Christ the Shepherd Presbyterian Church takes her responsibility to the community seriously.  We believe what God teaches us in James 1:27:

In Jesus’ account of the Final Judgment in Matthew 25, He tells His followers:

And from the very beginning, we have been doing this, quietly, privately, as individuals and families who worship at Christ the Shepherd. 

Every single person who has ever lived is a person in need.  We each have needs that are Theological, Psychological, Social, and Physical.  The Lord instructed His church to meet these needs and we consider it a privilege to do this.

I John 3:16-18 reminds Christians:

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.  But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?  Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and truth.

The philosophy of Mercy Ministry at Christ the Shepherd is to encourage and enable our members to bask in the mercy that the Lord has shown to them, freeing them to give grace and mercy to those who the Lord sends into their lives. 

This is happening as members pour into other people. 

•   Mercy is being shown through our Deacon’s Fund, an account separate from our normal church budget, set up specifically and only for meeting physical needs of people.

• Mercy is being shown in the form of counseling services provided for those struggling with various issues regarding inter-personal relationships. -    Mercy is being shown to those with various chemical and emotional dependencies as members who have walked through dark paths in their own lives spend time loving and guiding people who are, so to speak, alienated from themselves.  
• Mercy is being shown in Sunday morning worship and throughout the week as hurting people are pointed to a loving God who is capable of meeting their deepest need.

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in  Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

In the Fall of 2007 and Spring of 2008, there will be an emphasis on adding specific, church-organized and targeted Mercy Ministry to the ways that our congregation is already meeting needs through deeds.  We have purposely waited until this time and lay out a formal church Mercy Ministry for several reasons:

1.    It takes time to adequately assess the needs of a community.

• Some of our families moved here from different regions of the country.  Needs here are different than needs in other places.  Economic structures, social structures, etc., combine with our common human deficiencies to cause different types of pain.
• Others in our congregation who are Greater Danbury natives found themselves in need of looking at the needs in Greater Danbury with new eyes, and with an eye toward new possibilities in meeting those needs as members of a new church.
• Some communities with pronounced Mercy needs already have adequate churches and/or social programs meeting these needs, in which case the call is for our church to join in and/or provide resources rather than “reinvent the wheel.”  We are identifying those ministries.
• The best use of resources has been to pray and plan adequately before instituting a Mercy Ministry plan.

2.    The Lord is adding people to our church who bring passion to a particular need or group of needs in our community.

• We are a growing church that has been meeting in formal worship services for just over one year.  The emphasis in these early stages of our church has been on our understanding of the Gospel and on what it means to give grace to those who God is bringing in to our church.
• At the same time, the Lord has is populating our congregation with people who are have experienced (or are experiencing) every kind of hurt.  We are indeed a broken congregation.
• As we see who God is bringing into our congregation, we get a picture of what He is going to use us to do in the area of public, organized Mercy Ministry.  People are bringing their God-given passions for Mercy Ministry into our midst.
• We now have a more accurate picture of ourselves (strengths, weaknesses, passions, and interests – our “gift mix”) and what God can use us to do for Him.

3.    We are now settled into a permanent location.

• Ministry at our temporary location when we were leasing a building on North Street would have had a certain look and feel.
• Now that we are in our facilities on Stadley Rough Road, the needs of our immediate community are different and we can adequately assess the needs here.
• We have space now that we didn’t have then – and we can plan accordingly.
• We now have a more accurate picture of our own facilities and how God can use our building and land to be used for his glory.

4.    There is a tendency for a church congregation to find its identity in what it does rather than in who it is in Christ.

• It is a human tendency for people to base their relationship with God on what they are (allegedly) doing for Him rather than on what He has done for them.
• We have spent a year absorbing Grace while engaging in quiet, personal acts of mercy ministry.
• Now that we understand the motivation for doing good works, that they are a response to God’s good work on our behalf and not to earn His (or anyone else’s favor) we can properly do the right things for the right reasons.
• We now have a more accurate picture of the reason for our church’s existence and where formal Mercy Ministry fits into God’s whole plan for our church.