on your site Meet The Need (and vice versa)!  This will enable you to see many more needs in your area as Christian Volunteering expands your members’ choices.

 Meet The Need’s partnership with Christian Volunteering

Click map below to see needs posted nationally

This partnership is allowing more needs to be seen in states where Meet The Need had not entered yet.  As well, it increases the number of needs in areas we already are.  Together we can do more!

Read on for answers to your questions about how this partnership and how you can access all the benefits of seeing more needs in your area.

Question: Do I still have control of the needs that are showing on my website?

Answer: Yes, as a church you still have the option to hide any organization through your dashboard. On the “Select Needs to Display on Your Website” from your dashboard, the words “Syndicated Organization” will be next to the organizations that have entered needs through Christian Volunteering.

If your organization is defaulted to “Visible” and you have an open link to all the needs in your community on your website, then Christian Volunteering needs will automatically show.  If your organization is defaulted to “Not Visible” then the Christian Volunteering needs will be hidden and you can choose to show them by changing your default.

Question: What kind of reporting will I be able to show for my members?

Answer:  As always, you will still have complete reporting of your member’s activity but it will only include activity from postings through MTN.

Question: Will my members still get reminder emails when adopting needs?

Answer: Yes, reminder emails will go through CV to your members who adopt a need of Christian Volunteering.

Question:  How can my members identify a Christian Volunteering need?

Answer: To easily identify a Christian Volunteering need, they appear with a “Powered By: ChristianVolunteering.org” message on the Details page and your members are given a notice that they are going to the Christian Volunteer website.

We love being able to offer you new and better ways to increase impact in your community and mobilize your members to serve!  If you have any questions about this new partnership, please contact us at 813-527-0222 or support@meettheneed.org

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Do you know the definitions of Volunteer or Voluntary?

Has it been awhile?  Me too, so straight from the dictionary:

Someone who does something without being forced to do it.

Proceeding  from the will or from one’s own choice or consent; unconstrained by interference. 

These definitions are obviously similar because they are both related to internal motives and are based on personal interests.  However, there are many times when volunteering is not voluntary.  Have you been involved in these “non-voluntary” types of volunteering events?  Are there still rewards from even times like these?  I believe there are, if we can get past ourselves to see them.  The goal is to simplify Volunteer Management.

Reactions to Volunteering

Do you immediately raise your hand when volunteers are requested?  Or do you look for the quickest place to hide in order to avoid volunteering at all costs?  Both of these reactions come from internal drives and are based on personal enthusiasm.  The volume of opportunities and organizations that needs volunteers seems endless because the number of needs to meet is endless. 

We are needy people.  God made us to need Him the most, but I doubt He ranks in most people’s top 5 list.

We need ­­­­__________ and __________ and __________, fill in the blanks that best apply to the needs YOU have.

10 Tips for Successful Volunteer Drives

1. Impress potential volunteers by managing your next Volunteer drive with online sign-up sheets that provide a higher level of organization.
2. Provide consistent contacts with all volunteers to gain their ongoing support.
3. Take every opportunity to promote the positive benefits of volunteering.
4. Never underestimate the value of planning.
5. Constant communication of details is key to recruiting and retaining volunteers from event to event.
6. Make it a family affair.
7. Create a motivating environment by encouraging new ideas and implementing suggestions.
8. Delegate a majority of the duties to others so you can welcome and direct the volunteers when they arrive.
9. If creating a donation list, or if you have specific donation needs, create an online list of “suggested” wish list items.
10. Provide plenty of thanks, recognition and results back to your volunteers at the conclusion of the event.

Hopefully, these tips are helpful to you and will increase the success of all your Volunteer drives!  For ideas on creative ways to volunteer and help others click here.

Posted in Community Outreach, Events, Families & Individuals Serving, Missions & Outreach
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