Our Mission
A Bigger Family A Daily Word of Comfort Help Me Find the Words Resource Navigator Books & Resources Our Story & Founder
How We Serve
One-on-One Care Partners Joint Virtual Services Our Online Community
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The Service Archive Join a Live Service
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Walking Together Partners One-Time Donation Gifts of Stock Estate & IRA Legacy Signature Initiatives
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Formerly ALS Family of Faith

You Will Not
Walk Alone

The online church and spiritual family for anyone facing a terminal diagnosis — and the caregivers beside them. Free to all, for as long as you need.

How We Serve Give Hope
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When the diagnosis comes, you won't just be comforted.
You'll be carried.

Medicare and most clinical care fund the body, not the soul. We exist precisely in the gap the system leaves — the fear, the isolation, and the questions a terminal diagnosis forces. We meet you there.

Give Hope

A Daily Word of Comfort

A word of comfort is being prepared for today…

A Bigger Family

We're growing.
Hello, Family of Faith.

We were founded to walk with families facing ALS. Over time we saw a deeper truth: families facing any terminal diagnosis carry the same burdens — and the same need to not be alone.

So we've widened our arms, and changed our name to match our heart. We are diagnosis-broad, not disease-narrow — while keeping the hard-won credibility of our ALS roots.

How We Serve

How We Serve

Three Ways We Walk With You

One person diagnosed today should have a spiritual family they can belong to for the rest of their journey. So we offer three things, woven together — personal care, shared worship, and an always-on community.

01 — Personal Care

One-on-One Care Partners

One person, walking with you, for as long as you need.

We pair you with a chaplain-trained care partner — a single, steady companion who listens, prays, and simply stays. Not a hotline, not a brochure: a person who knows your name and your story.

  • Chaplain-trained companions who serve both religious and non-religious individuals
  • Available regardless of diagnosis, stage, or hospice status
  • For the one facing the diagnosis — and the caregiver beside them
Join Our Waitlist Common Questions
02 — Community & Worship

Joint Virtual Services

The whole family, gathered, wherever you are.

Once a month we gather online as one congregation — worship, Scripture, encouragement, and prayer. It is a standing church, not a one-time event: the same family, returning to the same table, month after month.

  • A live, Christ-centered online service open to anyone
  • Worship and community in the same gathering — you belong from the first night
  • Every service archived online so you never miss one
Join a Service Watch Past Services
03 — Every Day

Our Online Community

Never more than a message away from someone who understands.

Between services, our daily online community is always open — prayer, encouragement, and friendship at any hour, from anywhere. When the night is long, someone is there. You can walk in tonight, at no cost.

  • Daily prayer, encouragement, and real friendship
  • Open around the clock — any hour, from anywhere
  • A monthly care story to remind you that you are seen
Join the Community More Ways In

Help Me Find the Words

A Letter Only You Can Write

There are things we long to say to the people we love — to a child, to a spouse, to a grandchild not yet born, or simply out loud. When the words won't come, sit here a while. We'll ask a few gentle questions, listen, and help shape your memories and love into a letter you can keep and pass on.

Who would you like to write to?

Choose someone below, or tell us in your own words. There's no right answer, and nothing here is graded — this is just for you, and for them.

A few common ones

This stays between you and this page. Nothing you write here is saved, stored, or shared — when you leave, it's gone. So please, be as honest and tender as you'd like to be.

Writing to someone you love
Shape it as:

For someone you love

Your letter

When you have it the way you want it, copy or download it to keep somewhere safe — this page won't hold onto it for you. And if you'd like a real person to walk with you, your Care Partner is only an email away at smartel@familyoffaith.center.

Watch Anytime

The Service Archive

Every virtual service, kept here for you — to revisit, to share, or to join us for the first time. Short on energy? Open the highlights on any service for a gentle summary, the key Scripture, a few takeaways, and a transcript to read when watching feels like too much.

Loading services…

Gathering the latest from our channel.

Books & Resources

Reading for the Journey

A small, trusted shelf for facing mortality with honesty and hope — books that bridge medicine and faith, and help us recover the lost art of dying well, within community and anchored in resurrection hope.

Tip: click any book’s title to view and purchase it on Amazon.

The Lost Art of Dying

Dr. Lydia S. Dugdale

A physician's recovery of the ars moriendi for today, with a strong emphasis on dying within community. An excellent bridge between medicine and faith.

Surprised by Hope

N. T. Wright

Clarifies the Christian hope — bodily resurrection and new creation, not merely "going to heaven." Reorients how we speak of death.

A Caregiver's Walk of Faith through the Journey of ALS

Mary Ellen Patton

A registered nurse and longtime minister tells the story of caring for her husband after his ALS diagnosis — an honest, encouraging companion for anyone facing a terminal illness, with Scripture closing each chapter. A book about love, courage, and life.

