[The following is a post I wrote for Youthworkers.net, it appeared here on Monday, January 22]

My three year old son is consistently drawing and coloring pictures for us to display on the fridge. Couple that with his growing ability to count and I believe he is about ready to take on the “connect the dot” exercises. C’mon, you remember those gems, don’t you?

As a much-older than 3 year-old, I still like connecting the dots. As a local Network Leader, I love connecting the dots with ministry leaders in our area. I do believe the Christian world can be better connected so we can see a complete picture of the gospel lived out in our picturesque world! We truly can be better together!

My own personal and ministry dots connected recently when one of my local Youth Leader Networks was invited to have our lunch at Adelphia Bible School. This was a brilliant move by the school and one that has already led to many ministry dots being connected.

My thought is that a silly little lunch will lead to many ministry dots connecting for a long time. Additionally, I bet our network is not the only one that could benefit from this sort of relationship–thus this blog post to get your juices flowing!

The following is just a sampling of the dots I have already seen connected:

• Adelphia students need and want to get out of the Christian College bubble (if you went to a Christian College, you know EXACTLY what I mean). Well at Adelphia, many of the students serve as interns or on the volunteer staff for the Youth Pastors/Ministries represented by our network.
• Youth Pastors are consistently asked about colleges and universities, having the Youth Pastors on their side is a wise move by the college.
• As I mentioned, this was a bonus ministry-dot connection for me personally, I am a consultant for the college and the school is doing their year-end mission trips through my organization, Youthmark. Well, because of this lunch, it looks likely that one of the local Youth Ministry interns is going to help lead one of these missions so that he can gain valuable experience to help propel his future career as a Youth Pastor.
• Adelphia plans to expand the ministry dots by inviting these local Youth Pastors to speak into the lives of their students through future seminars and trainings.

Bring it home:

• Is there a Christian College or University in your area that you could work out a relationship like this?
• Perhaps you represent a Christian College, what would it look like for you to reach out the local Youth Pastors and provide a great place for a meal (or coffee) and just see where the ministry dots may connect.
• Colleges are not the only avenues to explore, think of the ministry-dots you can connect with a camp, a community center or local coffee shop!