[Anderson] Fuse - God Is Relational (0) Comments
Posted Mon, Nov 23 Announcement
Click here to listen to “God is Relational” from Fuse in Greenville
Are you being relational?
Most students that we’ll encounter at Fuse are searching for something. Obviously, we know that their main need is Jesus, but in most cases, they’re also looking for/in need of a human relationship. A lot of our students grow up in the absence of one or both parents. Some students have a hard time finding friends that will accept them the way they are, and others have no one they can trust. This is where a caring adult that loves Jesus is indispensible and can truly save a life. Our main focus as small group leaders has to be relating to the one life. If we ever place our focus on growing a crowd instead of ministering to the one, then we’ve missed the point.
What are you doing to be relational? How are you making the most of your time with students? Is Fuse just another chance for you to see your friends, or do you have a burden to pour your life into students? Are you playing dodge ball to develop relationships or because it’s fun for you. Being relational is actually pretty simple. Start by spending time with your students. A relationship can’t grow without time together. Next, find out what they like. What gets them excited? Why do they get out of bed in the morning? Spend time talking about and doing things they like. After a while you’ll gain rapport and their trust. Then, when you try to teach them about Jesus, your words will actually mean something.
We need to constantly keep our motives in check and our focus aligned, because there’s too much at stake for you to not be invested relationally. God has given each of us a unique personality and relational gifting. Let’s use it to glorify God by being personal with our students.
Click on this link to listen to Week 5 of the message series “BLOOD” from Fuse in Greenville!
Know your role
God is doing big things in our student ministry. Each week, we’re seeing tons of students attend Fuse on all of our campuses, our volunteer numbers are growing monthly, and most importantly, students have been making decisions to accept Christ. We’re so blessed to witness a move of God like this, and for whatever reason, He’s chosen to let us be a part of it! However, with blessing comes responsibility. Every one of us—staff, volunteer or student—has some degree of responsibility in shepherding this ministry. Whether you view your responsibility as big or small, your actions will determine if this ministry succeeds or fails.
The danger with a ministry that’s growing like Fuse is that it becomes increasingly easier to think that your role and responsibility become smaller as we grow. It’s easy to think that there are so many leaders at Fuse that you can take it easy and God will bring someone along to pick up the difference—that your small group isn’t that important because you only have 3 students. The opposite is true. It doesn’t matter if God has placed 3 students in your group or 30, you are a key part of this team, and you being faithful in the small things will show God that we are able to be trusted with big things.
We say it all the time, as our ministry gets bigger we have to fight to grow smaller. We’ll never be able to sustain 1,000 students if we can’t lead 10 with excellence. And the thing that’s going to get us there is for small group leaders, like you, to have passion, embrace the responsibility you’ve been given, and invest your all into overflowing into students what God is doing in you. Know your role. It is so important!
Leading horizontally
You all signed up to lead small groups, because you have a passion for pouring into students. It’s that type of vertical leadership (you leading downward) that’s always going to be the strength of our ministry. Your hands on relationships with the students in your care is your primary responsibility in this ministry. However, as our ministry grows and changes, the leadership demands change as well. If we continue to lead the way we’ve always led and ignore change, then we’ll eventually crumble and squander the opportunities God has given us to influence students
That’s why I want to encourage you, in addition to leading vertically, to lead horizontally. That means not only leading students but also leading and spurring on the other leaders around you. Ministry, like most things in life, is better when you’re not doing it alone. Student ministry is tough, let’ s face it. And when there’s someone with you in the trenches helping you push forward, it makes it a little easier to take the next step. That’s what we want you to be for each other.
As a staff, we’ll try our best to lead this ministry well, but we need your help. Partner with other leaders to help bear each others burdens. Share ideas of how to connect with students. Coach up, in love, when you see someone coming up short. Encourage when you see another group succeeding. Don’t waste the leadership ability that God has given you, because our ministry will be at its strongest when we’re leading both vertically and horizontally.