Street to Street by Fred Lynch

A monthly message from Fred Lynch.

Street to Street by Fred Lynch

Checking the Pulse of your Network

November 2005

So, you've collected all of the names and numbers of the youth workers in your area, both volunteer and full timers - you've planned meeting times and had people come to your networking event. You've served the donuts and coffee (or just brown bagged it) and they came! So what's next? It seems like the ball is beginning to roll but how can you gain the true momentum to keep your network strong and growing? Although networking your youth ministry community seems like a never ending complex animal to corral, the heartfelt motivation for community networks is very simple and universal. First, people come together because they need to know that there is someone out there who shares their passion. I wish I had time to elaborate on this point, but it's not the central theme of this month's article. However, I would like to throw out a resource for you to check out on the subject of passion. This is one of the best books that I've read on passion, and I'd like to pass it to you. The name of the book is Practicing Passion. It's written by Kenda Creasy Dean and you can get it for about $14.00. Go and google it, and I'm sure it'll be a well spent $14. Second people see value in networking simply because they desire to advance a cause. I call this the 'move somethin' principle. I remember leading a network meeting one day at a very popular urban youth conference, and I got to that point where I exhausted all of my nice words and eloquent vernacular (you know...those ghetto moments) as I was trying to 'sell' folks on the value of networking and I finally just said, "Look...I want to get together because I want to move something! I'm tired of seeing my kids fall off by the droves as I am expected to play church. I want to put together a city-wide team that just wont let kids fall through the cracks; a team that will storm city hall and demand change; a team that will pray, stay, fight, love and cry as one...I just want to 'move something'. Some of the people looked at me like I was talking about a Luke Skywalker song, but I do believe the point came across.

Well, how can we pull together a team of people who are passionate about making moves on the behalf of the Kingdom? A very useful ministry tool has been designed and I'd like to share it with you. It's called 'Check your Pulse' and it can be found on the www.everyschool.com site. This site was originally designed to help ministries adopt schools in their community and help equip students to become campus missionaries. By the way, if your youth ministry hasn't yet adopted any schools in your area, here's your chance to 'move something'. The pulse (which stands for: Pray-Unite-Lead-Share-Equip) walks through questions and statements that you can answer to help you and your network determine where you are and what you can do to improve your network. Here's the bottom line: as people come together to make a difference we must offer them opportunities to step up and step out on God's Word, work together and see life change. Checking the pulse of your network might just be the tool that helps bring a new breath of life to your community. Go check it out.

Freddie Freebie: If you'd like to download a copy of the pulse please click this link: GET PULSE or just go to my website @ www.godstyle.com and visit the download page for many other goodies.

Sharing the gospel from 'Street to Street',

Fred Lynch III
GodStyle Productions

Fred Lynch is the founder of GodStyle Productions, a ministry committed to changing youth culture. For more information on Fred, visit his website or check out his latest project, The Epic (the gospel of John translated into rap).

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