Contact Work: Give a Dundee

The Office might be the best show on TV. The Dundee might be the best Award. How about getting a Dundee made for a contact work award. Its kinda like an employee of the month award Young Life style. Here are a few ideas for how it may won...

1) Everyone who does 10 visits to campus a month gets nominated for the Dundee. A raffle declares the winner. The Dundee will then be presented at the monthly Area Fellowships. 

2) Most Creative Contact Work story that is shared at Area Fellowship gets the Dundee. 

If you have any more ideas on how to use the Dundee list them below. I think fun rewards are great to have. 

Contact Work: Waiting to Start Club till...

When you plan club you have to pick a day to start. For most areas this is the day or week following leader weekend. However, how about starting club once your team does a certain amount of contact work. 

For example, how about starting club once your team has been on campus a combined 50 times.  If you have 5 leaders that means everyone can go 10 times each or if you have a few super leaders some people might not go as much. You can pick the number for yourself. 

This is one area of ministry that I would make goals team oriented versus individual oriented. It is always more fun do do contact work with other people plus your team can help hold you to a higher standard. Team goals are more public (everyone knows what they are) and are also individually flexible. After all, some people are more available then others. Some people even like going to campus more then others. Now they can be the leaders of this aspect of your team. 

Finally, and most importantly, this would set a standard for how your club will do contact work all year long. By starting off the year having contact work be the standard of what your club looks like then you cant miss. No matter how well club goes, you know your team is doing the dirty work of Young Life. 

Finally you can sit back and let God do his part. 

Contact Work: Part 1

Two years ago I joined a Young Life Club that was loaded with kids. Our first club was packed with over 100 of them. It took all I had not to ask the same kid what his name was two weeks in a row.  

As good as this situation may sound, it might be the worst possible club for new leaders to be apart of. Let me tell you why.

When you show up for Club and kids are already there, what you find is leaders begin to "manage" what they have and not "go" make contact with new kids. This is problamatic for several reasons. First, if a leader never has to start off in their ministry by "going" it is extremely difficult to learn how to do so when the large numbers go away. Second, leaders begin to take kids out of "what is available that other leaders dont want or connect with." This is often harder on leaders. They dont go after kids that they might be more like. This may burn out leaders who work hard at connecting with kids who they dont ever really connect with. Finally, there is not as much ownership by leaders who have not done the hard work of reaching out and making contact with kids. 

If you are a new leader, here is what you do. Go to the school. Act as if there are no kids in your club. Pursue kids as if there will be no one unless you get 10 kids for yourself.  If every leader has that same ownership and thought process then ALL leaders will understand what it means to reach out to new kids in a school and make ministry happen.