3 Helpful Tips for Doing Contact Work
As you heard on the podcast this week, my first years in youth ministry were spent serving as a Young Life staff person. Within Young Life, when they go to a school to connect with students, they call that contact work. And it is absolutely one of the most consistently frightening experiences of any Young Lifer or Youth Pastor. And yet, it is one of the most essential exercises if you wish to turn your local school into a fruitful mission field.
Here are 3 tips I would offer from my experiences as you get ready to do contact work:
1. Pray, Pray and Pray
I can remember sitting in my car for 20 minutes one day dreading to go into the school. It can be really awkward to walk in there and have kids ask you, “Why are you here?” and “Don’t you have anything better to do?” So, I just started praying to God, and then I started praying for every student or teacher I saw. I eventually got the courage up to go into the school, and every day after that I made sure that I didn’t just rush in. And I made sure that I didn’t skip a day, but I made sure to get into that parking lot, and if nothing else start praying for the students that I saw. For their lives, for their salvation, for their faith, for there parents and on and on.
Never ever under rate the power of prayer in your ministry. It will never be cliche, and will always be needed, especially in the discomfort of turning your local school into a mission field.
2. Take a Notebook and Pen
This isn’t to write down everything a kid is saying to you, and really works better at a football game than in the lunch room - that can be awkward looking even to the people who like you. But after you have had a conversation with a student, write down their names, and then quirks about them to help you remember them.
A note could look like this:
David - nachos - loves halo - football - camo shoes
Jenny - no food - big hoop ear rings - band - sponge bob hoodie
It is really important for you to try and remember students you have met and to especially remember their names. It will blow them away, and open more doors than you realize. It is also good practice to use their name in the first conversation you have with them as often as possible, with out being a weirdo (which they all already think anyways, haha)
3. Be the Stinking Pastor
If you haven’t realized it already, the temptation to revert to a high schooler and focus on being the center of attention and popular is extremely high - especially when you are surrounded by a lunch room of high school students and are feeling vulnerable. But you need to remain consistent in your maturity and as a pastor. I am not saying to be the ever loving kill joy. But making sure you go and introduce yourself to any of the teachers “standing guard” in the lunch room is good. Dressing like an adult is important so the teachers can tell the difference between you and the students - it will surprise you how many times they can make that mistake.
But this is mostly revealed in your conversation. How you speak, what you joke about, or even how you jump in on picking on a student - all of these things are dangerous areas, and you need to let the love of Christ speak through you loudly. And I don’t mean preaching. I mean kindness. We all remember High School, the land of the eternal drought of a kind word - don’t be part of the problem, be a fresh breath of air and be the pastor to the students you encounter.
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Younglife… HOLLAR! I have been in student ministry for 13 years and everytime I have gone looking for kids I find Younglife. I got to lead an area wyldlife and participate in younglife camps for a two year run while serving as a youth pastor as well in San Antonio, Texas. Coming to a mega church Younglife galvanized a layer in me with contact work that has become the backbone of flamingo road student ministry. Relationships, relationships, relationships! Can’t say it enough!
Captain Contact Work… Out!