Faith Community Care brings together Christian health professionals and care workers to facilitate a health focus to pastoral care and promote whole person health care.

FCC is a contemporary iteration of ‘Diakonia’ understood as the gift of serving or ministering to others, especially the most vulnerable in need of support to relieve spiritual, mental and physical distress (Acts 6:1-7). This care focuses on the whole person and their relationships, seeking to effect peace, healing and whole health, or shalom. Read more

‘…For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’

(Matthew 25:35-40, ESV)

We know vulnerable people require informed care

Faith Community Care focuses on vulnerable community members. E.g. People who are:

  • Frail and ageing
  • Living with chronic conditions
  • Living with disabilities
  • Experiencing mental and/or spiritual distress
  • Experiencing relationship breakdown
  • At risk of abuse, violence, trauma, homelessness

‘We have a solution to the top 3 pastoral care needs in Australia’ – click here to read more

Click here to download the Fact Sheet ‘What can Faith Community Care bring to your church?’

AFCNA provides excellent faith-based education, information and resources to facilitate everyone to provide effective Faith Community Care.

Our focus is HEALTH

  • Health promotion
  • Empowerment
  • Advocacy and referral
  • Listening and visiting
  • Transformative relationships
  • Hope and spiritual care

Click here to download a Factsheet with more information on ‘Your Faith Community Care volunteer is your partner in compassionate care’ and the HEALTH focus

AFCNA equips people to be effective carers

  • We develop and share resources to facilitate effective whole-person (holistic) care, to support the church’s ministry to ‘love their neighbour’, focusing on the most vulnerable in our community, as well as people within the church family
  • We facilitate nurses to undertake a unique foundational role as a Nurse within a faith community setting

Why would a Christian be involved in Faith Community Care?

As followers of Jesus Christ we want to reflect his love and character to the world. Jesus’ ministry focused on freeing the oppressed, reconciling the broken, enriching the poor, releasing the captive, welcoming the isolated, sheltering the homeless, providing for the vulnerable with acts of love, justice and proclamation of good news (Luke 4:18; Matt. 25:31ff). Christians are instructed to go and do the same. It is not a charitable choice, but a commandment to “love one another as Christ loved us” (John 13:34).

It’s a commandment to “love one another as Christ loved us” (John 13:34)!

To go deeper click here for a fact sheet with the scripture and theology that underpins Faith Community Care

Importance of community

Life lived in loving community is good for our whole heath as individuals and communities, yet one in three Australians are experiencing loneliness and young people aged 18–24 years are the most lonely. Our health deteriorates when we are isolated.  The World Health Organization (WHO) reported a global increase of 25% in anxiety and depression resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.   Australia is witnessing a massive increase in addiction, with one in six Australians having a drug addiction and one in ten an alcohol addiction. There is an epidemic of relationship breakdown and social disconnection adversely impacting our nation’s health. People are crying out for meaningful connection in caring communities. Government cannot simulate community! Doctors cannot prescribe social connection!

BUT churches can be healthy communities where people experience welcome, encouragement, and opportunities to fully participate, so they experience the joy of belonging.

Click here for stories and examples

To learn more about Faith Community Care:

Downloadable Factsheets:

To learn more about Faith Community Nursing:

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