More than listening

At CCF the way things have happened have led to our staff dropping from 5 to 3 and is about to hit 2. hopefully not for too long.(if you know a girl who wants to intern at a great campus ministry with the coolest boss ever let me know). With this drop in staff and drop in financial support to continue to hire more and more staff compounded with a campus ministry that continues to grow we began to reach some stress levels that I never knew were possible. Honestly we began to try to figure out what we could cut and made some necessary and freeing cuts from our activities (e.g: intramurals, mission trips). At the same time we had some wild ideas that we wanted to pursue and could not hold back on so we decided to do the obvious based on advice from my good buddy matt.  Just ask people for help. We created a  sign up called “I’m in” with a list of every need our ministry has in the day-to-day. But not only did we create this list but students actually began to sign up. One of the greatest areas of help has been the “office masters” who do just about whatever is needed from putting checks in, to emails to cleaning my desk (thanks ‘T”) under the leadership of super intern Nathan Uy. As I have been going through bible in a year I came to see that not only is this logical but its biblical. Moses who is seen as such a great leader early on in the bible begins to be overwhelmed when Jethro brings some timeless advice in Exodus 18

Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.  Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. ²⁰ Teach them the decrees and laws, and show them the way to live and the duties they are to perform. ²¹ But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. ²² Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. ²³ If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.”

How cool is that? Here at CCF we have begun to cling tight to this philosophy of finding capable people who are trustworthy to serve in our ministry in ways we have never asked before. Not only is it biblical but everyone wins in this style of leadership. As a leader my load is drastically lessened and the CCFers take on a greater responsibility and ownership of their campus ministry. Thanks to all you CCFers who serve in so many ways.