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How to Set Up a Pro-Life Committee in Your Church

Talk to your pastor
1. Ask permission to take steps to do so. Ask for his advice
2. Ask if the Presbytery has a committee. Call the Stated Clerk of your Presbytery to find out
3. Call and ask other churches in your area if they have a pro-life committee
Recruit Members for Committee
1. Ask an elder or one of your pastors if they would attend
2. A Deacon’s presence on the Committee will connect the work of the Pro-life committee with the body in the church that is concerned with demonstrating Christ’s mercy
3. Seek to add a physician and/or nurse in order to secure appropriate medical knowledge
4. Since this issue is keenly feminine in nature, ask for a member from the Women’s ministry in your church to join
Convene the first meeting in order to brainstorm
1. Who will lead the committee?
2. How often will it meet?
3. What basic goals will the committee seek to fulfill? (See examples of various committees available on this web-page)
As you establish your basic goals, consider the following:
1. Information gathering and distribution - sources for this include:
  1. Pro-life literature already in print
  2. Crisis pregnancy centers
  3. Adoption agencies
  4. Post-abortion counselors
  5. This Pro-life Forum web page (www.prolifeforum.org)
  6. See the pro-life physicians link on this web page
  7. Write your own literature that reflects the needs and concerns of your circumstances
2. Develop articulate teaching on the Pro-life issues in your church
  1. Encourage your pastor to preach a sermon on the sanctity of life once per year
  2. Develop a Sunday school class series on pro-life topics such as abortion, adoption, euthanasia
  3. Hold a day of prayer and fasting for the sanctity of life in your church or with other area churches
  4. Hold a seminar on how to defend the pro-life viewpoint
3. Compare these examples of goals developed by one local church’s pro-life committee:
  1. Meet four times per year
  2. Establish and refine goals
  3. Have pastor preach once per year on the sanctity of life
  4. Support a local crisis pregnancy center fund raiser once per year
  5. Participate annually in a protest march
  6. See that literature and information is regularly available to the congregation and occasionally visible before the people
  7. Have a day of prayer and fasting for the sanctity of life
  8. Have the committee members consult regularly and publicize the Pro-Life Forum’s website
Attempt to Network with other action oriented groups
1. Area churches
2. Your Presbytery
3. Contact the PCA Book Store affiliated with our PCA’s Christian Education Department
4. Discover the Broader pro-life community in your area
5. Develop a list of the Pro-life physicians in your area
6. Consult the Pro-life Forum web-page
Consider some realistic action steps; Plan them carefully and then actually do them, even if they are relatively small or behind the scenes. These can include:
1. Public and personal prayer on issues of the sanctity of life
2. Information distribution (with care)
3. Contact information sources
4. Have a life-chain that publicly declares by human presence and signs that life is sacred
5. Organize and/or participate in a local, lawful march for the sanctity of life
6. Participate in the National March for Life in Washington, D.C. to protest the Roe v. Wade decision of our U.S. Supreme Court and to protest abortion in general

ProLifeForum.org
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