(part 6 of a series on “Focus on the Right People” and multiplication)
How do students connect to your ministry? Â Usually it’s thru other students. Â And more than likely the majority come through a handful of Social Connectors.
Last year is when I first noticed this Connector Phenomenon . Â A hugely disproportionate number of our student women leaders got involved because of 2 students. Â Out of 17 student girls leading freshmen Bible studies this year, Â 11 of them came out of these two girls’ Bible studies! Â 65% of our new leaders came from 6% of our leadership.
Ben Arment (on his always intriguing blog) noticed this phenomenon at his church and came to this conclusion:
When we cast vision for inviting people to church, we may be assuming too much. What if we poured more resources into the hands of our connectors? What if we groomed them, encouraged them, and fueled their desire to invite people? [They bought Starbucks cards for them to use]
As for the others… what if we started with the fundamentals? What if we showed them how to build relationships? The result would be less guilt-trip and more empowering.
I still haven’t worked out what this means for how staff spend their time. Â Is it better to invest heavily in these few key connectors? Â Or to invest in raising up more like them?
Right now in our leadership core we are very heavy on introverts. Â Really bright, responsible, proactive, godly introverts. Â But we’re lacking outgoing “people gatherers”. Â Not that Social Connectors have to be extroverted (1 of the 2 girls mentioned above is introverted) – but it helps.
Have you found this Connector Phenomenon to be true? Â How can we resource/empower these Connectors? Â How can we raise up more Connectors?
What are the implications for ministry and how we invest our time in students?