Thanks to everyone who listened and called in yesterday to Working with the Wrong Student. Those who called in contributed insightful thoughts and experiences beyond what our staff team brought to the table. The overall theme that surfaced as we talked was how crucial an other-centered culture is to a ministry's success.
The participants brought out some great points:
- Josh Waidley, a CCC intern in SF, brought up the need to build trust and lead authentically and transparently to not only garner but also motivate the right students. He brings unique insight as someone that came from an established ministry at UC Santa Barbara and is now part of a start-up venture working with the colleges in the SF area.
- Dave Goffeney, CCC Director of UC Davis, revealed how in spite of his own desires for approval, he has found it best to allow holes in his ministry structure rather than place a student that fails to have the leadership qualities and alignment to CCC's values in that spot.
- Josh Otto reflected on his leadership journey of moving from a place where he worked with anyone and everyone to a place where he is intentional and highly selective. I have been encouraged to see this transformation happen in person.
- Kai Pottenger, a CCC intern at UCLA, asked me about my perspective on selection since I was part of UCLA's ministry for a couple years. Like Josh Waidley, I have benefitted from being at an established ministry such as UCLA as well as a start-up at Chico.
- Paul Nunez, a CCC staff who will be leading San Jose State's ministry next year called and shared the challenges he is facing in moving from something established and known to something established but unknown.
Carrie G, a former Chico State student now at UCSB offered the biggest surprise when she called in and encouraged us with her perspective. It affirmed the conversation so much as she provided an unbiased and real-life example of what we were talking about. Thanks again for the comments Carrie!
This is what I learned from the discussion:
- Evangelism is not just 'what we are supposed to do' but the foundation for everything that we do. The Gospel and reality of Jesus has to pervade every aspect of our ministry.
- Transparency and authentic leadership fuels a post-modern movement. Without it, we risk sputtering along with lackluster results.
- In spite of apart of something so idealistic (reaching the world for Christ) the reality is that we have extremely limited resources to accomplish this vision. As much as we hold up the vision, we have to hold up the stewardship of our limited resources to staff and students. Otherwise, we risk pouring them out haphazardly and generally to both our detriment and the detriment of the Kingdom.
If you go to our blogtalkradio site, you can download the audio to iTunes or listen to it on your computer when you have time.
