“The harvest is plenty but the workers are few.” Far be it for me to disagree with scripture! However, at the ULC we have found in many cases the workers are there, they just don’t know it yet!
What do I mean?
Years ago I started observing that a friend of mine was really talented at posting things online. She would come to our youth events and take pictures and then post them in really creative ways. She was always commenting on how confusing the church youth website was and that we were missing a huge outreach opportunity. Instead of being insulted, because I was trying to do this in my spare time which of course meant it was never up to date or creative, guess what I did? I had an ICNU (I see in you) conversation with her. It went something like this, “Amy I see in you someone who is really passionate about our youth program which I so appreciate and you understand how important it is to reach out to the community to educate them about what our youth ministry is doing. You seem to have a real knack for social media. Would you pray about being my social media leader?”
She did pray about it and came back two weeks later and said yes! It was a win-win. Amy got to contribute to the youth ministry in a way that was in her wheelhouse. She hardly felt like it was work, while for me it was a chore that I really didn’t like doing! And, we got an amazing
website and social media presence. Our youth program grew because Amy not only took over our website but also created a cool FaceBook page and Instagram page. She went on to host Facebook Live events which made more of our teens feel connected to our events and became an easy way for the kids to invite their friends. Amy then took her knowledge of social media and used it to help our other ministries as well and eventually became the media expert for the whole church. All of this she did part-time as part of our Serve Team because, for her, it was a fun way for her to use her giftedness to serve the church!
We call this Shoulder Tapping. All I did was invited Amy to consider using her gifts as part of our Serve Team. Amy never thought that there was any real value in what she did. But the value was HUGE. Ultimately, this shoulder tapping, this ICNU - I See In You conversation, moved Amy from being a once-a-month Sunday consumer to a major contributor in our church. Because she was so involved in our social media, she became more aware of what we were doing as a congregation and also what was needed! She started to invite her friends, her kids started to increase their participation in our youth events and she even encouraged her husband to become a board member! All this happened because we had an ICNU conversation.
Think about the possibilities God has in store for your church, just by having a few ICNU conversations. Happy tapping!
We hope you and your ministry team join us for our upcoming year-long Leadership Development Accelerator starting in August! Space is limited so register today!
ICNU…a new one for me, but a practice I often used while teaching and counseling at the community college in Tucson. Over my 30 year tenure there I was able to give my students insights about themselves that they didn’t see and was able to assist them in deciding a particular career choice.
I applaud you for thinking beyond traditional “job postings” to hire the right person when she may be in the congregation every Sunday. God bless your continued efforts and pray that God allows me to use the skills I used in education to the glory of God now at this nearing endpoint of my life here. No, I am not “dying”, and yet I am each da…