My most frustrating moments were always when, after a day of near constant work, it seemed I had nothing to show for my labors. But one day I had an epiphany; I realized it wouldn’t be too difficult to track my time with students. OK, so it’s not original, but it was an epiphany for me. I discovered that one of the most practical and effective tools for ministry is a contact chart.
A simple layout in a word processing or spreadsheet program lets me track where my time is going and make changes accordingly. I know who I’m contacting and I can quickly realize which students need more of my time. This record of my time also protects me from those who question what I do.
I note the type of each contact so that I know, for instance, that over the last three months, I’ve had interactions with Dan Johnson through five phone calls, one note, two visits, nine church chats, one lunch and one school event. This totals 19 contacts in three months. Since Dan is one of my leaders, I want him to get a lot of my time. If a student’s total was only seven, then I’d know I needed to spend more time with that kid.
EVERY contact counts, which is why one of my categories of contact is “church chat.” These are those 20 to 60 seconds of small talk that seem to fill my Sundays. These chats give me the information I use to follow up with more personal contacts later. On Monday, I’ll write a note about how sorry I was to hear their guinea pig died, or that I’ll be praying for them as they give their oral report on Tuesday.
These may seem like small things, but the small ones lead to medium ones and medium ones to big ones. (If I deposit a quarter or $25 into my bank account, I get a receipt. If you deposit a small amount or a large amount of love/caring into a student’s life, you get credit!) Many of my contacts come on Sunday or at our midweek event, but I follow up on those interactions; these small ones lead to deeper trust, which leads to deeper ministry.
Once my contact sheet even protected me from a Mom who accused me of not talking to either one of her daughters in a while. I looked at my records and I told her that I talked to the older daughter two days ago and that I mailed a note to the younger one two weeks ago. The mom said that she never got the letter, despite my assuring her that it was sent. A week later, she called me and apologized because her husband had lost the letter in a huge stack of mail.
It’s certainly not the most important factor, but when church leaders or parents want to know what I’ve been doing with my time or how much contact I’ve had with little Timmy, I have my contact chart. But beyond justifying my use of time, my chart keeps me accountable. I can’t claim ignorance. If a kid fades away, the contact chart will show whether nor not I did everything I could. And, well, it’s nice when you can walk into a board meeting and report that over the last four months you have made over 400 contacts involving a variety of students.
