Thoughts by Neil Cox, Co-Convener of Love2020's Justice/Mercy/CommunityDev/Compassion/CreationCare Affinity Team

April 26, 2015

This past week I participated in two Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) exercises geared to Neighborhood response, while simulating urgent/important situations.

Thursday night, I drew the short straw.

It was my turn to lead.

I picked a buddy to help me at the Command Post.

14 Other CERTs.  Formed 7 buddy-teams.

2 by 2.  Sound familiar?

But to do what?

We picked the 2 most gifted/qualified to set up our CARE Area

where we would stage/treat our victims.

We dispatched our other 6 trained teams as neighborhood ground-troops, so to speak.

2 trained buddies, to... Size-up, Search & Rescue.  House-to-House... down that street. 

2 trained buddies, to... Size-up, Search & Rescue.  House-to-House... and that street.

2 trained buddies, to... Size-up, Search & Rescue.  House-to-House... and that street.

2 trained buddies, to... Size-up, Search & Rescue.  House-to-House... and that street.

2 trained buddies, to... Size-up, Search & Rescue.  House-to-House... and that street.

2 trained buddies, to... Size-up, Search & Rescue.  House-to-House... and that street.

At each home, our trained CERTs were to size-up (assess) the situation, look (and LISTEN) for people who needed help.  Rescue the toughest cases to the CARE Area.

We didn't wait til victims were brought in, to start preparing our CARE Area.

(Aren't you glad that hospitals are not still on the drawing board, waiting for your ambulance to pull up?)

********** Ok, why did I mention that, in the context of the Great Commission, and Love2020 and the #GospelSummit ? *********

I offer my one focused conclusion (to date) as you develop our team's Strategic Plan:

• If the Love2020 Initiative (ie, the Great Commission) is to be 100% successful, it MUST HAPPEN LOCALLY.  AND INTENTIONALLY.  Very locally and very intentionally, down to the church/neighborhood level... block by block, home by home.  

• And as all of us pray & recruit prayer-care-share workers across the country, let's be mindful that our Justice/Mercy/CommDev/Compassion/CreationCare-focused people cannot simply organize to become a 'clanging symbol' for our point-of-view.  In fact, no doubt justice-workers are already in the trenches actively engaged in their cities in CARE-related 'parachurch' ministries.   As Love2020 proceeds, it's highly likely those CARE-related parachurch ministries will (MUST) increasingly COLLABORATE as a CARE GROUP to effectively support the tangible, tactical, Prayer-Care-Share church/neighborhood operations... with expertise, perhaps such as:
• a centralized Call (& Listening) Center
• with available Specialists (eg Justice workers) re a dozen or so basic needs. 
• maybe even conduct particular CARE skills training for all the citywide PCS 'ground-troops'.
• Here's an example of what we're working toward in Indy to start the CARE collaboration process.

• Therefore:  At a NATIONAL level, we MUST BE actively engaged in helping to stimulate and support the LOCAL establishment of such a COLLABORATIVE CARE FUNCTION in every CITY... to support the active CityReaching movement there.  Some steps toward that objective might be:

• Assessing what already exists in cities... and see which ones seem to be most effective.
• Continue tightening up our clarity around biblical justice/mercy and how to apply it.
• Continue building-out our Contacts database as we find/recruit 'care' connections.
• Get vitally involved in each of our own cities' CARE support-group (and related Call Center).  Or help pilot one.