One of my favorite preachers is Matt Chandler, and one of my favorite sayings of his is that we are “educated above our level of obedience.”
Let me ask you a question. When it comes to your leadership students, how are you measuring forward progress? Are you looking at how much information they can regurgitate? Are you looking at how into their spiritual disciplines they are?
Many of us fall into the trap of believing that the more education our students get the better off they are spiritually. Nothing could be further from the truth. In today’s culture, our students are absolutely inundated with information. They can check out any book on any Christian topic that their brains could ever conceive of; and they can do it all with the click of a couple of buttons. This blog is a testament to how much education anyone can have access to in today’s world.
Education does not necessarily translate into life change though, as many of you are well aware. For our responsibilities to be filled, we need to provide students with the opportunity to put the lessons we teach into action, and encourage them to continue to behave in a manner that is in keeping with Christ’s Character and Leadership.
I think of Ephesians 5 as Paul is exhorting the Ephesian Church to behave in a manner worthy of God. It isn’t just a matter of hearing the truth, or learning the truth. It’s a matter of doing the truth. Be a “doer of the word, and not a hearer only,” as James says.
If you are measuring the success of your leadership development ministry in terms of ideas imparted, then please reconsider. If you aren’t giving your students the opportunity to put their knowledge and conviction to action, then please reconsider.
Our success in training young leaders is contingent not on how they turn out, but on what and how we taught them. In other words, while we may not be responsible for them, we are certainly responsible to them. Help them to be as obedient as they are educated.
Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,
Matt
Friday, May 21, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Penetrating the Culture
If you think about it, Christians are everywhere. We live in cities all over the world, hold various jobs, and participate in manifold hobbies.
I think we can also agree that Christians are the salt of the earth. We should be bringing the love of Christ wherever we go, and whatever we do. If this means sharing Jesus at work, then so be it. If it means inviting your ball team over for a barbecue on Saturday, okay.
What I’m getting at is that God has made us and placed us into society to make a difference.
Our students need to be taught why and how to be Christians in everything they do. I know way too many Wednesday and Sunday Christians who are perfectly content to put on the Christian hat on those days and take it off the rest of the week. Needless to say, they have no witness.
During a recent trip, I met a young man who is writing articles for a website that caters to Christian gamers. This is a site where video gamers who also happen to be Christian can go and find groups of people to play with online, or can find the newest game review. The young man I met is writing about the spiritual lessons that some of the games teach (albeit unwittingly sometimes).
This young man is taking his hobby and weaving the biblical narrative into it. I love it. In fact, I love the idea of the site. Christianity and the “secular” can exist because God created both. God is seeking to redeem the “secular,” and He’s put us into the culture as His redemptive agents.
This young man is being that agent.
How are you teaching your students to be redemptive agents in society? How are you being a redemptive agent in society?
Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,
Matt
I think we can also agree that Christians are the salt of the earth. We should be bringing the love of Christ wherever we go, and whatever we do. If this means sharing Jesus at work, then so be it. If it means inviting your ball team over for a barbecue on Saturday, okay.
What I’m getting at is that God has made us and placed us into society to make a difference.
Our students need to be taught why and how to be Christians in everything they do. I know way too many Wednesday and Sunday Christians who are perfectly content to put on the Christian hat on those days and take it off the rest of the week. Needless to say, they have no witness.
During a recent trip, I met a young man who is writing articles for a website that caters to Christian gamers. This is a site where video gamers who also happen to be Christian can go and find groups of people to play with online, or can find the newest game review. The young man I met is writing about the spiritual lessons that some of the games teach (albeit unwittingly sometimes).
This young man is taking his hobby and weaving the biblical narrative into it. I love it. In fact, I love the idea of the site. Christianity and the “secular” can exist because God created both. God is seeking to redeem the “secular,” and He’s put us into the culture as His redemptive agents.
This young man is being that agent.
How are you teaching your students to be redemptive agents in society? How are you being a redemptive agent in society?
Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,
Matt
Monday, May 17, 2010
Uniquely Gifted
If you’ve been reading this blog for long, you know how passionate I am about helping students find their spiritual gifts and natural strengths. You probably also know how passionate I am about personalizing your leadership team to such an extent that each of your students are allowed to grow in their own gifts and strengths.
