Bowl & Spoon in the Studio Still Life by Craig McClurgWhere are you going to get your next meal? Okay, I’ll tell you right now, I’m not really talking about food. I figure that even though you’re a YWAMer, you’re not really starving. What I’m talking about is your next team. Where are you going to get your next team?

Right now, you’re probably saying something like, “Are you kidding me? I’m right in the middle of the busiest MA season ever! Why in the world are you posting photos of bowls and talking about more teams? Gosh!”

Okay, I’ll tell you why. Hosting teams, training them, taking them on outreach, people getting saved, all that—that’s the easy part. It’s getting teams to come that’s the hardest part for most of us.

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I read a lot of blogs. I read about geeky stuff like the Mac, the iPad, and the iPhone. Lately I’ve been reading a lot about nutrition, (really!). And I always read about design. Not long ago I came across a post on the excellent A List Apart by Mike Monteiro. This post is a chapter entitled “Getting Clients” from his book called Design Is a Job. I think you should go read it—but first I have to warn you. He’s not a believer and he uses the word “genitals” in the first paragraph. (See, I used it in the fourth paragraph—way more acceptable, right?!) This post is super-worthwhile though, here’s a favcorite quote:

All kidding aside, getting clients (youth groups) can be one of the most daunting challenges a designer (YWAMer) faces. After all, until you’ve actually secured a client (youth group), you can’t do the job.

You’ll notice that I substituted some words in the above quote. It turns out that most of the great stuff Monteiro writes applies to us YWAMers too—it just takes a little translation. So I encourage you to read the whole post with your YWAMese translator on. You’ll pick up all sorts of useful info including:

All our jobs come through referral.
The keys to getting good referrals are… (You’re gonna have to click through to get the goods!)
Be clear and enthusiastic about what you do.
Network.

The list goes on, and it really is uncanny how much of it applies to us. So get to clickin’ already and start looking out for where your next meal is going to come from, mmmkay?!

—Craig