I need help. Lately, I’ve been waking up earlier in the morning than I want to because so many ideas are spinning around in my head like a Ferris wheel. I feel like a carnival worker with a cigarette hanging out of the corner of my mouth trying to manage it all.

While my You Were Made for This podcast is on hiatus I’ve had time to think about what I could do to make the podcast better. So many ideas are circling around in my head. Maybe even try something different than a podcast.

I need help in helping others

I started You Were Made for This in November 2018 for the purpose of helping people of faith find more joy in their relationships. This focus arose out of the pastoral care work Janet and I do with missionaries.  Over and over again we continue to see the biggest challenge missionaries face is in the area of relationships.  For example, relationships with: 

    • Sending agencies
    • Co-workers
    • Supporting churches 
    • Their families 
    • Individual supporters
    • Their past and how they were raised
    • Friends
    • Their own identity
    • The people they minister to
I need help building upon what I’ve already done

Over spent the past 20 years or so I have been thinking about these relationship issues, and creating training materials to help missionaries and other people of faith find more joy in them. I’ve taught workshops on five continents to help missionaries learn to better care for each other, and to find joy in the relationships they have with each other.

But this topic of relationships – interpersonal relationships, is so broad, with many different topics or issues related to it. They’re the chairs on the Ferris wheel waking me up at 4 am.

I love what I’ve been doing, but I’m feeling the need to narrow our focus and center our efforts on one of the many ideas that would be the most helpful to the people we serve.  

This is where I could use your help. I’m asking for your feedback on what specific areas in the broad area of interpersonal relationships that you would find most beneficial for me to address.  You can leave your thoughts in the comment box at the bottom of this post. Or you can email them to me at john@caringforothers.org.

I need help focusing on what’s best

For example, here are some relationship topics that I wonder if people would find helpful to be addressed:

    • How to handle conflict effectively
    • Church and ministry relationships
    • Loneliness
    • Becoming a better listener
    • Parenting
    • Handling dysfunctional relationships biblically
    • Caring for aging parents
    • Relational Intelligence 
    • Working under leaders who shouldn’t be leading
    • Making friends
    • Group relationships
    • Taking shallow relationships to a deeper level
I need help in knowing what people would prefer

Regardless of the topic most beneficial to focus on, there are different methods of delivering the content about that topic.

Should I continue with the podcast?  Maybe switch to a blog format as I’ve been doing during the off-season of the podcast?  I wonder.

Another possibility that intrigues me is starting an online mastermind group. I facilitated such a group for pastors for 4 years. We called it our “Upper Room Group.” We also had mastermind sessions as part of our personal growth conferences for missionaries that we did for several years.  

The format of these in-person mastermind meetings involves members of the group selecting one topic for discussion for that particular meeting. The topic selected is voted upon from a list of topics submitted by group members before the meeting. As the facilitator, I make sure we stay on one topic, discussing and listening well to each other. This kind of group and meeting can easily been done online.

Finally, I wonder if there would be any interest in an online book club. I would facilitate a discussion about the book in ways that relate whatever book is discussed to the daily life of the book club members.

Whatever method is used, the intent would be to develop a community of like-minded people around a shared interest. I can envision where this might appeal to missionaries serving in parts of the world who feel relationally isolated.

What About You?

Is your mind ever like a ferris wheel with so many ideas waking you at 4am?  It helps to get those ideas out of your head by speaking about them out in the open as I’ve done here.

I hope you help me out by responding to the possibilities I’ve described. I really would like to know more specifically what you think the greatest needs are.

Other Relationship Resources

Last week’s blog post,  “Remembering: The Great Antidote to Pride, Fear, and Anxiety”

Episode 052 of You Were Made for This, “Six Examples of Listeners Using This Podcast Content”

THEM -The Richer Life Found in Caring for Others

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