This week’s Fridea comes substantially from Richard Jett, college minister at Adventure Christian Church near Sacramento. As he was describing his hoped-for student leader positions, one particularly unique one caught my eye.
(To see a list of all the college ministry Frideas so far, click here.)
The idea? Assign a student leader to help new people make specific connections within your ministry.
You might call this a “social connector,” a “purposeful networker,” or a “social concierge.” The point is, this individual – who would probably need to be naturally a “connector” anyway – would help newcomers find their place within your ministry.
So when Sarah visits your ministry and says she’s a pre-med major, this “Social Connector” makes sure to introduce her to Laura, an older student who’s also pre-med.
When Brandon turns out to be interested in hiking, he finds out (via the Social Connector) that there’s a group of students who hike every third Saturday.
When a handful of individuals sign up for adult mentors, the Connector helps them connect with adults in their churches (or elsewhere) who would be a good fit.
And when Jeri and Carmen say they would come to the ministry but live across town, the Connector suggests they get a ride with some of the other students who live thataway.
Obviously, as community is built, some of these connections will happen without an assigned student leader over this area. But if you find a student with particular aptitude in this area, her (or his) strength can be leveraged for the Kingdom in this way – especially as their natural talent is honed to be used more purposefully and prayerfully.
Can you imagine each visitor to your ministry never leaving without at least one solid connection?
written from a Starbucks near Crestline, CA
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Road Trip 13: Day 12 recap
spent the first day of the CollegeLeader Conference
T-shirt: the Tiger tribe of LSU
today: Day 2 of the conference! (see all explorations so far!)
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March 12, 2010 at 2:44 am
a student leader position: administrator « Exploring College Ministry blog (daily notes about our field)
[...] 12, 2010 in for using student leaders, frideas Last semester, I suggested the potential student leader position of “social connector,” an idea I got from the [...]
April 8, 2010 at 12:35 am
introverts in weird places (& similar implications of backwards college ministry) « Exploring College Ministry blog (daily notes about our field)
[...] other outcomes: helping visitors know “next steps,” getting contact info from visitors, helping connect visitors with others in the ministry, or whatever you’ve [...]