In the Gospel of Mark’s version of the Feeding of the 5000, before Jesus blesses the loaves and fishes, he invites the vast crowd to sit down in smaller groups (Mark 6:39-40). Why the interim step? There are thousands to feed. Why bother with small groups?
This is just one example of Jesus’ intention to get people to see one another, to know and be known to one another. It isn’t about “getting on with the work” so much as it is about helping human beings, isolated by neediness, to understand the power and promise of community.
As we begin the fall season, we want to make a few modest suggestions to help with the “know and be known” part of your own ministry leadership, both on your church board and in your larger faith community. Let’s begin by improving the art of introduction.
We were in a meeting of 40 strangers not long ago, when the leader asked everyone to introduce themselves with their “walk up song” – the music that ball players and other performers might use to enter the spotlight. (Are your palms sweating already?) Did anyone listen to each other’s introductions? Not so much. We were all too busy trying to think up our own clever response.
What kind of introduction helps people know and be known?
Unfortunately, the “popcorn introduction” has also become popular. One person introduces themself and then chooses another person to introduce themself, and then they choose another person, and so on. What happens? Well, anyone who lived through being picked last for kickball in 4th grade gets to relive that experience while they wait for someone to choose them. And, as the introductions continue, those yet to be called upon start trying to figure out of who is left that they can call upon. Invariably, someone is missed. Again, are we really listening to the introductions? Not so much.
What kind of introduction helps people know and be known?
Answering this question well takes intentionality (thank you, Jesus) and sensitivity to the true goal of introductions. Which, frankly, is not cleverness.
One good way to introduce board members to one another (and not just new members, but the whole board) is to ask everyone to share everything they know about their baptism. But … what if you were baptized at four months and have no memory? Do you know where you were baptized? Who was present? Where were you living? Were your parent or parents regularly participating in a church? Everyone usually knows something about their baptism that can serve as an introduction to who they are.
Another form of introduction we have found helpful with church boards and other leadership groups uses organizational history in three simple steps.
- Sketch out a rough congregational timeline on butcher block paper, demarcated in decades from founding to the present day. You can add some details from the history, but you don’t need many.
- As people enter the room, invite them to sign in on the timeline for when they first got connected to the church. Let people decide what connected means to them.
- To start the meeting, invite folks to introduce themselves from the earliest sign-in forward, and to talk briefly about what was happening in their life when they first got connected to the church.
This exercise doesn’t need to take long to prepare or implement. It can be done very briefly, or you can extend the conversation it generates. Either way, it introduces church leaders to one another through the work that brought them there, and yet as whole human beings … and often with unexpected chronologies in the mix (don’t be surprised if the youngest people have the oldest roots – and vice versa).
What kind of introduction helps people know and be known?
Any meeting – all meetings – should start with that intentional question before “the work” begins.
In Mark 6:39-40, we are told that Jesus broke the hungry people into “companies” or smaller groups before distributing the loaves and fishes. What did that step make possible?
What is the purpose of introductions in a church meeting? What would be lost if you were not introduced to one another?
When was the last time you were in a meeting that began with introductions? Do you remember what you said? Do you remember what anyone else said? Thoughts on why or why not?
How will you ask your church board members to introduce themselves, the next time you meet?
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