by Chuck Bomar
I’ve been working in ministry with college-age people for over a dozen years now and I continue to learn new things. There are things I once thought of as crucial to our ministry that I’ve since learned aren’t nearly as important as I once thought. On the other hand, there are also things I didn’t pay much attention to that have proven to be a vital part of a healthy and vibrant ministry.
So—for whatever it’s worth—I’d like to offer you a little advice from my experience that I believe can really help you continue building a sustainably healthy ministry. Here’s my nugget of “wisdom” for you: you need people to help you.
Okay, I know, that’s not an epic thought and you already knew that. But the fact that we need other people brings up some issues that are tough to overcome. First, finding the right volunteers can be difficult. More difficult for some than others, but we are all constantly looking out for new people. However, once we find them we inevitably run into the wall of finding resources that truly train and equip our leaders without exhausting everyone involved. If we pick the wrong ones, we end up with yet another thing we need to handle.
To take this even a step further, it’s incredibly difficult to find a resource that fits the objectives of our ministry in a way that releases our volunteers with confidence to do the work of ministry.
Because we face all these obstacles, we end up doing the majority of work ourselves. We know we need people to help, but we wonder if there is anything out there to help us equip them.
With XP3 College, we get that. We understand because we’ve been there, and so we’ve put together some basic resources to help you cast vision and train mentors for college-age people. You can accomplish the goal of discipleship in a sustainable and effective way without exhausting anyone.
Seriously, I mean that. That’s not an infomercial that is too good to be true. It’s not overnight, but it is an effective tool. These resources can actually be the tool that helps you transition away from you being the sole leader. It provides ongoing training for leaders. It puts effective tools in the hands of those leaders who bring a confidence that leads to them running with ministry. And, it will actually help you lead those leaders.
One of the things I didn’t pay as much attention to early in my ministry was the fact that I needed to put time into equipping my leaders. One of the reasons for that is simply because it was hard to find the time to do so. I just had too many things going on and the price to train and equip other leaders was just too high. Well, XP3 College just lowered the price of that for you.
Chuck Bomar is part of the creative team for XP3 College (www.xp3college.org), and the author of several books, including his latest, Worlds Apart: Understanding the Mindset and Values of 18-25 Year Olds.
