Gator Huntin' Part 3 (The Big One)

Every once in a while, gator hunters will stumble across signs that a big gator is in the vicinity. It may come in the form of popped lines, or broken tree branches. When this happens, the gator hunter becomes determined to track down the biggin'... no matter what. They usually assign a nickname to the wanted gator, names like T-rex, Tree Breaker, or Godzilla, and the hunt begins. Once the hunt is started, the gator hunter may spend days in order to track down the big one.

I was reminded of the youth ministry parallel today when it comes to recruiting. There are a few potential youth workers on my list that I have been talking to for years about coming on board. For whatever reason, God keeps bringing them to mind. Most of the time it is because I am convinced that youth ministry would be good for them. So right now I am huntin some big gators, ones I have been pursuing for a long time. Looks like finally a couple of them are gonna join us. Good reminder that God's timing is best and not to give up on the "big one". Pray. Trust. Ask. Pray. Repeat.

Gator Huntin' Part 2- (Follow Up)

Next its on to the checking of the lines. Gator hunters will pull up to each of their lines to see if they have anything on the other end. Sometimes they can tell from afar if they have anything on the line due to the stirring of the waters or the shaking of a branch. In recruiting volunteers, the follow-up is crucial. It is important to go back to each of the lines and to see what is actually occurring. Don't assume that no response is a negative thing. I've definitely made this mistake before. They may simply be praying and thinking about the opportunity. The follow-up is a "win" either way as a youth pastor, as it almost always leads to a deep conversation about what is occurring in the life of the person we are recruiting. So don't be scared of rejection. Trust God in the process. If its a no, for whatever reason, its not the right timing or right fit. Gator hunters pass by many empty lines before they get to the big one. Same here. It's worth the rejection to wait for the right ones to come along.

So who do you need to follow-up with today and find a time to sit down and really talk about the possibility of serving? I've got a few people on my heart today that I've floated the idea of getting involved and I need to follow-up. Looking forward to seeing if anything is on the line.

Gator Huntin' and Recruiting Volunteers

I freely admit my new found love of all things swamp people. I can't quite explain it other than it's a show about a bunch of people who live in the swamps of Louisiana and Florida who hunt gators for a living. Awesome, right? It cracks me up that they have to run subtitles in order to understand what they are saying. These people are straight fearless and somewhat crazy. The show has so captured my attention I recently had a dream that I was hunting gators and woke up in the middle of the night in a panic from an imminent gator attack only to realize it was just a dream, totally freaking my wife out.

So all this gator huntin' has gotten me thinking to the similarities to recruiting youth ministry volunteers (I told you I have gators on the brain).

This probably works best as a series of posts, so let's kick the first one off... A gator hunter often sets out as many as 100 lines in a day with bait and hook in the hopes of catching some quality gators. I am in the midst of recruiting quality youth workers as we speak. I start by sending out lots of feelers, similar to gator hunters. I avoid cattle calls for any warm bodies to serve, but rather I start by asking around to our staff and other people I respect for names of people who might be a good fit for us. Once I have names, then I start setting feelers out via facebook messages, email, etc. I have found this to be a good way to go as it gives potential youth workers time to think about their response rather than just an off the cuff response. If we truly want Godly called people in our student ministry, don't underestimate this first step of setting out feelers. Giving perspective youth workers time to percolate on the idea before hand is both God honoring and wise. When they do sign on the dotted line, both the youth minister and volunteer have a clearer since that this is "of God".

I have to confess something here before I go any further. I go into the process of recruiting volunteers with a touch of fear. Probably similar to my gator hunting brethren when they set out to hunt. We have such an amazing team and our effectiveness as a student ministry is largely contingent on the quality of the adults serving. In the flesh, I am scared of screwing it up. That is why for me, recruiting volunteers is largely a prayer exercise. Praying for God to lead to the right people, praying through the process, praying for wisdom, praying for his intervention. It is only through prayer that we can build a healthy team.

Blogging

Alright. Here is the deal. I have a love/hate relationship with blogging. I know I need to write. It is a very therapeutic process for me personally. It forces me to reflect deeper and to work out the articulation of things I have been thinking about. So its definitely a good thing for me to blog, especially now being out of grad school for a year.

The hate part is simply the promotion of said thoughts. I don't want to be the guy schlepping his blog and always pointing others to look at my self proclaimed brilliance. It really comes down to this. I feel like some people out there, specifically youth workers, can relate to my struggles and random nuggets of goodness I happen to stumble across and therefore benefit from my ramblings. I can think of many blogs that do that for me. So I just got to suck it up and simply write. Mainly for me, and then if others benefit along the way, may God be glorified. I think I can live with that. So feel free to join me on the journey.