Community? Do you have one?
March 3, 2008 | community
A contract arrived in the mail to speak at a wonderful organization for moms. It’s my first time to connect with them on the national level, though I’ve spoken to several smaller groups in this same entity.
Knowing the people and organization you are going to speak to is vital. How do they operate? Do I bring books? Do I need an assistant? What are their ages and needs? Where do I connect? How long do I teach? Do I have ministry time? What do they believe, and why?
I can hear you now. Just pray, Suzie. God will take care of it.
I do pray, and He’s the first invited on board.
But I still needed answers so that I could prepare, so I sent an e-mail to my friend, Julie.
She’s an author. A speaker. A woman who has a busy life as a mom, wife, and in ministry. In fact, her life is crazy busy right now with the release of a new book and a new radio ministry opportunity.
Her response was almost instant.
“Call me, Suz,” it read. “Let’s talk.”
And I did. The conversation was brief, but packed with helpful information. We also squeezed in some time to catch up on where we were at in life right now. She encouraged me. I hope that I encouraged her.
That’s community.
I needed a person with skin on.
We need community to have relevant faith, but also effective ministry.
I have flipped through the channels before and wondered how some televangelists or ministries got so disconnected from everyday people and everyday life. I don’t say that in criticism, but confusion. How did this happen?
Isolation is not restricted to ministry. It’s a tricky obstacle course for any business or organization or people group. You hang out with the same people. You scour the Interent for interaction. You go to the same places and hear the same things. After time, you forget what the rest of the world thinks and why they think it. You put out your brand of entertainment and it’s bizzare or “real”, but doesn’t relate to a huge portion of the population. You brand a product and it falls flat.
You promote ministry or thinkology and a large segment of the population just doesn’t get it.
Worse, you don’t get that they don’t get it.
We need community. Some of that community will be like Julie. She and I are not clones. We have different types of ministry. Our approach is vastly different. But we encourage each other because we are in the same field. We know the challenges and joys. We need people who will be real with us, but also an encouragement.
We need people outside our circle. In my WOV community mentoring group, some are believers. Some are not. We’ve had great conversations. They trust me and know that my faith is genuine, but also that I will listen to their story, their perspective. I’ve learned so much from them. But most of all, I’ve gained new friends.
My community is my family. It is my church. It is people in my city. It is people in my line of business. It is Christ, who leads me through all of this.
Who is your community?
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I absolutely agree with what you’re saying here. I see a couple of key elements in your story. You knew you needed community and you took action to find it: you initiated - you made that phone call.
March 6th, 2008 at 8:58 pm