Social Momentum
As we think about incarnational mission, we need to think about how we engage people and our networks of relationships. Social Momentum is a tool that we developed to help disciple-making leaders think about the timeline on which they help relationships progress.
There’s nothing overtly spiritual about this tool. It’s really just designed to be a more practical help for leaders as they track the different relationships they have and how people are moving towards Jesus. It is however informed by this idea that for the most part, people don’t just meet us and immediately come to know Jesus.
While that happens occasionally, most people are on a long journey. Most people are taking steps toward Jesus through a myriad of spiritual conversations in the mundane of the everyday. If we’re not paying attention, however, we can miss helping someone move forward in their knowledge of Jesus. Or if we’re not paying attention, we might move too aggressively in spiritual conversations with people.
Sometimes we need to help people meet Jesus in a crisis moment. Other times, we need to let relationships simmer and build a certain amount of relational capital with people before we can take the next step toward Jesus.
The Social Momentum tool is designed to help individual leaders discern where a relationship exists and think through intentional steps to help it progress at a natural pace. On one side of the sheet, you have some space to add the names of individuals or families and some basic information about them.
If you’re new to an area, this is especially helpful and practical as a way to get to know names and basic details about people. Are they single? Are they married? Do they have kids? Do they not have kids? Did they mention what they do for a living? Did they mention a hobby or did you meet them during some form of recreation?
Take some time to list notes that can help you remember some important details for the next time you see them, things you can have a conversation about so people know that you care about them and know that you’re listening.
On the other side of the sheet you’ll see some categories that range from things like an acquaintance, or “we just met”, down to formal discipleship.
If you’re already in some relationships, in a neighborhood or network, go ahead and write down the names of people that you know and where you see them on that spectrum. Are you having meaningful conversations yet? Have these people been to a party at your home? Have you cracked open some spiritual conversations with them?
Are there people in your relational world that you’re already discipling? You can move them around on this grid. As we develop extended spiritual families, we do want to move people toward formal discipleship, helping people become more and more like Jesus in their character and their calling.
Our intentionality can be directed in two ways. The first way is how we pray for people in our relational world. The social momentum tool can be a prayer guide for you each week. Who are the people and families you have listed? How are you praying for them specifically? What do you see their next steps might be? Ask Jesus, “What are the next steps you see for these people? Where are you at work in their life? How can I join you there Jesus?”
The second way we can be intentional is how we plan out our weeks. When you’re sitting down on Sunday and looking through your week and how you’re going to schedule your time, you might realize you have three or four families whom you’ve had meaningful conversations with lately. Maybe it’s time to throw a party and invite them over. You might decide to send a text message and get that relational time on the calendar.
Maybe you’ve got two friends who are a regular part of your community and it’s time to invite them into formal discipleship. You can start a text conversation just to set up a coffee, to start that conversation with them. Again, this is just a practical tool. We can see how people in our relational world are moving closer to Jesus.
This tool also keeps us practical and balanced, recognizing where people are, how long it took them to get there, and how to pray for movement.
One caution we would like to offer with this tool is this: Our friends, coworkers, family, and neighbors, they’re not projects. They’re not data to be moved forward within a program. They are people. Their lives and stories have been informed by many moments and decisions. Pay attention Pg 2 of 2
to your spirit. If you’re having any anxiety about people moving forward or a lack of movement in their life, just start with prayer and check your own spirit.
When you’ve had an encounter with Jesus, you want to tell people, that’s a natural overflow of life in and with Him. However, our desire to introduce people to Jesus should never motivate us to look beyond the individual person and process them through a system uninformed by love. Again, this is a tool designed to help you be intentional in your relationships. Use it for that purpose. Let it guide the way you pray for your neighbors and let it guide the way you plan how to engage in relationships.
SOCIAL MOMENTUM WORKSHEET
Instructions
As you lead the people in your life with the *B.L.E.S.S. rhythms, take some time to identify where your friends are in the chart below.
Write their name under the phase.
How can you lead that person to the next phase in the Social Momentum process? *B.L.E.S.S: Begin in Prayer, Listen, Eat, Serve, Story