This is the first in a series of articles about collaborative partnerships between the church and the pregnancy medical clinic. Unborn children have needs that can only be met through the Body of Christ. We hope to thoughtfully discuss some of those needs in this blog over the coming weeks.
For years, pregnancy centers all over the country have been repeatedly asked, “What can our church do to help save lives through your clinic?”
Here at Hope Women’s Centers, our answer list was typically short: “Pray, give, and volunteer.” We know the battle is spiritual, so prayer is foundational. We always seem to be short of funds, so asking for money seemed like a no-brainer…and we never have enough volunteers to cover all of the shifts. Only recently have we learned how we were short-changing our clients and our churches by not giving more thought to this all-important question.!
In Broward County, we have enough churches to fully resource at least 10 pregnancy medical clinics – but only churches are currently engaged with Hope Women’s Centers in a financial capacity. Churches have been charged with a biblical mandate that far exceeds the scope of the pregnancy center: James 1:27 “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world..”
Partnering with Hope to protect unborn life is a natural path towards fulfilling that commission, and we believe we can help the churches do that..For several months now, instead of telling our churches about our needs, we are asking them how we can help them carry out their mission to the widows and orphans in Broward County who need help.
We are starting to see the fruit of some of those discussions and it is really exciting. Next time, I will invite you to witness the creativity and the generosity of some of our local churches.
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