From Nice to Needed

This year we are excited to celebrate the larger community of Capernaum on our socials and blog!

Our global community
Our local community
Our volunteer community
Our student community
Our family community 
Our staff community

It is all ONE community.  We are interconnected through a shared mission of introducing adolescents with disabilities to Jesus Christ and helping them grow in their faith.  And a shared vision of creating spaces of belonging in all these spaces around the world.  Join us this year as we share photos, videos, and stories of our #OneCommunity!

This month we hear from Andy Davenport, Capernaum Initiatives Coordinator, as he shares his thoughts on belonging and community.

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Why is it that when many people see someone with a disability serving or working, they believe it’s a nice thing? (pictured - Capernaum serving at a YL camp)

Nice they have something to do.

Nice of the person who let them be a part of it.

Nice gesture of inclusion.

It just feels nice. But if the old saying is true, that nice guys finish last, what does this say about the word “nice”?

“It’s nice to see you again.”

“I hope you had a nice time.”

“That’s nice of you to help out.”

“We had a nice dinner.”

Nice is harmless, polite, kind, friendly, and noncommittal. The word nice can be a way of saying, “You did all you could do.” 

I struggle with the word “nice”.

Nice limits growth, extends bias, and serves as a barrier to belonging. Nice breeds mediocrity and a good-enough mentality.

For too long, we have labeled any involvement of someone with a disability as a nice thing. It comes from the purest of hearts and with great intentions. We are celebrating opportunities extended and inclusion of all people. But what if “nice” is the glass ceiling between people with disabilities being present and being needed? 

It’s time we move from nice to needed.

Needed assumes ability.

Needed shows value.

Needed serves as an invitation.

Needed includes others.

Needed raises expectations.

“We need help!”

“I need your prayers.”

“We need someone to step up!”

Need changes the game.

Young Life kids all over the world graduate with a deep love for Jesus and a heart for ministry. Seeing their gifts, and knowing our need for more committed leaders and staff, we begin training, discipling, and launching them into a lifetime of Kingdom impact. We build on their existing leadership skills and create opportunities. We have needs they can meet.

We need leaders to invest in the next generation.

We need a team leader to launch a new ministry across town.

We need this person to consider applying for staff in our region.

We see giftedness, create opportunity, and invite them into community.

We need everyone’s gifts.

We need Jack.

Jack Kahler (pictured back right corner in red) graduated with a deep love for Jesus and a heart to serve. Yet unlike me and many other young adults his age, he had not been given the same opportunities to learn and grow in leadership skills. He was never a team captain, class officer, committee chair, or team leader. My guess is no one even considered he could do these things because Jack is on the autism spectrum. Having someone like Jack on your team has been considered nice, but not needed.

His Young Life leader, Maison, had the same needs so many of us have to run and grow healthy ministry, introduce teenagers to Jesus, and help them grow in their faith. She saw Jack as more than nice. She saw him as needed. She saw his giftedness and extended opportunity for him to enter the onramp to leadership and he took off!

Jack spent a year learning and growing in leadership through the YL Leadership Experience. He grew in his understanding of what it meant to be a humble, brave, and honest servant leader. He expanded his understanding of self-awareness and how to be a team player. He understood what it looked like to be valued by God, so he could value himself and others in the same way. 

The following year Jack was invited to serve as a Mission Specialist and Coach in the YL Leadership Experience (pictured on left). He walked alongside a young man with a disability and coached him through the same Leadership Experience program he graduated from the year before. Jack helped this young man memorize the same nine Bible verses he memorized, met with him each month guiding him through the leadership curriculum, and he served as an assistant Trainer teaching the class on the 8 Leadership Traits. 

Jack is steady and firm in his faith. He is the first on his team to remind them to pray.

He speaks the truth of who God is and how he sees us. 

God has gifted Jack with wisdom. When he speaks, people listen. He models humility, adaptability, and takes the posture of a learner.

When you build an onramp to leadership, you create spaces of community and opportunities for growth which shows we are all needed.

We all need space to fail.

We all need tools to learn and grow.

We all need to know it’s ok to ask for help.

We all need an invitation to leadership.

We all need people to raise expectations.

We all need an intentional onramp to leadership.

We all need someone to extend opportunity.

We all need others to assume ability.

It’s time we move from nice to needed.

- Andy Davenport

Capernaum Initiatives Coordinator, Leadership Experience

*Shared with Jack's approval and permission