Whether you’re a Children’s Minister, Volunteer, or Camp Staffer, you’re investing time, energy, and your life to make Christ known.
Camp is all about investing. Although I love to invest in kids and adults who come to camp, the past few summers has offered me another opportunity to invest…in our Camp Staff. At CentriKid we have Family Groups. We split staff members up into small groups of the same gender and appoint one staffer as the Family Group Leader. The leader then leads the group with the material that we provided. These groups provide an opportunity for accountability and personal spiritual growth during the summer so that staffers can pour out even more when it comes to the kids.
Here are some tips that I have gathered over the years to help myself to be intentional in investing, especially in a group setting.
- Spend time with each group member individually. Just because you spend time with your group members as a group doesn’t mean that you know exactly what is going on in their lives. They may want to talk with you about things that they don’t feel comfortable talking about in a group. Take the time to invest in them on a one-on-one basis. Take them out to lunch, meet them for coffee, or have them over for dinner.
- Remember what they shared about and ask them about progress. This may require you to take notes, but when you recall something that someone said in a group setting, it really shows them you care. Listening more intently then becomes second nature.
- Share things that are hard for you to share. This one seems like a no-brainer, but real community happens when a group is unified and real unity happens when trust is established.
- Love them. I don’t know that this needs much explanation. Send notes. Give hugs. Say nice things about them. It helps 🙂
I’ve heard it said that you get out what you put into something, and I fully believe that’s true. Go out and find someone to invest in. It’s definitely worth the time and energy. You may be speaking into someone’s life and never really know the significance of what you are doing. It will mean more to them than they can explain.