1-2-1
Tuesday, 02 March, 2004
On Friday I was meeting up with a girl for the first name and she told me, “I've never met up with anyone before.” By “meet up”, we were referring to the one-on-one thing that we do on campus: meet up with someone every week to talk, study the Bible and pray. Richard calls it the “bread and butter” of ministry because, in doing it, you often start to see people change and grow in their desire to serve Jesus. Anyway, I suspect that this girl that I was meeting with for the first time was a bit sad about the fact that no one had asked her before. I think that is a common feeling—I know because I think I had it too. When I was at Uni, no one ever asked to meet up with me one-on-one. I went to weekly leaders' meetings for the Bible study I was co-leading (though, back then, I had no idea what “co-leading” actually meant) and for a couple of weeks, my friend Bec and I met up to read the Bible, but it was sad that no one ever asked me. In retrospect, I can understand why. There are stacks of students who could all benefit from meeting up but the staff team is small and limited in time and abilities. I am currently meeting up with about four or five girls at the moment (with one I might have to stop meeting when she finds a job that takes her away from campus; with another, I'm doing a once-a-month thing because she's no longer on campus either). I also meet up with Amanda, the staffworker who is training me. There are stacks of girls I could probably meet up with (and almost wish I could) but then I'm only part-time and I only do the equivalent of two days. Still, it pains me because I know that the faculties I work with (Arts and Creative Arts) would really benefit from having a girl working for them full-time. Aargh! This is the tension of paid work and ministry and why we need more people to be doing the latter or paying people to do the latter!!Posted in:
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>>>back then, I had no idea what “co-leading” actually meant”
*sniff* nobody ever offered to meet up with me either! I tried to take it like a compliment - maybe they think I’m okay spiritually, and don’t need the extra guidance??!!
Are there more male than female staffworkers?
7 guys to 6 girls. But, of the guys, 3 are senior (1 full-time, 2 part-time) and 4 are trainees (all 4 are full-time) and, of the girls, who are all trainees, 2 are full-time and 4 are part-time (including me). So you can see the imbalance there.
I neglected to mention in my post that often people are selected to do 1-2-1 because they show potential for ministry and therefore are worth training up. Which is a great thing. However, it means that I probably showed no potential for ministry when I was at Uni (so true!)
Luke: Co-leading means helping the leader in doing other things like observing group dynamics, taking care to look after the other members of the group in ways that the leader cannot, giving feedback to the leader about the group (both about the group dynamics, how people in the group are going ... perhaps asking a clarifying question if the question that the leader has put to the group doesn’t elicit much of a response), etc, keep track of the time and letting the leader know when there’s only 10 mins to go (enough time to pray!). It’s a pretty important role once you know what you’re doing.
:( no potential here either obviously!
Hidden potential, Deb!
Like me.
I always thought of you as one of the more mature ones at uni
I reckon people should head into full-time ministry is because if they did full-time “secular work” it would leave them too tired for ministry. But I guess that assumes that “work” isn’t “ministry” (I’ve been thinking about work and ministry lately…actually I think I think about it quite often!).
“Aargh! This is the tension of paid work and ministry and why we need more people to be doing the latter or paying people to do the latter!!”
Perhaps, although there are advantages to being discipled by someone like yourself. See http://www.mawamfc.org/articles/discipledby.htm
Good points, Alan; we really do need both. It’s just that the work of the kingdom can happen faster when more people are doing it full-time.
Elsie, I was only more “mature” because I was OLD!! ;P
...which does beg the question, Karen, “What exactly is the work of the kingdom?”.
I used to think it was Colossians 1:28, but does that really mean that everything else we do (I write for a financial software company) is purely to finance Colossians 1:28 work, either in ourselves or paying other people to do it?
Perhaps we need a theology that starts at Genesis 1 rather than one that starts at Matthew 28 and finishes at Acts 28. What do you reckon?