Adventist® Community Services (ACS) ACS is the official community outreach ministry of the Adventist church in North American Division territories which comprises of North America, Guam and Micronesia, and Bermuda. ACS serves the whole person, a concept known as holistic ministry whose mission is to “serve the community in Christ’s name.”
All About Potomac's Adventist Community Services
Philosophy
The mission of ACS is to serve the community in Christ’s name (General Conference Sabbath School, 2008). This means serving the whole person, a concept known as holistic ministry. The word holistic comes from the Greek word holos, which implies that all the properties of a given system (biological, chemical, social, economic, mental, spiritual, etc.) cannot be determined or explained by the sum of its component parts alone (Liddell & Scott, 1968). Instead, the system as a whole determines in an important way how the parts behave. It also takes into account the root word shalom (peace, well-being, welfare, salute, prosperity, safe, health, perfect, whole, full, just), indicating that God wants us to have a complete, safe, peaceful, perfect, whole, full life. In fact, it is the most important covenant that God made with His children—keeping the covenant relationship is our duty and responsibility as Christians, not only to God, but to others (Wallis, 2008).
Therefore, the purpose of holistic ministry is not only to proclaim the Good News, the word of salvation, but also to demonstrate the love of God to people who are in need. Throughout Jesus’ ministry there is evidence of a genuine holistic approach toward humanity; especially people who were marginalized, disadvantaged, and disenfranchised from society. These included the poor, the sick, the unclean, the prostitutes, and tax collectors—all outcasts as sinful people. Jesus expanded the Kingdom of God to places, people, and cultures that the Jews had never considered God to be interested in and has thus set these examples for many (Matt 9:10, 21:31, Rom 14:14).
Areas of Adventist Community Services
Adventist® Community Services (ACS) currently provides services such as disaster response, spiritual and emotional crisis care, community development, urban & inner-city ministries, elder care ministry, youth and young adults’ empowered to serve, Hope for Humanity, tutoring and mentoring programs, and much more.
ACS Adventist® Community Services has more than 1,250 localities and upholds the beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist® World Church organization.
History
In 1879, the Seventh-day Adventist Church officially named the “Dorcas Society” as its community outreach program. It was named after Dorcas, a believer with a passion to serve others. Her story is found in Acts 9:32, 36, 39 in the New Testament. The Dorcas Society consisted of groups of women who met frequently to provide clothes, food, and/or money for families in the church or the immediate community who had temporary needs. Later, several churches wanted to involve men and started the idea of a co-ed Good Samaritan Society (General Conference Sabbath School, 2008). By 1953, the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church broadened the concept of service to address an increasingly urbanized society. This new organization was named “Health and Welfare Services by Seventh-day Adventists.”
In 1956, with the purpose to strengthen Adventist church relief efforts, it became the Seventh-day Adventist Welfare Service (SAWS). As a result, SAWS expanded into a domestic and international Adventist church-organized community program. By 1972, Adventist Community Services became the official humanitarian agency of the Adventist church in North America. In 1973, SAWS program was renamed the Seventh-day Adventist World Service. Ten years later in 1983, it became Adventist Development and Relief Agency International (ADRA), expanding its services beyond the United States and Bermuda. Upon review in 2005, ACS International was reinstalled under the General Conference Sabbath School and Personal Ministries Department to focus on Adventists in community services and outreach ministries program (General Conference Sabbath School, 2008).
Today, Adventist Community Services (ACS) provides services such as disaster response, crisis care, community development, elder care ministries, youth & young adults empowerment ministries, Hope for Humanity and tutoring and mentoring programs globally.
Get Involved!
Ask your local pastor or leader if there is an active ACS near you! Otherwise, contact Potomac’s ACS and disaster relief coordinator, Bob Mitchell at bmitchell_acsdr@earthlink.net.
Meet the Coordinator - Bob Mitchell
Bob has served as the Potomac Conference Coordinator for the Disaster Response (DR) ministry for more than 20 years. His passion for disaster preparedness and response is supported by his experience as a rescue squad member, an American Red Cross instructor for First Aid, CPR, and disaster response classes, and his experience responding to a number of disasters throughout the Mid-Atlantic, and beyond.