Waking Up Again: A Journey of Grief and Gratitude

Tim & Hilary Timmons

A tender memoir that walks through loss and back into thankfulness — finding that grief and gratitude can share the same morning, and that hope returns one day at a time.

A starting place, not the last word — your care partner is always glad to talk through any of these with you.

Our Story

Born from a journey
like yours.

Family of Faith grew directly out of founder Steve Cochlan's own ALS diagnosis, and his search for Christ-centered support that didn't yet exist — so he built it. That lived-experience origin gives us a credibility no institution can manufacture.

What began for ALS has grown into the spiritual family his vision always pointed toward: a home for anyone walking the hardest road of their life. Already, more than 300 individuals and families have been carried here. His legacy lives on in every service, prayer, and care partner.

Read More →

Ways to Give

Sustain a Family of Hope

Every gift reaches a family who didn't choose this road. Give the way that fits you — a monthly partnership, a one-time gift, appreciated stock, a legacy in your estate, or by joining one of our signature events below.

♡

Walking Together Partners

Become a monthly sustainer at $10, $25, or $50. Recurring gifts keep hope coming to more families, more consistently — the most powerful way to give.

Give Monthly →
✦

One-Time Donation

A single gift underwrites care partners, virtual services, and our daily community for the families who need them now.

Donate Once →
▲

Gifts of Stock

Donating appreciated stock can be more tax-efficient than cash — you give more, and avoid capital-gains tax. We'll walk you through it.

Give Stock →
∞

Estate & IRA Legacy

Name Family of Faith in your will or as an IRA beneficiary. A legacy gift literally extends the comfort you received to families for generations.

Leave a Legacy →
Donate Now

Signature Initiatives

Give in a Way You'll Remember

Three ways to support the ministry that are as meaningful to give as they are to receive — move for those who can't, preserve a life in story, or bid for an experience of a lifetime.

We move our bodies for the people who no longer can.

A community spin and ride event where every mile is pedaled in honor of someone living with a body that won't. Sign up to join the next Spinathon — or bring one to your own city, and someone will follow up with how to host it.

Thank you — you're in. Someone from Family of Faith will follow up by email about the next Spinathon, or about hosting one in your city. We're glad you're moving with us.

Give the gift of someone's story — in their own words.

For a fee, we come to your loved one, sit with them, and interview them — then craft a filmed documentary of their life. A lasting keepsake for the people who love them, and a gift that funds care for others. Sign up below and someone will reach out with more information.

Thank you — your request is in. Someone from Family of Faith will contact you soon with more about creating a Living Documentary.

Coming soon.

Questions & Answers

How Can We Help You?

Whether you're facing a diagnosis yourself or you lead a congregation walking with someone who is, here's what people ask us most.

Anyone facing a terminal or end-of-life diagnosis — any diagnosis, any stage — along with the caregivers and loved ones beside them. We began with ALS and have intentionally widened to welcome everyone walking this road.

No. Everything we offer — care partners, monthly services, and our daily community — is free, always. You are not gated behind enrollment, geography, or ability to pay. Anyone, anywhere, can walk in tonight at no cost.

No. We are openly Christ-centered, and our chaplain-trained care partners serve both religious and non-religious individuals with the same warmth. You are welcome exactly as you are.

No. We are not gated behind hospice enrollment or a six-month prognosis. Wherever you are in the journey — newly diagnosed or long into it — there is a place for you here.

A care partner is one person who walks privately with you. A virtual service is the whole family gathering monthly for worship. The online community is the daily group in between — prayer and friendship at any hour. Most people lean on all three.

You can join the next virtual service, request a one-on-one care partner, or step into the daily community right now. Reach out at smartel@familyoffaith.center and we'll meet you where you are.

Yes. This is exactly who we exist for. Most churches cannot staff ongoing end-of-life spiritual care — we can, and we become the specialist your congregation refers to, walking with your member for as long as they need.

Not at all. We are a referral partner, not a rival for the offering plate. We come alongside your ministry, carry a load few churches are equipped to carry alone, and send your members back to you held and encouraged.

A standing, ongoing spiritual community purpose-built for the terminally ill and their caregivers: chaplain-trained one-on-one care, a monthly congregation, and a daily support group — available regardless of diagnosis or hospice status.

Become a Church Partner. We'll provide a bulletin insert, a short testimony video to share on a single Sunday, referral pathways for members in need, and stewardship tools your congregation can use. A simple annual gift or special offering sustains the work.

No. While our roots are in ALS, we now serve anyone in your congregation facing any terminal diagnosis — and their caregivers.

Email us at smartel@familyoffaith.center and we'll set up a brief call to make a warm introduction and put a partnership in place.