Por Marv Knox
In an instant, a disaster delivers destruction that impacts a community for generations, CBF Global Missions Coordinator Laura Ayala observed, but disaster also offers a congregation a rare opportunity to embody Jesus’ love and care for their friends and neighbors.
That’s a major reason why CBF Global Missions created Disaster Ready Churches, a program designed to help congregations across the Fellowship respond lovingly and effectively when their communities endure tragedy. Disaster Ready Churches launched this spring with a pilot cohort of six congregations from California to Puerto Rico. Churches had an opportunity to learn more and sample hands-on training at the 2026 General Assembly this summer, during a disaster response training and a Learning Lab. The program will engage a minimum of 200 churches across the Fellowship during the next three years.
The Eula Mae & John Baugh Foundation and the Lilly Endowment Inc. are making the program possible. Participating churches receive support for developing and implementing their disaster response plans. This involves not only training and coaching, but also assessment tools necessary for deciding which disaster services they are willing and able to provide to their communities. The program will include recording the trainings to create an e-learning library that will be available to other congregations.
The Disaster Ready Church program reflects a shift in CBF’s response to disasters, Ayala explained. Historically, the Fellowship has refrained from participating in disaster relief, the first on-the-scene approach that sends workers into disaster areas within hours. Instead, CBF has engaged in disaster recovery, a long-haul ministry that keeps providing volunteers for months and even years, until disaster victims are recovering, if not made whole.
While the new program does not abandon disaster recovery, it enables churches to prepare for rapid response to local disasters. “When a disaster strikes, whether it is a natural or human-made disaster, the effect always is local,” Ayala explained. “It could be any kind of disaster—a building fire or a wildfire, a flood, a mass shooting, a tornado or hurricane. But whatever the disaster is, the impact always is local.”
That’s a major reason why CBF must prepare congregations to respond to disasters, Ayala stressed. “Our congregations are the CBF constituents closest to where disasters happen,” she said. “They know their communities. They can prepare ahead, and we should equip them with what they need to join a response when a disaster starts.”
If churches are disaster ready, they can not only respond to a disaster but also know “when to get in, what to commit for, what not to do and when to get out.”
CBF congregations won’t replace the best known disaster responders—such as emergency medical personnel, law enforcement, firefighters and partners like the Red Cross—she acknowledged. “But our churches can be prepared to partner with the first responders, the skilled people who arrive on the scene almost immediately,” she said.
“These responders encounter needs our churches can offer,” she added. “They may need space, such as a fellowship hall, for a command center. Perhaps a parking lot, where they can base their operations or a point of distribution. Maybe a church isn’t equipped to feed 2,000 people, but they could feed 100 first responders every day from their kitchen.”
Churches also can be prepared to offer pastoral or spiritual care, she said, recalling local needs in the immediate aftermath of the 2025 Central Texas flood that claimed at least 136 lives, including almost 30 girls at a summer camp. “First responders needed people to pray for them. Parents needed someone to provide food, but also spiritual care and love.”
Ayala knows firsthand about responding to disasters. She was pastor of First Baptist Church of Rio Piedras in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2017 when Hurricane Maria ravaged the island. The congregation’s campus became an operations hub for first responders, and the church partnered in recovery efforts that have continued for almost nine years.
She recognized both the immediate benefits and long-term blessings of helping people in the wake of disasters. “We learned how to respond in disaster relief,” she said. “We learned how to respond in emergency settings. We were trained by those who knew how to do it. And then, in early 2020, when an earthquake hit and later the [COVID-19] pandemic arrived, we knew what to do, and we were equipped to respond. No one could come from the continental United States, but we knew what to do.”
As CBF’s Global Missions coordinator, she preaches the vital importance of readying churches for disaster. “A church can be part of the network of CBF’s disaster response that is currently happening and also get involved in the local response network,” she said. “So, being there is having a place at the table, getting to know the people involved in all facets of the work. When you know what you are capable of doing, you step in and step up.”
Readiness revolves around relationships, which are crucial any time, but particularly following a disaster, Ayala observed. “When you assess what your church is able to provide, you offer that to others and that positions you as a pertinent church within your community, as well. The chief of police, emergency management officials, the Red Cross and the fire chief know who you are. That means you develop a personal relationship. So, when any disaster happens, you can grab a phone and say: ‘This is going on. How can we help?’
“Because of the [disaster response] network, you know there is a need, and you are able to come alongside and be present… When the affected people are prepared, the church can send in trustworthy, trained people. This is testifying the church cares. We are called to be the hands and feet of Christ. This is a concrete way of being present. It is a different way of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. It is saying, ‘You are not alone, because we are here, in the name of Jesus Christ.’”
The pilot phase of the Disaster Ready Church program began April 1. The six congregations in the initial cohort each have been assigned coaches who are training the churches’ disaster response planning teams. Besides learning about disaster response, team members have been asked to share their interest in disaster response with other church members.
“We want to get the whole church interested now, knowing they will be involved later,” Ayala explained.
Now, the coaches are leading planning teams through a multi-step process that includes:
- Conducting an orientation and engaging key church leaders
- Assessing internal and external assets and risks
- Identifying a disaster response ministry focus and potential partners
- Setting goals and creating an action plan, starting with the local church’s internal needs
- Writing a disaster-ready plan, preparing a budget and securing congregational approval
- Integrating the church’s plan with the CBF Disaster Response Readiness Network and participating in disaster response training
The assessments are the most important step, Ayala said. “This allows them to identify internal assets—the physical and human assets within the church,” she explained. “It also allows them to discover external assets—their partners in the community. And it enables them to determine both internal and external risks.”
That information sets off a chain reaction. “Once they understand their assets and risks, they will decide which area of disaster response they will focus on,” she said. “Then, they will write a plan for responding to those disasters, which will be shared with and approved by the congregation.
“After that, we start training the church members—and maybe some friends from outside the church—who may participate in the response. And once they’re part of the Disaster Response Readiness Network, they will continue to receive training opportunities.”
A key to the program is enabling and empowering churches to determine which type of disaster or disasters they will take on, Ayala noted. “After all, who is better able to make that decision, other than a local church?”
These decisions often will be determined by location and geography, she predicted. For example, a church in the Northeast may prepare to respond to winter storms, while a church in the South might focus on floods, tornadoes or both.
When the disaster ready churches are prepared, they will coordinate with the national hub, but key decisions will take place on the state/regional and local levels, she said. “When a need comes in, we will let the network know. But it is the local people near the disaster who will tell us what is needed, how they will respond and what kind of support they need.”
While much of the training with coaches will be online and virtual, the planning teams from the six churches in the initial cohort gathered in Jacksonville, Fla., from June 15–16 during the 2026 General Assembly. They presented reports on their progress and received initial training in providing spiritual care to disaster victims and survivors, among other hands-on learning. The training featured sessions on “Volunteer 101,” or how to manage volunteers, as well as how to conduct emergency tarping and how to manage distribution of supplies, among other skills.
A Learning Lab session on Friday, June 19, was held to provide the nuts-and-bolts information about the program and how to apply to participate in future Disaster Ready Church cohorts.
This article was first featured in the Summer 2026 fellowship! Magazine.