LAKELAND — It happens all the time in church communities across the Florida Conference. Pastors consumed by the latest “fires” often do not have the time for, or remembrance of, members who were formerly on their list of urgent priorities.

People whose illnesses were once smack in the middle of a pastor’s radar screen get better and leave the hospital. They get crossed off “to-do” lists. Family members greatly comforted by the clergy following the death of a loved one notice how quiet the house has become now that relatives have left. Their pastors are busy officiating at the next funeral.

First United Methodist Church here has taken great strides to reach into the gap and find those who, while no longer in high-priority crisis mode, are still in need and pain. The church’s Care Ministry was formed nearly 24 years ago and quietly sports an army of more than 100 volunteers who, along with a visitation pastor, do everything from sending cards to paying visits to baking or delivering casseroles.

The ministry was launched by Sally Verner, a physician’s spouse who was asked to coordinate a stewardship campaign telephone survey inviting church members to attend a dinner. “I said, as long as we have them on the telephone, let’s find out what’s been going on in their lives,” she said. “We got back about 195 replies from people who said things like, ‘I don’t think you know that I went blind last year and have not been in church in a year.’…‘I don’t think you know my husband left me with three little children, and I have not been in church in two years.’ ”

Learning the church did not have a “committee” for dealing with such concerns, Verner “called the busiest women in the church” over to her house, and they divvied up the cards containing the responses of need. The 25 women visited each family and brought back reports. “I thought that would be the end of it, but that was just the beginning. Most of those women were willing to sign up and be visitors,” Verner said.

The Care Ministry includes a committee that learns when church members are released from the hospital. Ministry members who have already baked and frozen casseroles pass them off to a delivery person who takes the food to the individuals, helping make their transition from hospital to home a little easier. A retired nurse also calls the newly released patients to find out how they are feeling. If they are experiencing prolonged rehabilitation or illness, they are assigned a team caregiver, someone who visits about four people on at least a quarterly basis and sends Christmas and birthday cards

Verner, meanwhile, had suffered the tragedy of her son’s death. That firsthand experience of grief led her to realize the church needed a follow-up ministry for family members in the weeks after a funeral or memorial service. She and others send handwritten notes to each person who has lost a loved one, and a volunteer delivers bereavement literature. Verner sends another note a year after the death.

Another key figure in the Care Ministry is the Rev. Dr. Bill Roughton, who joined the church staff as minister of pastoral care after his 1990 retirement as an elder.

“My involvement is to follow up after people get out of the hospital and after funerals—after people are going back to their normal routines, and family and friends are no longer around.” Roughton said. “The average pastor is so busy with new funerals coming at him all the time, people being in the hospital all the time—the follow-up often falls in the cracks…”

Many Care Ministry members specialize in a niche form of service. Some only visit couples that have suffered miscarriages because they have also been through such a loss. Those who have lost someone to suicide visit others who have experienced that tragedy.

The Care Ministry does not spend time drawing attention to itself. Many of its members were once on the receiving end of care, and recruitment is low-key.

“You don’t know anything about the committee until it happens to you,” Verner said. “We don’t solicit volunteers. Confidentiality is such a big, big part of it. Every thank-you note that comes in to the care group is routed to the person who has been instrumental in making it happen. That’s about all the kudos they get.”