One of the constant goals and challenges in youth work is to develop young people to be leaders and to contribute to the community that you are working with.
Mick Cross has been doing this for years in church based and now para-church contexts. We asked him to distill things down to a few points for us to keep in mind.
1. Let them know they have what it takes
Everyone has a sphere of influence
One of the keys for all of us stepping up into leadership was someone else believing in us and giving us the opportunity. It’s no different with the students you work with today. For most they lack the self confidence or even the awareness that they could make a difference. When we pause and seize the opportunity to speak into their life with affirming words, it can often be the moment that sets a new direction in the way they think and respond. The truth is every single person has a sphere of influence.
We as leaders have this with our students but our students also have it with others. Let say your students are in year 10, remind them of what it was like for them when they were in year 8 and a year 10 student not only new their name but took the time to come over and say ‘Hi’ and meet your friends. For the year 8 student this is a huge highlight. This type of conversation with your year 10 students can be the moment when they recognise, that they have a sphere of influence and an opportunity to invest into the lives of others in a significant way.
As J. Oswald Sanders says ‘Leadership is influence’. If you have a sphere of influence you have the opportunity to lead. Help your students to see they have what it takes and the opportunities are right in front of them. Quick side note; every student has the potential to have influence over another students life, you don’t have to be cool to make a difference you just need to care, be willing and available.
2. Raise the bar
Young people are looking to give their life to something. It’s not exclusive but it will cost them. (stepping into true Discipleship)
We live in a culture that seems to have set the bar very low for our young people and there’s an expectation that if you want to engage or keep your students you need to make it as easy as possible. This may be true is some areas but when it comes to student leadership, I believe we need to raise the bar and give them something to strive towards.
I believe this is what our young people want as well. In many cases they are looking for something significant to invest their live into. When we say ‘hey come along it’s easy’, we take away the challenge and mystery and become another one of the many things that seek to entertain them.
When we throw down the challenge, ‘this is hard, it’s going to cost and it’s not for everyone’ we invite them into an adventure that is worth pursuing, that is worth carving out time and making the sacrifice for. We all know from experience the best things, the things that really matter, come at cost but we also know it’s worth it.
3. Carve out time to invest in them
It will cost you as well.
As leaders our time is precious, for most we’re already over committed with the many challenges and tasks life and work throws our way, to think of running another program can seem over whelming. To overcome this we need to think different. It takes time to develop your student leaders and if your hope is that you will achieve your goals with a weekly Bible study and pep talk before an event, you’ll probably be disappointed with the outcomes.
If you’ve helped students believe they can make a difference and they stepped up and said i’m up for the challenge, then I believe they need your best and your best is you… your time and your life. Sounds like a lot but this is Discipleship.
When we share our lives with our students, when we journey with them and invite them into our journey, a transaction takes place and they become like us as we become like Christ.
The truth is not as hard as you think and as you share your life with your students, you will, with out them even realising, skill them in the art of sharing their life with those around them and not just now but for the rest of their lives.
So how do you do it? Well if you were to ask my past Student Leaders, I doubt that they would say the most memorable or significant moments were our training sessions or studies. They would more likely recall, eating at our house or helping me out with some task I had to do, or going on road trip. Hanging out with me and my wife, going to a sporting event, even helping me renovate my house, yep that’s right free labour can become a life changing moment in your students journey. What i’m trying to say is what ever you’re doing ask the question, ‘do I have to do it alone, or could I take someone or few with me’. Discipleship is taking others with us and doing life with them so that they might become like us as we become like Christ.
4. Give them opportunities
Let them do it poorly till they do it well, get it wrong till they get it right
Many of us have come to live with the mind set “that if I can’t do I well then i’m not going to do it all”. It’s sad but it’s true, as a result we miss out on so much that life has to offer, conversely, life and the world around us misses out on what we have to offer.
Our role as a leader of leaders, is to help our young people and maybe in the process help ourselves, learn the art of “Doing it poorly until we can do it well”. There are few things in life we will excel at straight away, to achieve competency and success in most areas we need to learn the discipline of doing it poorly until we can do it well, or another way to think of it is give your young people to opportunity to get it wrong until they get it wright.
It important to understanding that fear of failing is the number one inhibitor of trying new things or stepping into new experiences. With this knowledge, it’s our role and responsibility to create spaces that are safe, that will support and affirm our students regardless of the outcome. This will create a culture amongst your young people that celebrates trying new things and stepping beyond their comfort zone.
For this to happen we must lead the way, we must live by this value ourselves and we must offer them trust, belief and the opportunity to do the same. If we look at what we do now, chances are we do these things because someone believed in us and gave us a shot. When we create a culture that says give it ago, we believe in you, we trust you, it doesn’t matter if it’s not perfect, we’ve got your back and you matter more than what you do. When we do this we create a culture for our student leaders that breeds belief and a confidence to step out of their comfort zones into what the future holds.
Create opportunities for your young people, believe in them, journey with them and I guarantee they will seize those opportunities. Heart in mouth perhaps but they will step up and and discover the more that God has for them.
5. Hand it over
Moving from leader to facilitator
For me the end goal, you might say ‘the reason why’ we do student leadership, is so we can hand it over. It’s not a common practice but the idea of peer to peer ministry is a powerful one. I was reminded of this recently when a survey was done in a school I work with. Students were asked who would prefer to hear speak at a chapel. (1) A fellow student from the school (2) A teacher from the school (3) A specialist guest speaker. The results were over whelming, they wanted to hear from their peers with a distant second having their teachers share with them.
This is no surprise to me as I know one of the biggest influences in a students life is other students. This being the case it makes perfect sense to commit to the journey of handing it over. Your Student Leaders by this stage of their journey will have a level of skill and a significant sphere of influence. You don’t have to do it all at once, the question to ask is what parts of your youth ministry can you hand over to your student leaders now, giving them the space to set the culture and direction. You may be surprised at what they are capable of and how they see things changing for the future.
Most of us leading in youth ministries are adults, when we see our role moving from running everything, to developing young disciples who have what it takes to step into a new future, we move from being leaders to facilitators, carving a path for new generation to bring about the Kingdom.
If you would like to hear more from Mick Cross you can listen to our interview with him in Podcast #2. You can also contact him through www.kickstart3d.com.au or mick@kickstart3d.com.au
