Creating Great Environments

Let’s be honest, all of us think environments are really important. It’s the reason why your mom always made the house clean as a whistle and smelling great when guests were coming over or why your Dad didn’t allow any foo-foo girly stuff in his man den. It’s why IKEA is such a great place to shop for furniture and Value City is not. I’m talking about why you buy coffee at Starbucks and not at the Choice Cigarettes Outlet Mini Mart. It’s why Al Gore…ok, I won’t go there.

You need the right environment for the right occasion. When you walk into a great environment you say to yourself, “Self, I’m glad I’m here. Let’s stay awhile.”

By creating great environments we can help people engage in spiritual conversations more easily. That’s why weekly meetings on your campus can’t suck, why conversations with our friends need to be more about listening and less about getting in the next word. It’s why posters telling people about your movement shouldn’t look awkward and why every small group must have Reese’s Peanut Butter cups on hand always. Nothing says, “Welcome to our group, let’s be friends” like Reese’s.

But even if there’s not a sweet place to meet where comfy leather couches abound, the smell of freshly ground coffee permeates the air, or the din of fun conversations is surrounding you, we can be that sweet aromatic environment to someone all by ourselves. And by ourselves I mean us and the Holy Spirit.

Creating great environments anywhere is best accomplished when we are walking in the power of the Holy Spirit, all the while being focused on serving others. I think that a great environment should “feel” like the ethos of what we’re trying to accomplish as a movement. Yes, I used the word ethos. It’s a noun, and it means the characteristic spirit of a culture, era, or community as manifested in its beliefs and aspirations.

Here are four (4)  simple ways I’ve shared with my team about how we can develop more in creating great spiritual environments:

1. Whenever we’re with others, let’s help them grow in by remembering the reality that grace and truth over time yields growth no matter who it is we’re talking to. To learn more about this, phenomenon, download the Compass studies on leadership as well as reading Henry Clouds book ‘Boundaries’ or ‘How People Grow’. These have been super helpful for us in being patient with all our friends.

2. All of our small groups and especially at our weekly meeting we’re following the theme of, “Your life starts here.” It’s based primarily on Acts 2:42-47 where there was life and growth and conversions because life was found in the context of relationships surrounding Jesus. In general we should always think that being around other believers is where the life begins. Life comes through us from a person, Jesus Christ. Let’s live in such a way tat life starts wherever we are.

3. For the movements like AIA, Impact, IJM, Faculty Commons, or Keynote on our campus we’re focused on “growing where we are”. When you grow in those contexts the result is that you have more influence where you are for Jesus. We want to be intentional at helping movements grow in the context they find themselves serving in.

4. Finally, as we’re constantly looking for new opportunities to share Jesus with others, we hope to raise up student leaders who will always want to be thinking let’s “go where we’re not.”

Hopefully, when you or your leaders keep these basic things in mind, you’ll see God through the power of the Holy Spirit use you and the movement you’re a part of to reach others for Jesus Christ.