Shares Well with Others
Are you comfortable with other leaders spending time creating something that you have already done? – Brian Barela
Many of you can recount a similar experience:
Last fall I was teaching a one hour training session on the role of the Holy Spirit. This is content that has probably been shared literally thousands of times by Cru staff. But a search on the Cru Wiki turned up 3,000 results with nothing helpful. So I spent 4 hours prepping a lesson that sits on hundreds of staff’s hard drives across the country. Really frustrating.
I know many of us wish there was more resource sharing in Cru.
For a while I put the blame on Cru (whoever Cru is): “If only we had better systems for sharing!”
But as I’ve thought about it over the last couple years I have realized that the bottleneck in Cru is that we don’t have enough producers.
We are all consumers wishing more people would share good resources with us.
We need more sharers.
Our Cru movement at the University of Arkansas has been the recipient of incredible sharing.
Nothing we do on our campus is original. Our ministry has seen tremendous growth in the past few years as a result of importing (and adapting to our setting) the best practices of campuses across the U.S.
In the past few years we’ve implemented ideas from Cru movements at:
University of Arizona - Chico State - Ohio University - Penn State - NC State - Portland Metro - Ontario, Canada - University of Oklahoma - Texas Tech - Montana State - University of Florida - St. Louis Metro - Cal Poly SLO - Miami, Ohio - Michigan State – Northwestern
But until recently it has been a one-way street – receiving great ideas but not reciprocating.
For me it came down to cost/benefit in regard to time. I didn’t do much about idea sharing because I wasn’t sure the time invested would be worth the pay off: if I start blogging, not many people would see it or be helped by it (i.e - it will take me 4 hours to write a post and 4 people will read it).”
But here’s what convinced me (among other things):
In the excellent post “Tithing your Time Online” CCC Canada staff, Russ Martin, states:
“By spending five minutes to upload the presentation from your last small group leader training you could save someone hours.”
There’s probably someone who knows a lot more about reaching students than you.
There’s probably someone who could really benefit from what you know about reaching students.”
Like all good investments, a minimal investment can have multiplying effects. It costs me some time on the front end but I can save literally hundreds of hours for a multitude of staff to get on campus and spend time with students (instead of re-writing a talk someone has already given)
Let’s create a culture of sharing. Think of it as an investment in Movements Everywhere. We need, what Keith Seabourn dubbbed, an “ecosystem of innovative movement-building.” And that ecosystem is built by you and I being willing to take a little extra time to share.
I truly believe that we can reach thousands more college students in 2012 as we
Free up staff to not reinvent the wheel
Share best practices and resources to more effectively reach students for Christ.
So let’s start with this:
- Share your Twitter username in the comments (to start creating a network of Cru staff on Twitter)
- And if you’d like, share in the comments:
What keeps us from sharing more resources/ideas in Cru?
What steps can we take to do better in this area?
Listed below are a few concrete steps to better idea sharing using existing platforms:
(in order or difficulty from very little time investment to higher time commitment)
1) Join Twitter and start following as many staff as possible
I think, just by using Twitter, we can create a vibrant culture of sharing what we’re currently working on, what seems to be working on our campus
Recent example:
Back in early fall, prolific Tweeter DJ Jenkins tweeted that they’d seen great success with a Reason for God study for atheists. In December one of my staff mentioned that they wanted to do a study for skeptics and I immediately connected him with DJ to see what had worked at Arizona.
Leave your Twitter username in the comments so I (and everyone else) can follow you!
Here’s a short list of helpful Cru staff Twitter accounts to follow to get you started
- @TimCasteel
- @brianbarela
- @matt_mccomas
- @destinoeric
- @BVirtue
- @DJjenkins
- @pablonunez
- @stephnannen
- @jameswood1218
- @mattwill22
- @ryansather
- @BobFuhs
- @milldub
- @ChristieLSmith1
- @JeffdNorris
- @airpez
- @DRobb_Robbins
- @Ali_Enos
- @darrenaholland
- @rasoolberry
- @edienst
2) Set up a Dropbox account
- Have a dating talk you’d like to share?
- Drag it over to your Dropbox folder. Right Click “Copy Public link”
- Share that link on Twitter so everyone can use it.
- It’s that easy.
3) Start commenting on college ministry blogs
- Step 1: Start reading good college ministry blogs
Some good college ministry blogs to start reading:
InConversation – an aggregate of a bunch of Cru blogs
- Step 2: Join the discussion. Leave a comment as often as you can so others can learn from you and hear your input.
4) Start a blog and share what you are learning and resources you are using in ministry
photo courtesy of Konabish
Blog Comments
Tim! Incredibly well said!!! YOU have actually amazed me at how open you are with resources! Thank you for getting this conversation going! I have had to really think about this and concluded that no idea is actually MINE anyway - they all come from the Lord and if I share them, even more people can be influenced! My problem/sin lies in wanting credit and I’ve had to confess that and hold with an OPEN HAND anything the Lord graciously gave me in the 1st place!
It’s fun to share, right?!
One more concrete step for sharing resources: contact us here at CruPress and we’ll try to get your article/talk/bible study posted on CPG.
Oh, and follow us on Twitter @CruPressGreen.
