Reaching Out to Colleagues

Outside of your family, with whom do interact the most? You would probably answer that it is those at work that you see day in and day out. And yet it is often these very people that we least likely to interact with about spiritual matters. People at work have often seen us at our best - and our worst. Satan would love to convince us that since others around us know we are not perfect, we have blown our chance to minister to them.

I would suggest that it is at those points of weakness that we have our best opportunities to be real with people and talk about our need for a God who cares, listens and forgives. When we are vulnerable ourselves, others will be willing to listen to what we have found in the person of Jesus Christ.

One entire section of FacultyLinc is devoted to helping you reach out to colleagues. You can find all these tools by clicking the "Personal Ministry" button at the FacultyLinc site. (http://www.facultylinc.com) You must be registered on the site to access this area.

In the section on "Outreach to Faculty," you will find a variety of ideas on how you can corporately and individually interact with your colleagues. Some faculty groups have corporately sponsored distribution of Christian books to their colleagues (e.g. C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity). Others have effectively used small group interactions, tenure or grant-writing workshops along with other creative ideas.

Although organized events can be very helpful, one of the best ways to have an impact is in the day to day events of life. Ken Elzinga, a professor at the University of Virginia, shared a number of creative ways he has interacted with students and colleagues when he recently addressed the God and the Academy conference. The text of his talk was included in the last Real Issue publication and can be found on line at: http://leaderu.com/real/ri0009/elzinga.html.

Do you have a creative way that you have been able to minister to a colleague around you? We would love to hear about it. Please drop us an email and let us share some of your creativity with faculty around the country. Email me at: msorgius@clm.org.

Action Point: Go to http://www.facultylinc.com and check out the "Personal Ministry" section.

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