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In the last chapter, we considered the power of creating your own personal search
timeline and developing a contact-tracking document. Let¶s turn our attention to building
a network of contacts that you¶ll be tracking.

But before we do, we want to first address that biggest ³yeah but´ that comes up almost
every time we talk about this kind of networking: ³Yeah, but I just don¶t know that many
people.´

Here¶s the good news: You don¶t have to know all the people on your contact list in order
for them to be extraordinarily helpful to you in your search. In fact, the people you don¶t
know so well can actually be „
 helpful to you than the people you do know. Here¶s
why:

Your friends tend to run in the same circles as you and know the same people you know.
When you¶re searching, it¶s your acquaintances²the friends of friends²who can
actually do you the most good.

Here are a few of our favorite places to fish for contacts:

‡ 
 


  „ 

. Make a list of everyone you know who is currently
in ministry or recently was in ministry (this can include senior pastors, youth pastors,
youth ministry volunteers, and more). Simply ask each of them to give you the names and
contact information of five more ministry contacts. Better yet, invite them to introduce
you to those five folks via email. You can ask for that information simply by saying,
³Who do you know--anywhere in the country--who is doing great youth ministry or great
ministry in general?´

‡   „  
  

 . Years ago, when our friend
Mary Price was looking for a youth ministry position in a particular town, I called the
denominational exec for that region, who just happened to know of a church that was
looking. Within weeks, Mary Price was hired. This step is crucial if you have particular
geographic limitations. If you don¶t, all the better. You can contact denominational or
association representatives all over the country.

‡     
. Most cities already have an established youth ministry
network. Start with the National Network of Youth Ministry (nnym.com). From there,
you can use Google to search for ³Youth Ministry Network´ and the cities you¶re
interested in. This step alone can put you in touch with hundreds of people who can
potentially put you in touch with thousands more.

Let us state the obvious: There are thousands of people looking for youth ministry
positions. If you work at intentionally building and working a contact list, you will easily
place yourself in the top 10 percent of all those searching. This will not only multiply
your chances of finding the youth ministry position you want, it will also give you
experience in some of the most important skills you¶ll need to thrive in the position you
actually do get. Skills like:

! ontinuing to pursue people you don¶t yet know

! Working a deliberate process to get you where you want to go
! Persisting in making contacts, even when most people don¶t call you back

Oh yeah. That last point bears repeating: Don¶t expect people to immediately call or
email you back after just one attempt. ontinue to reach out to them until they return
your call or email (or ask you not to contact them again).

If you take this process seriously, you¶ll want to spend time every week calling, emailing,
or Facebooking 40 different people a week, tracking the outcome of those contacts, and
setting an appropriate follow-up date for each one.

Here¶s how much we believe in the power of this process: If you will work this process
and make 40 contacts each week (20 of which are folks you have not yet contacted) and
you haven¶t been offered a position in six months, we¶ll refund the price of this book and
give you all 300 sessions of our Spice Rack curriculum (a $450 value) absolutely free.

What do you have to lose?