On a scale from 1 to 10 how well does your ward know each other? (1 = just met, 10 = BEST FRIENDS FOREVER!!!)
This past Sunday during our 5th Sunday lesson (during the priesthood and relief society hour) we had a short activity that was quite telling. We allowed everyone to settle into their chairs where ever they wished. Many sat by friends or spouses others simply found an available seat. During the lesson I randomly seated everyone into groups of four. I then had each person rate on a scale from 1-10 how well they knew the other three people in their group. I then asked the group to add up and find the average rating between the four of them. We then wrote down each average on the board and then took the average of the entire room.
My ward is generally friendly so I anticipated the average to be 5 or 6. I was shocked when the average came out as 2.5. We then discussed ways to improve that average.
Imagine if the fellowship average was a strong 8 or 9. Think of what a new member of the ward would experience as they walked into the chapel for the first time? They would never want to leave or they would for sure look forward to attending the following week.
Is a 9 or 10 possible? I think so. If not, it is worth trying for.
I challenge you to put your Elder’s Quorum or Relief Society through this experiment. Post your findings below. If you are above 7 I want to visit your ward and see what you are doing.
When I was Relief Society President, I reorganized the visiting teaching routes and was shocked at the reactions from the sisters. They didn't want to visit teach someone else. They had been visiting certain sisters for 40 years, and they didn't want to have new sisters. The Bishop had to come into Relief Society and give them what for — and it still didn't settle down. It took a full year before people finally began to understand there was a purpose to my madness. One sister came up to me and said, "I don't even know who this person is!" I grabbed her arm, walked her to the other side of the room, introduced her to the sister I'd put on her list, and said, "You two have been sitting in this room for FIVE YEARS. It's time you got to know one another."
My recent post Mystery Morning
The 'Cool Kids' are 9 and 10 – those in the periphery are 1-2 – The biggest problems are those outside the larger social circles. People who are not naturally gifted in the 'friendship' area. Many, many people are scared to approach and talk to people, they are nervous, and are petrified to reach out. However, I'd say nearly all of them can be reached out TO….
The Cool Kids need to stop congregating with the Cool Kids, (we need to leave High School behind) and start inviting non-cool kids into their homes, include everyone in the cool kids table.
I remember going to a movie one night with my wife, we showed up and there were at least 15 couples from our ward there… It was a bit awkward, obviously we didn't get the invite, but after talking a bit, found out that this was pretty common. How, again, do the cool kids get those invites?