Sometimes Being Picky is a Good Thing

I don’t know if you’re anything like me, but I learn best by experience. To look back on an experience or event and pick it apart so that I can be more effective or more strategic or more efficient the next time actually energizes me. One of my experiences that I look back on early in my staff career and wish I could rewind would be how I chose to spend my time during my first year on staff. My first staff assignment was to a campus where myself and two other single guys were trying to launch a new ministry. It was our first year on the campus of The University of Louisiana- Lafayette or, as we liked to call it, "U La La."

During that first year on campus, I remember I would meet weekly to “disciple” any student that would meet with me. My goal was to “fill my schedule”. That defined success in my mind—fill my day meeting one on one with any girl that was willing to be discipled. Two main problems with this mindset:

1. I wasn’t leaving room in my schedule for evangelism and
2. Because of my rush to “fill my schedule” I wasn’t working with the right people. I began to not look forward to some of those times with students because they were draining or I was beginning to tell that the student wasn’t excited about growing in their relationship with the Lord and they certainly weren’t excited about sharing their faith. I felt stuck. “I can’t just quit meeting with them,” I would try to convince myself.

Robert Coleman says this in The Master Plan of Evangelism :

It all started by Jesus calling a few men to follow Him. This revealed immediately the direction His evangelistic strategy would take. His concern was not with programs to reach the multitudes, but with men whom the multitudes would follow... Men were His method of winning the world to God.

There are two things I’d like to challenge you to think about during these first weeks on campus:

1. Am I (or is my team) thinking about and spending too much time focusing on big events (i.e. Cru)? Do you spend more time in a staff meeting planning your weekly Cru meeting than you do talking about evangelism on campus?
2. Do you understand the importance of selection—choosing to be selective with those who you meet back with on a regular basis/disciple?

If we are spending more of our time focusing on our weekly meeting during a staff meeting, then that is what our team will think we most value. Is a top notch weekly meeting really what we most value? I think not. Sure, talking about that is important, but I would hope that isn’t what we would spend the majority of our time planning. How about spending some time in staff meeting dreaming about how we can be more effective in evangelism—-being more effective talking with students about the Jesus we love? I’d love to see our teams having more discussions about how to effectively have personal ministries, talking about ideas for serving pockets of campus where we currently don’t have a presence, and not spending 30 minutes in a staff meeting discussing if we should use clipboards or cards for gathering contact info (I’ve been there! ☺)

CAN YOU MAKE A COMMENT AND SHARE WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR CAMPUS’ BEST CONTACT GATHERER THIS FALL? WHAT HELPS YOUR STAFF OR STUDENT LEADERS GET FACE TO FACE WITH STUDENTS SO YOU CAN SHARE THE GOSPEL?

I’d also love to see our teams understand the importance of working with the right people. I think this is so important for team leaders to help new staff and interns understand. As a new staff I wanted to feel like I was doing something productive. It would benefit us in the long run to help staff understand that it’s a better use of our time to keep looking for the right people for several months than to just start meeting with any believer who has a pulse.

What do I mean by the “right people”? Here is an article that I walk through with our new staff women or interns every year and discuss with them during the first month of school-  Selection

Reality is our friend and some of us need to face reality and let go of some students that we have been discipling. I know (because I’ve been there) that it can feel heartless to make a choice to not continue meeting regularly with a student because they are not multiplying their lives and aren’t seen as a worthy investment of our time. However, when we actually take the time to continue praying and being involved in ministry until God brings those multipliers into our lives, we won’t regret it. Once we truly invest in a “mover” on campus, we won’t have a problem being “picky” again.

WHAT ARE SOME KEY INDICATORS YOU LOOK FOR TO DETERMINE IF YOU’RE SELECTING THE RIGHT PEOPLE TO INVEST YOUR TIME IN?

WHAT ARE THINGS YOU DO TO CONTINUE LOOKING FOR THOSE MOVERS ON CAMPUS TO SURFACE?