In ministry, how much of your focus is on getting to know new people individually?

If you are in an evangelization ministry such as youth ministry, the temptation is to get sucked into programming so that we have something to offer when we go and talk to new people and to teens. That is where resources that are “packaged” tend to give us a sort of advantage. We don’t have to think about what we are offering and we can just get to the evangelization.

This is where most youth ministers tend to stop. They hang the sign on the store and just expect that people are going to show up. Maybe people will show up for free food. Maybe people will show up for prizes. Maybe they will show up because of our infectious personalities. Maybe we could stand to learn a few things. Things that I am constantly trying to learn myself.

1. People don’t want to be manipulated. They want to be made holy. When we offer something like that they are attracted to it and they will stay longer, even if we aren’t “slick.”
2. For the first three years, the majority of your time is going to be spent meeting new people. If your mindset isn’t something to the tune of “every person I meet should know about what we are doing here” then you are in the wrong place. It isn’t just the people that are in the age bracket that you minister to that you should be meeting. In sales this is referred to as “cold calling.” It is notoriously the worst thing about sales. I’m not suggesting you go through the phone book and start calling people. Maybe the parish directory. Maybe attending each of the parish masses. Until you get to the point where pretty much every single person in town knows about what you are doing and are able to relay your message without you there, you need to become your own most vocal advocate.
3. If you can get a group of people excited about what you are doing, they are going to tell about six or seven other people. When those people in the second group (circle) show up, that is when the quality of what you offer cannot drop off. If you get the second group on board, then you have staying power. In sales these are referred to as the “referrals.”
4. There is no such thing as full time in the first three years. In fact, if someone were to ask you to log your hours, they would have to pay you massive overtime. Think about it this way: if you were to put your entire life’s savings in to a business, how often would you be there? Ministry requires no less. I would actually argue that anything we want to do well requires no less in the first few years as we build it. Even more, if you were to invest your life’s savings into a business, who would you NOT tell about it? If you are embarrassed to talk about your ministry with others, get out of the ministry. Until you have that group of people talking for you and the people they share with talking for you, you are building your ministry.
5. If this sounds really difficult, it is. I see too many well meaning people who are struggling with ministry because they don’t understand why it isn’t bigger when they are doing it part time, or when they aren’t willing to do the stuff that makes them uncomfortable. Everything in ministry that we consider “great” was built with a lot of time and hard work. There was no shortcut. Prayer is a vital part because it grounds us when we are working. I’ve done this in my own life. I’ve been in positions where I thought simply hanging the sign would bring a massive amount of people to the ministry. I was wrong. No matter how much I prayed, no matter how great the ministry was, if no one knew about it they weren’t going to come. It’s really that simple. It’s also really that difficult.

Today you have a choice. You have the same choice every single day. Unless every single person in your town knows your story, knows your ministry, knows what you do, and knows who you serve, then you have work to do. The work is difficult. The work takes a thick skin. The work takes a lot of prayer so that we have the grace to do what we are doing.

It’s a lesson I keep trying to learn. I’m not there yet. But by the grace of God one day I will be.