I just finished teaching a course about discipleship. I wanted to give the grad students simple practical experiences that would help them connect with people without preaching at people. So I gave them “tiny projects”: six small things to do, one per week. Each week, they completed the tiny project and then shared with the class.

Here are three of them.

+++

This tiny project asks you to listen to someone. It doesn’t have to be someone you don’t know. In fact, it’s probably better if it’s someone you do know. But you may not have asked them this question. Sometime this week, in the context of a conversation, ask them this question: “Tell me about your worst experience with church.”

Be prepared to simply listen. Don’t counsel, don’t defend, don’t scold, simply listen.And don’t run to tell your story, or someone else’s story.

Let them be heard.

For the discussion part of this assignment, answer this question: “When you asked, ‘tell me about your worst experience with church,’ what did you hear?”

+++

This tiny project asks you to serve someone. It doesn’t have to be someone you don’t know. In fact, it’s probably better if it’s someone you do know. Sometime this week, before Monday night, buy someone who loves coffee a cup of coffee. If they ask, tell them that someone who loves coffee suggested that they needed coffee.

For the discussion part of this assignment, answer this question: “When you gave them coffee, what were you thinking, and what did they say?”

+++

This tiny project asks you to tell someone. It doesn’t have to be someone you don’t know. In fact, it’s probably better if it’s someone you do know. Sometime this week,say, “a friend of mine works at a place where they end every conversation with ‘thank you’. I realized that would be a pretty cool thing around a church, if every conversation ended with ‘thank you'”. And then say to them, “thank you”.

(For more on that story, you can read it here )

For the discussion part of this assignment, answer this question: “How did they respond to the idea of ‘thank you’.”