Focus on 10...or 12

I carry a large burden when it comes to kids. I want to reach as many as I can. As a matter of fact I carry the burden for our entire club...even though others leaders do a great job and carry a similar weight. 

As we look at the way Jesus does ministry he has different groups. First, Jesus ministers to the masses. He feeds 5,000,  4,000 and always has a crowd around Him. He hand picked 12 that he would be close with. But he had three of those twelve, John, Peter, and James, that he was the closest with. 

This is not a new discovery. I have taught for years that we need to look at this model for ministry and apply it to Young Life. We look at the masses (our entire school or area that we are apart of), and have our 12 (kids whom we make regular contact with), and we have our 3 (kids whom we replicate our life in). 

The problem is I do not practice what I preach. I own the burden for the entire club. I want to impact every kid...myself. The outcome: I become irritated. Stressed. Not a great leader. I miss kids when they show up. 

This year, Tempe Young Life will own this. I am committed to it. ONE OF THE MAIN AREAS OF EMPHASIS ON THIS YEAR WILL BE FINDING YOUR 10...OR 12. 

How does this look? It begins with BELIEVING that this is greatest way to impact the lives of kids. If we actually own this for even a year MORE KIDS WILL KNOW JESUS AND THAT KIDS WILL BE DISCIPLED BETTER. Thats what we want, right? (I can only pray that the Lord will use us in a big way!!!)

Practically speaking, we have an area of about 25 leaders. At the end of the year we had about 120 kids active in the ministry (club or campaigners somewhat regularly). We took about 110 kids to camp. That is a 1 to 4 kid to leader ratio. Not bad. Not great.  My hope (my prayer) is that if we ALL own this we will more then double (maybe even triple) the number of kids we reach every year.  With 25 leaders, owning this method of ministry, 250-300 kids are active in club and going to camp. 

Can you imagine every leader with their own cabin of kids???? Isn't that what every leader wants anyway? 

We then are able to meet kids where they are at. For example, lets say you start off this year with  7 girls that already know Jesus...great! Take them to campaigners and then discipleship camp. Help them grow into leaders (Young Life, Church, community). This year you can take some energy and go find 3-5 new girls (not try to fill the entire club room with new girls) that you can bring to club and outreach camp. If you did that you would be an AMAZING leader. Any Area Director would love that in their area or club. Some other leader may have 1 campaigner girl and 8 kids who dont know Jesus. The combination is great.  It makes for a complete club where you are discipling kids and reaching new ones. It is nice to know that it is not YOUR job to be responsible for 10 girls at campaigners and 30 at club. 

There is so much more I can say about this. This will be a focus at every Area Fellowship and pushed as a direction at Team Meetings. I pray that this year we reach more kids, better. 

Leadership: How to get people to do what you want

Have you ever wanted to get your kids to read the Bible more or have a daily devotion with Jesus but somehow just saying "Do it" doesnt work? Well, I have been there. Here is a tip on how to get kids to do things that are important without even letting them know you are telling them to do it!

GIVE SPECIAL RECOGNITION

As you know in your own life, recognition is important to us all. We all love to be noticed when we do good things. Heck, most of us like to be acknowledged when we just do our job. So the question: How can you get people to do things (good things) without forcing them?

I believe that one way you can do this is by giving continued and reinforced recognition to people who do what you want, well. Not only do you give that person an opportunity to share about the great things they have done, but others see the recognition they are getting, they see the value by hearing other peoples testimonies, and they might just end up doing it themself. This is a win/win. Not only are you reinforcing the good action, but it now shows others around them that this great thing that they are doing is valuable and important in their own life (the best part is that they can see the benefit for themselves!!!!) 

This strategy can work for contact work, campaigners, or various other aspects of Young Life. 

EXAMPLE 1: If you want to enforce kids having quiet times, ask your campaigner group every EVERY WEEK: What is God teaching you in your quiet times? There are some kids who will talk all the time at first. Once kids start to catch on, other kids will want to have something to share. Pretty soon many of your campaigner kids might for the first time have regular quiet times. 

EXAMPLE 2: If you want your leaders to do more contact work, ask for contact work stories in team meetings (I do this is for EVERY Area Fellowship if you have noticed). Let people teach each other. The new teachers will be happy and it allows people with different gift-sets to be recognized in a new way.