Post by: Hannah Lillemo
Working with a legal ministry shed some light on a few things for me. One, practicing law is hard, but not for the reason most expect. It’s the tedium and tiny details, day-to-day emotional drain that create the difficulty, not necessarily the strains of the particular task. It was interesting working with a ministry like Campus Crusade for Christ, Cru because they intentionally inserted community into the day.
For example, we started every morning at 9am with a group devotional time over Zoom. On top of that, weekly there was a GCO touchpoint meeting where everyone shared how their week was, updated the group on his or her family, and shared prayer requests. They knew each other well.
They also intentionally had an intern bible study and weekly or biweekly meetings to introduce us to their leading executives. There was no illusion of superiority. They wanted to create a family dynamic—one that prioritized excellence and viewed relationships as a dynamic aspect of that goal. For them, emotional and spiritual support was necessary for an effective community. As a result, the lawyers on their team were effective in their mission because they grasped why they were doing this task and coming to work that day. It illustrated to me how important it is to have people who encourage you to have a growing and living relationship with Christ and continually see the big picture when details so easily consume
So often ministries get bogged down in wanting to do good that they lose touch with how to maintain a good environment for their workers. Cru’s leadership style reminded me of the importance of the small—that like habits, it’s the seemingly insignificant efforts towards growth that define us over time. To be a ministry that wants to show love to thousands, you first must be a ministry that shows love to the lawyer in the cubicle over.
While we all know this as a concept, I greatly appreciated being a recipient of this intentionality and being reminded of its importance in a field that can let the head block out parts of the heart. The whole body works together, and without one part functioning properly, the body as a whole suffers.
This post was written by a Center for Global Justice Intern. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect those of Regent University, Regent Law School, or the Center for Global Justice.