With pizza and bible in hand, I walked into a high school along with my friend from Fellowship of Christian Athletes. We were there for the FCA lunch huddle. Students gathered around classroom desks, devoured pizza, and listened to the message. In just a few minutes, our time was over. We left feeling thankful for the open door on this campus, which provides space for us to share the love of Jesus.
But something was missing. Unfortunately, we had missed the great potential that would have been ours if we had invited another church leader into the meeting. We missed being an example of a church leader and para-church leader working together to make a difference in the lives of students on this campus.
It's time to invite someone to pick up pizza alongside of you. If you have the privilege of working on the school campus, it's time to disciple another youth worker and show them how ministry partnership is done. Many of us have learned through failure, but your discipleship may save another youth worker from these failures and catapult them into success!
Watch out for your logo and ego!!
I wonder if Jesus was praying over our egos and logos when he prayed, "Father, I pray they might be one as we are one, so the world will know that I love them" (John 17). Too many times, it is our awesome logos and our fragile egos that keep us from working together as one. It is almost as if Jesus KNEW that we would be tempted to find our identity in our ministry, our logo, and our earthly success instead of in our relationship with the Holy One.
BUT WHAT IF our newsletters and church announcements highlighted stories of ministries working together? What if we highlighted ways we put our resources together in an effort to reach more students?
As church and para-church ministries serve together, we can bring our best to the table. As we do this, we bring the best out of others who have the same mission. In order to partner together, however, leaders need to see the gifting of one another as a compliment to the united goal, and not as a personal competition. As this happens we will see how much we need each other.
Every Campus NEEDS hope
Last month I was in a meeting with church and para-church youth leaders in Seattle. I was overwhelmed with the potential in the room. These leaders gathered to dream about ways schools could be prayed for, cared for, and shared with through our local ministries. We know we can't do everything as a unit. But we intentionally collaborated to dream of what we could do together to reach our campuses in ways that could not be done alone.
It's not rocket science, but it takes intentional effort to know and trust each other. As we meet and discover shared vision, we need to share our resources. Our kids are facing a soul crushing world. Surely, we can gather together to point them to the ONE who can restore their weary souls.
Father, make us one so that the world will know you came into this world because you love us.
Let's go together! Little Caesars is waiting.