Meet Them Where They Are

Those of us in church and [tag]ministry leadership[/tag] have often followed the idea of “meet them where they are” when reaching out to the lost. When we think of how Jesus taught us this concept, we often think about the woman at the well and Jesus dining with the tax collectors. But once we have won souls for the Lord and brought them into the church for healing, we can often forget this valuable lesson. We often stop meeting people where they are, often when they most need to be met. Think about the last time you met a member of your church and accepted their help exactly where they were: non-technical, untrained, but with a heart to serve. Did you have a plan to train or to turn away? Were you prepared or surprised when someone wanted to serve? Did you make time to talk with them like the woman at the well, or dine with them like the tax collectors? Or, were you too busy serving to talk or dine? Here are some tips to meet [tag]volunteers[/tag] where they are when they want to serve:

1. Be prayerful: pray for God to provide opportunities to give your time to train others; if you aren’t praying for these opportunities to reach others, your heart will become hard toward “outsiders”
2. Be simple: simplify your ministry so that anyone can serve with little training or preparation
3. Be organized: have a training manual handy, and make it simple to follow; if the [tag]volunteer[/tag] has to read more than a half-page of instructions, its too complicated and they’ll give up
4. Be willing to refer them to other ministries: if their [tag]spiritual gifts[/tag] are more evident to you than them; they may need help finding the right place to serve
5. Be aware of those that want to serve for personal glory: it is common to meet people that want to serve outside their comfort zone, but those that want to improve their resume or skills for personal gain are cancer for your ministry

[tags]Agile Ministry[/tags]

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