EXPLORATION: I WANT TO SERVE, WHERE DO I START?
One of the great joys of being a leader is seeing people decide to start using their gifts to serve God, His people, and make impact in their communities. Whether we have personally gone about searching them out and recruiting them I love to see people get plugged in and grow as a follower of Jesus through service.
I will have to mention that this has both a source of joy, and also a source of frustration as well. As I got people involved, some of them flourished and some of them struggled. There are a number of approaches to helping people begin serving. I must admit that this has been a steep learning curve. I've come to realize that one of the major mistakes that I have made is by plugging people into slots that I NEED FILLED. This is understandable, but it is not wise or being a good steward of them and setting them up to succeed. It treats them like parts of a machine that fill a role instead of understanding the unique gifts, abilities, personalities, and experiences that each person has.
Our infinitely beautiful God has created each individual with a unique ability to fill the role that God has for them in his Kingdom. Our God is not a cookie cutter God. He even creates snowflakes to be completely unique. So as leaders, our job is to come alongside them and help them come to an awareness of the pieces God has placed in their hands and how they can seek to serve him, his family, and the world. We must not simply plug them into our agenda or programming, but help them engage in their calling and gifting.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, there are going to be stages in the journey of serving our King and being part of his Kingdom. Let me give a reminder of what this process may look like.
EXPLORATION
The reason we call the first stage exploration because because learning to serve is a long-term process that unfolds over time. You have to start somewhere, and where you start is not often where you will end up. Very rarely is someone going to start serving in the exact place that they will continue serving for the rest of their life. Each time we engage in serving we grow in our awareness of ourselves and of how God wants to work through us.
Many people often start exploring by finding an area that is a short term commitment or a low expectation commitment. This doesn't mean unimportant at all. These ways of serving are actually extremely important because they are part of connecting and building relationships with others. These opportunities to serve are great entry points into engaging with others and learning where they fit. Some examples of this would be in a hospitality or greeting ministry, or helping out with an event that needs setting up, running, or cleaning up.
Another way to ease into serving is to ask them to spend some time observing various different ministries. It might look like sitting in on kids ministry, or behind the tech booth, or coming to serve.
Sometimes people still might not be sure of where they fit and may be willing to try something that is recommended. It may be a good fit, but if or when it it isn't, it becomes a valuable experience that teaches us what we shouldn't continue to do. For example, if they first serve in kids ministry and after 6 months (or days sometimes) they think to themselves, I'm not cut out for this. Help them to understand that it's not a failure. They should consider it a successful experience in teaching them about what they're not passionate about! Sometimes learning to serve is about learning WHERE NOT TO SERVE. Remind them not to quit, simply accept the gift of realizing what they're not called to and try again!
CONNECTING OUR NATURAL ABILITIES TO THE KINGDOM
While this is actually an invaluable lesson, it's not usually good for long-term morale if they have this experience more than a couple times in a row. So how do we minimize the amount of "learning experiences" and help people get a little more traction on leaning into their true areas of kingdom work? There are a number of ways that I believe that this can be done.
I personally love the book "S.H.A.P.E. Finding and Fulfilling Your Unique Purpose for Life" by Erik Rees. S.H.A.P.E. is an acronym for Spiritual Gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality, and Experiences. I believe these 5 categories give us a really great foundation for living into the calling and kingdom work that God has designed us for. While there is value in reading a book and learning about each one of these areas, there's still no substitute for actually serving to learn about yourself and where you fit best.
So to help people get a running start and get involved, I recommend starting with the "A" of S.H.A.P.E. and looking at peoples natural abilities, talents, and skills. Below is a downloadable form that you can open and print out. Have them follow the instructions and identify their top 5 abilities that they love to use and have a conversation with them about possible places to put those skills into use.
Again, don't simply pigeon hole people into ministries that already exist in your building. Think outside of the box like whether their skills and abilities might be helpful in one of your local ministry partners. For example, we work with a college ministry that often needs food provided, or needs people who are willing to house college students. We also work with a ministry that helps adoptive and foster families with getting resources and need people to sort or gather things from their warehouse to be taken to families who have taken in a new child. Sometimes it might mean recognizing that their skill set can be used in a new ministry that has not been developed yet and you can ask them to help you get it started.
LOGISTICS OF SERVING IN THE EXPLORATION PHASE
You may have noticed in the serving funnel graphic that each stage has a few phrases below it. These phrases are the practical ways we go about experiencing this stage. In the exploration stage it looks like:
- Someone ahead does. I watch. We talk.
- Someone ahead does. I help. We talk.
As leaders we are responsible for connecting those who begin serving with someone who is further along in the serving process. The reason for this is that the learning process often starts with getting information through OBSERVATION as well as learning through IMITATION. I believe I first came across the triangle of learning from Mike Breen but I'm not sure. The triangle of learning looks like this with some of my own modifications...
OBSERVATION (Someone ahead does. I watch. We talk.)
When people first start serving they need to get an idea of what that looks like from someone who is already doing it and doing it well. They watch, listen, and observe the person serving. Then they need to sit down together and talk. We debrief and ask them what they saw and what questions they had.
IMITATION (Someone ahead does. I help. We talk.)
Then after they have observed for a period of time, the next step is to involve them. They will naturally imitate what they have seen you do, but it will probably be uncomfortable and possibly incomplete. They might miss a couple steps. Again, after each time they help you need to have a time to debrief and talk together. Tell them what they did well. Ask them what they struggled with. Offer input on how they might be able to do it a little smoother the next time.
So here's a recap. Exploration is about starting with helping someone identify their natural abilities and talents. We then seek to help them find a place to serve. We remind them that this is a process and it is only the starting point. They will learn more about what they're good at and what they're not called to through this process. They need someone to watch and to have conversations about after observing them serving. They need to have someone to imitate and an opportunity to put into action what they saw. Then they need a time to debrief and ask questions as well as receive feedback on how to grow in the future.
In our next post we will explore the recognition phase of growing as a servant.