Well said. Throwing my Twitter hat in the ring: @jweimer25
@trgoodwin wants in as well.
Here’s a great spot to share ideas on our site: http://bit.ly/AzCdGJ
I’ve got a public twitter list with 225 people on staff with Cru available at http://twitter.com/#!/destinoeric/lists/cru
It doesn’t have everyone who is on staff but it would be a good place to start if you are looking to follow more Cru staff. You can either follow people individually on it or you can even just follow the whole list.
(I also have specific lists for Destino and Epic at http://twitter.com/#!/destinoeric/epic and http://twitter.com/#!/destinoeric/destino )
Did you guys know that you could do all of what you’re talking about above in one place? You can:
- upload all your resources yourself
- comment on any resource
- rate resources
- share them on facebook, through email
- search by rating, keywords
- keep all your resources in one place so your students can easily find them
You can do all that on AllCallings.com
Here’s a little tour video for how you can use it on campus now. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7kAOnY3gu5E
Wow, Greg. All Callings has really evolved. I had no idea how much it has changed. Very cool. Thanks for the heads up.
Thanks Millie! Great thoughts. Definitely a struggle - we all want glory for ourselves and I’d say there’s even a bit of competitiveness that creeps in- not wanting to share (especially with other ministries) in order to keep a “competitive advantage” (which is rather ridiculous in the kingdom of God).
Thanks Eric for that list - that’s very helpful.
Thanks Greg - I too was unaware that AllCallings could do that.
That’s https://www.allcallings.com/ for those (like me) too lazy to copy and paste
Great post Tim. We’ve been preaching this message for a number of years now….but even now I find myself in a season where the margins are pretty thin and haven’t done a great job sharing. Thanks for the reminder and for picking up the slack.
Can’t tell you how much of my development in the last couple of years has come from guys like you, Brian, Russ, etc. via links, articles or blogs.
Fostering a culture or mindset of “someone might benefit from knowing about what we’re doing”, is critical to seeing new ideas, new partnerships and innovation come to fruition (especially across regional boundaries in the campus ministry)
Great post, Tim! I have used several things from your blog in staff meetings etc. You do a very good job of this!
A few things that keep me from sharing:
1. Time- not believing its “work” or a good use of time. I know this is not true, but I believe it more often than not.
2. Knowing what I’m sharing I got from someone else/something else, but don’t know where/who and I don’t want it to seem as though I’m taking the credit for something I didn’t in fact come up with myself! I often take a little from this and a little from that.
3. Not having the confidence if I did come up with something that others would find it helpful. Again, just being honest. Staff are typically very critique oriented (aka judgmental…..myself included).
Again, I like that you are getting us thinking about this.
Thanks Ali! And thanks for taking the time to process your thoughts out loud.
I definitely feel all three of your things that keep you from sharing. Those three are exactly why I never blogged before this year (mostly #1).
I’ve overcome the #2 hindrance by just prefacing whatever I share with something like, “I didn’t come up with this and I can’t actually remember who we got it from - maybe Texas Tech?”.
My favorite blogger is Matt Perman at http://www.whatsbestnext.com/
He’s encouragement to me in this area because he rarely shares his own, original thots. Mostly just shares what he’s reading and MAYBE adds a few of his thots on it.
And on #3 - I’ve been very surprised by help helpful stuff is to others. Not because it’s original or brilliant. Just because it creates discussion and makes someone else’s job easier. Even if it’s a simple skeletal devotional - I would way rather start with your outline and add a few thots than craft something from scratch. I always love seeing what campuses are doing. I may not agree with everything but it always helps to refine what we’re doing.
Sharing helps spark new thoughts and challenge old assumptions.
Thanks Matt - yeah I remember first thinking thru Sharing in the summer of 2010 as I read stuff from you, Brian Barela, Russ Martin and Ken Cochrum. Definitely motivated me to start sharing.
I figured it was time to keep the (sharing) ball moving forward and keep finding ways to do better as an org.
@jrheimbigner I am new staff in the GNW Regional Office. I interned last year and we are constantly borrowing from other regions for information operationally. This is exactly what we need to do.
Great post! It’s really encouraging to read this discussion. I’m excited about jumping into sharing (and, let’s be honest, reaping the benefits!
). So, even though I’m late to this party, like everything else (blogs, twitter, etc.) I want in! @nanoinnyc
Brothers and Sisters—
I’m not on staff, but have been involved with Cru in various ways for nearly 25 years, currently as a member (and immediate past ‘president’) of the UT Austin Christian Faculty Network (Faculty Commons). As part of my ministry efforts, I started a blog about a year and a half ago geared largely towards Christians in academia, that discusses issues in education, devotionals, apologetics, struggles for faculty, anecdotes about students, etc. Please feel free to use it as a resource, preferably citing it as a source, but I’m not going to come chase you down if you don’t.
I would also appreciate it if you shared its existence with any faculty you know/work with.
It is called “The Scholar Redeemer” and is at http://scholar-redeemer.blogspot.com
In Christ,
Robb
PS I’m also beginning to search for additional regular and special contributors, if anyone has the occasional writing bug. Contact me at the blog.
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