Bob is the senior certified instructor for the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He is a former member of the NAD ACS DR National Leadership Team. He serves on the ACS DR Manual Committee for the NAD, which prepares all the training materials for the ACS DR ministry, and is the lead contributor for re-writing the Warehouse Operations and Management manual. He is an adjunct instructor for Donations and Volunteers Management for the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Emergency Management. He has served as president of the Virginia chapter of Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (Virginia VOAD) and is currently serving as Secretary/Treasurer for that organization. His passion for the ACS ministry is to train as many of our church members as possible.
Course Description
This three-hour class introduces concepts for personal, family, and church preparedness for better dealing with a local disaster. A disaster can be as “small” as a single-family house fire or as “large” as a multi-jurisdiction event, either of which may cause families to evacuate their home, maybe even their town. It is well realized that even a house fire that only affects one family is a major event to them. The goal of the class is to have our church members better prepared to care for themselves following such an event, but also, for the church, through its ACS ministry, to better serve others in their community who suffer such disasters.
Classes Offered
If you have an interest in any of the classes below, please contact Bob Mitchell for more information.
Introduction to Disaster Preparedness Class
This three-hour class introduces concepts for personal, family, and church preparedness for better dealing with a local disaster. A disaster can be as “small” as a single-family house fire or as “large” as a multi-jurisdiction event, either of which may cause families to evacuate their home, maybe even their town. It is well realized that even a house fire that only affects one family is a major event to them. The goal of the class is to have our church members better prepared to care for themselves following such an event, but also, for the church, through its ACS ministry, to better serve others in their community who suffer such disasters.
Leadership Class
This four-hour class provides instruction on leadership skills for non-profit organizations. It is focused on the six ministries of Adventist Community Services, but is applicable to all church departments.
Major areas of leadership presented in this course include:
-How to recruit the right volunteers for the right job;
-How to care for the safety and wellbeing of volunteers;
-How to recognize and deal with inappropriate behavior;
-About the liabilities involved in utilizing volunteers;
-Financial and other recordkeeping requirements;
-How to recognize volunteer fatigue; and
-How to retain volunteers.
Donations Operations Class
This eight-hour class introduces the concepts of working in the four major areas of response supported by the Adventist Community Services Disaster Response (ACS DR) ministry: Community Collection Centers, Multi-Agency Warehouses, Emergency Distribution Centers, and Mobile Distribution. The primary focus of this class is on the operation of a Community Collection Center and an Emergency Distribution Center. Completing this course provides the basic knowledge for a person to volunteer in any of these operations. Management opportunities come after the person has experience in several operations, and with additional training.
Warehouse Operations Class
The purpose of this eight-hour PowerPoint-based course is to expand upon the Donations Operations course, which is a prerequisite for this course. More specific definition is given to the positions that should be staffed in a large warehouse operation. Job descriptions given in this course will be more detailed than presented previously.
Specific points of this course covered in more detail include:
-Where will the warehouse be located?
-How large will the warehouse be?
-Who will obtain the warehouse and its equipment?
-How many bays (docks) are available?
-What will the floor lay-out look like?
-How many people will be needed to operate this warehouse?
-From where will the volunteers come?
-Know the facility identification options available.
-Know rules of safety, inspection, and operation of forklifts.
This class includes demonstrations of, and possible practice with, certain equipment and supplies, a table-top practical exercise, and a written quiz to help solidify the participant’s knowledge of the subject.
As is pointed out in the course, to serve in a top management role in an Adventist Community Services Disaster Response (ACS DR)-managed operation, prior proven field experience is required.
This course includes considerable information on the proper operation of specialized equipment used in a warehouse operation, such as pallet jacks and forklifts. It is expected that participants in this class already have a basic knowledge of working around such equipment, while personal operational experience is not required.
Actual forklift operator certification is provided through an additional specialized course.
