Think about it: if either suddenly, or slowly, your ability to drive, work, care for yourself and interact with friends and family was taken away, if you rarely left your home except for doctor appointments or an occasional outing, what would you need? What would bring you peace and joy, comfort, and contentment?
I believe I can say for myself and probably for you that it would be people—people God brings into your life who are kind, compassionate friends. People who have the heart and time to encourage you, bring the outside world to you, and help you engage as much as you can with others and the world around you.
My mother is currently homebound due to a cancer journey in her eighties, and when someone can visit her and take time to care, it is healing medicine with a lasting effect to her. It encourages her heart and strengthens her spirit.
As Proverbs 17:22 says, “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.”
That is where you and the women of your church enter this picture. You and others can be the “hands and feet of Jesus” that show homebound adults in your church and community that you care.
How big is this need?
In 2020, 13% of all adults in the United States were homebound.1 Do the math and apply that percentage to the adults in your congregation, and you’ll see you have plenty of people needing ministry and love in your church.
How does being homebound affect someone?
The Journal of American Geriatrics Society conducted a study over an eight-year period and concluded that “social isolation is an important risk factor for morbidity and mortality. Socially isolated older adults (age 65 and older) are at increased risk for becoming homebound compared to their counterparts who are not socially isolated.”2
How can my church help our homebound members?
The most important thing you can do for someone who is homebound is being a consistent, caring friend. Here are a few more ideas:
- Bring communion periodically; see this helpful “at home” communion guide.
- Watch a Lifeway Women Simulcast event.
- Do a Lifeway Women online Bible study together.
- Give a women’s Journey devotional to them from your church and discuss at your next visit.
- Schedule a day to serve them with at-home projects.
- Worship with them watching a pre-recorded worship service from your church or another like-minded congregation if your church does not record their services.
- Pray daily for the homebound person and their caregiver(s) and send a periodic note, call, or text.
- Offer to assist in bringing the homebound person and their caregiver to church.
- Commit to making a weekly phone call.
- Commit to regularly scheduled visits so they can be anticipated.
- Read to the homebound person if he/she is unable to read or help obtain “talking books.“
- Help write letters or cards with the homebound to send to friends or family.
- Prepare meals, or have several people take turns one to three times per week. Perhaps you could also purchase groceries and cook with the person in his/her home.
- Remember to ask about the caregiver’s physical and emotional health and act quickly if you feel he/she needs immediate professional care.
- Offer to pick up needed supplies or groceries when doing your own errands.
What if I’ve never done this before?
Here are three important tips to remember*:
- Bring empathy and compassion to the person: listen with no advice or judgment, maintain eye contact, give your full attention, and offer to pray with the person.
- Connect with people right where they are: be in the moment, turn off your phone or other distractions, stay calm and comforting despite their words or even tears.
- Take their lead: talk about what they want to talk about, don’t interject your opinions but point them to Scripture and what God says about their circumstances.
*(Adapted from “Caring for People with Long-Term Illnesses,” careleader.org)
All three of these tips start with an action: bring, connect, take.
Caring starts with your first step toward people loved by God who need that love shown by you.
However your homebound ministry looks, we want to remember to sow seeds of the gospel in our conversations with homebound adults.
No matter what brought someone to be homebound, whether it was due to a disability, chronic illness, aging, or caregiving for another, he/she needs to know about God’s love for him/her, His Son’s gift of salvation to, and the Spirit’s ability to comfort.
Honoring Those Who Came Before
As Carol Thaxton, who co-leads the homebound ministry at our church, alongside her husband Paul, said:
It is very easy to overlook this group and forget that many of these members helped to start churches, served as elders, taught our children, led Bible studies, ministered through music, humbly served by ministering to others.
Let us never forget to honor those who came before us. “Love one another deeply as brothers and sisters. Take the lead in honoring one another” (Rom. 12:10).
You are the voice and heart to share that most important gift with them. Take a step today!
Carol also shared some practical next steps:
This is such a needed ministry in the church today. After going through a worldwide pandemic, this age group has experienced such loneliness and isolation. With our aging population increasing, this need is becoming greater. The world tells us that the weak and aged are not important, that they have nothing to offer. But God cares for the elderly and loves them.
“I will be the same until your old age, and I will bear you up when you turn gray. I have made you, and I will carry you; I will bear and rescue you: (Isa. 46:4).
If God is leading you to start a homebound ministry, talk to the leaders in your church and obtain some names from your pastors and small group leaders who have homebound members. Call each member and schedule a visit so you can assess each situation. Ask the Lord to give you wisdom and a love for serving this group. You will find there is tremendous blessing and fulfillment that is experienced by both the homebound members and by the ministry team as you carry out God’s prompting.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4
Works Cited
- Ankuda CK, Leff B, Ritchie CS, Siu AL, Ornstein KA. Association of the COVID-19 Pandemic With the Prevalence of Homebound Older Adults in the United States, 2011-2020. JAMA Intern Med. 2021;181(12):1658–1660. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.4456
- Cudjoe TKM, Prichett L, Szanton SL, Roberts Lavigne LC, Thorpe RJ Jr. Social isolation, homebound status, and race among older adults: Findings from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (2011-2019). J Am Geriatr Soc. 2022 Jul;70(7):2093-2100. doi: 10.1111/jgs.17795. Epub 2022 Apr 12. PMID: 35415872; PMCID: PMC9283207.
ABOUT DAWN STEPHENS
Dawn has been involved in women’s ministry in both volunteer and staff positions for over twenty years. She has served as the women’s minister at The Church at Brook Hills, in Birmingham, Alabama, since 1998. She also gives staff leadership and oversight to the Special Needs Ministry there.
She graduated from the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary Women’s Ministry certificate program, has served on the Alabama Baptist State Women’s Ministry leadership team, and serves as a Lifeway Women’s Ministry Trainer. She is a contributing author to Transformed Lives: Taking Women’s Ministry to the Next Level.
She is married to Greg and has one son, Tyler. They make their home in Birmingham, Alabama.
