12 Step Program...

Foreward

by Tom Nees

When I started Community of Hope, a nonprofit compassionate ministry in Washington, D.C., in the early 1970s, I assumed there would be little denominational interest in this kind of ministry. I couldn’t have been more wrong!

Now Nazarenes generally assume the church should be involved wherever there is human need. A recent *denominational survey concluded that up to 77 percent of all Nazarene churches in the United States engage in some form of compassionate ministry.

Through Nazarene Compassionate Ministries USA/Canada, a national network of over 140 nonprofits called Compassionate Ministry Centers, and almost 900 local congregations called Good Samaritan Churches, engage in organized ministry to the poor and needy, touching thousands of lives daily while ministering across the United States and Canada.

As people and churches continue to enlist in the missional
initiative to be a compassionate church, the need to educate, inform and equip local churches and agencies in their efforts to help those in need becomes a larger priority.

With this in mind, Oliver R. Phillips, coordinator, Nazarene Compassionate Ministries USA/Canada, has put together this little “12-Step” booklet as a basic primer for those persons and churches who have an interest in starting their own faith-based nonprofit organization.

In his book, The Cathedral Within, Bill Shore remarks that most nonprofit organizations do not plan to be around for the long-term—sometimes not much longer than the tenure of the founding director. Shore invokes the metaphor of the “cathedral” to encourage devotion to things that last. It is my hope that The 12-Step Program will provide you with the building blocks needed to construct a solid foundation for lasting success.

On days when work seems little more than a “rock pile,” remember that all cathedrals started this way before they became enduring monuments. May your efforts at building a vital ministry to those in need prove equally as long-lasting.

Tom Nees, director, Mission Strategy USA/Canada

*Faith Communities Today: A Survey of Churches of the Nazarene, 2000.