Case Study
Gateway Church in Dallas, Texas is the 13th largest church in the country (according to Outreach Magazine), with over 18,000 members. Gateway Church has grown so substantially because its living out a powerful God-given vision to see people saved, healed, set free, discipled, equipped, empowered and serving.
But even a church of that size with a large Outreach and Missions staff struggles to put the needs of its ministry partners in front of its members - there are just too many needs arising every day and too many members at the church to possibly match up the right member to the right opportunity on a constant basis. Members are willing and able to serve but it’s nearly impossible for any church of any size to unleash its members fully – doing so would require tracking all those needs as they arise, showing them to members, letting members search for the ones that fit best with their skills and interests (or items collecting dust in their garage), and following up to make sure the need got met. Read More...
So Gateway partnered with Meet The Need to launch its Bless! initiative in 2011, which mobilizes the congregation to serve outside the four walls of the church, both during the holidays and year round. Gateway tells its members, “There are so many ways, big and small, to reach out to others. Partner with God and discover the joy of loving people and meeting their needs.” Through Meet The Need, Gateway unveils to members and groups live, current opportunities to serve that fit their heart, passions, skills and interests at 50 local ministry partners. All of those partners are grouped under the following categories, with the needs of each partner shown within each section:
- Elderly
- Every Neighbor
- Ladies In Need
- Orphans
- Poor, Needy, Victims
- Prisoners
- Youth At Risk
The best part is that the ministry partners are tasked with keeping its needs up to date, so the burden of gathering and communicating a constant flow of local opportunities is lifted off of the church staff. And members simply sign up through an easy “online shopping” experience on the church’s web site anytime of day or night for the opportunity that fits them best. Meanwhile, Gateway Church is able to control the needs that show up on its web site and to track every member and group who has served at each ministry – even seeing testimonials to share with the church! And throughout that entire process, the members and the community can’t tell that it’s Meet The Need behind the scenes enabling all of that to happen – everything looks exactly like Gateway’s web site!
What people say about Meet the Need
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"Meet the Need is the major component that drives the "Bless!" initiative at Gateway Church. The purpose of "Bless!" is to encourage the church to serve outside the four walls of our building, by connecting our members with the ministries that we relate and partner with. We have had a wonderful and effortless experience with MTN from our initial design sessions to full integration on our website. We are so excited about the positive response we have received from our members and our ministry partners who have utilized MTN for the purpose of building the Kingdom by reaching out to those in need."
