2 Things That Will Make Your Ministry a Bit More Incarnational

On one of the biggest platforms for wasting time, I read a friends post that said
As we return to fall schedules, the words of Juliet Funt are important, “email is the Voldemort of busy work” @whitespaceatwrk
And, it reminded me of what a veteran youth pastor said to me a year or so ago. I was asking about how to set up “pop-up” event during the summer. Like, “Hey youth, we’re meeting for ice cream tomorrow afternoon. Be there!” kind of thing. I remember asking, what if the student doesn’t have a phone, and I can’t text them? He said, “You may just have to go old school and call their house.”
All that to lead into what I think are 2 thing we could all do more often that could make a big differnce in our ministry.
- Send letters, or notes, of encouragement to your parents. This is a great thing to do for students as well, especially with sweet services like pixinote and postagram. But, don’t forget the parents. Maybe you have way too many parents, then split the list and ask some other adults in the church to help you! If I were writing one today, I think it would say something like this: “Dear [parent], You are doing a great job! Parenting can be tough, but I have loved getting to know [kids name(s)] and they are amazing people. I just wanted to encourage you, because the unconditional love and grace and forgiveness and joy you share with them is such a blessing, and will pay off! Blessings and peace to you.”
- Go through you church directory and call people. I did this on accident actually. I was in need of some more volunteers for nursery and for some other student ministry things, so I just started going through and calling people. I got TONS of “no’s” but I also had a ton of great conversations. People were pleasently surprised to receive a call mostly I think, as opposed to an email. So, I called people I thought might say yes to an invitiaton like “once time in the nursery this semester.” I got a couple. Again lots of “no’s” but some “yes’s”. But, here’s the other thing that happened. I saw people, names, couples who are on our church’s prayer email, and I called them — such as, the mother whose son-in-law is dying of cancer, a retired man who just had his hip replaced whose wife is suffering Alzheimer’s, and another mom that has wanted to connect over coffee to talk about her son who is transgender.
It’s easy to keep hammering away at the keyboard, waiting for the next email response. It’s easy to wonder where the people are, and why no one is signing up on the sign up sheet at the information center. But, seriously, if you can give a half hour, hour, afternoon to send some notes and make some calls, people will experience the love and grace and blessing of Jesus through you. I am convinced that something this simple in our busy, disconnected, fragmented lives and lifestyles show why something like incarnation matters.
Grace and peace.