I was reminded the other day about a man I met at the KALEO Conference in 2009. His name is Kerry Jackson, and he is an artist. He did visual worship on stage, and it was stunning. He talked briefly about his Christian journey and how he never realized that his artistic skills could be used to share the gospel until a mission agency showed him how his artistic skills and his influence in the artistic community could be used to plant a church among that very unique community.
Think about that statement for a minute. God gifted Mr. Jackson quite uniquely, and He did it for a purpose. Many people know their strengths, their gifts, and their passions, but don’t have the first inkling about how it can be used for God’s kingdom.
Helping our students understand how God made them and then helping them apply it to their lives and calling may be the most important thing we can help our leadership students realize. Our western world is becoming more and more compartmentalized; each compartment needs a gospel representation. By showing our students how to live out their unique calling, we can expect to see God’s light in even the darkest, most forgotten corners of our culture, the very place God would have us to share His love and grace.
Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,
Matt
I was reminded the other day about a man I met at the KALEO Conference in 2009. His name is Kerry Jackson, and he is an artist. He did visual worship on stage, and it was stunning. He talked briefly about his Christian journey and how he never realized that his artistic skills could be used to share the gospel until a mission agency showed him how his artistic skills and his influence in the artistic community could be used to plant a church among that very unique community.
Think about that statement for a minute. God gifted Mr. Jackson quite uniquely, and He did it for a purpose. Many people know their strengths, their gifts, and their passions, but don’t have the first inkling about how it can be used for God’s kingdom.
Helping our students understand how God made them and then helping them apply it to their lives and calling may be the most important thing we can help our leadership students realize. Our western world is becoming more and more compartmentalized; each compartment needs a gospel representation. By showing our students how to live out their unique calling, we can expect to see God’s light in even the darkest, most forgotten corners of our culture, the very place God would have us to share His love and grace.
Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,
Matt
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Mediocre
Is your ministry mediocre? Is your leadership development program so-so?
Remember this axiom: You can do nothing badly, and still do nothing well.
With the demands on our time; with the constant juggling between work, family, and recreation, I think we often find ourselves doing only what we have to in order to get by.
While there is nothing necessarily sinful in this, I think we can honestly agree that God has called us to be the best we can be at what He has called us to do. Mediocrity doesn’t cut it.
As we teach our leadership students, one of the things we need to impart is to do the best job they can in any given situation. If we work as unto the Lord, and God demands our best, than mediocrity cannot be tolerated.
This is a hard lesson to learn, and all sorts of other lessons can be tied up into it; such as time management, planning, work ethic, and stewardship. In the end, many times it comes down to how you model work in your own ministry. Your students, especially your leadership students, are going to pick up very quickly on your work habits.
Strive to be the best at what you do, and many times your students will follow you in that practice. Overburden yourself and start to dip into mediocrity, and you can also be assured that your students will see that as well.
Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,
Matt
Remember this axiom: You can do nothing badly, and still do nothing well.
With the demands on our time; with the constant juggling between work, family, and recreation, I think we often find ourselves doing only what we have to in order to get by.
While there is nothing necessarily sinful in this, I think we can honestly agree that God has called us to be the best we can be at what He has called us to do. Mediocrity doesn’t cut it.
As we teach our leadership students, one of the things we need to impart is to do the best job they can in any given situation. If we work as unto the Lord, and God demands our best, than mediocrity cannot be tolerated.
This is a hard lesson to learn, and all sorts of other lessons can be tied up into it; such as time management, planning, work ethic, and stewardship. In the end, many times it comes down to how you model work in your own ministry. Your students, especially your leadership students, are going to pick up very quickly on your work habits.
Strive to be the best at what you do, and many times your students will follow you in that practice. Overburden yourself and start to dip into mediocrity, and you can also be assured that your students will see that as well.
Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,
Matt
Friday, May 7, 2010
Finding Your Value
I’ve learned a lot by watching teachers.
I have a deep respect for teachers that knows no bounds. I went to school for four years to become one ( I ended up one, just not like I figured).
One of the things that I was warned about during my college days was not to be the student’s friend. I never could figure this out until I got into the classroom and saw how this worked. If you were worried about being a friend to the student, you were often less of a teacher. It was a rare teacher that I saw or see today that can pull off being both to their students.
Thinking about this in terms of Youth Ministry, and especially in regards to leadership development, it occurs to me that we are brothers and sisters with our students. We love them, and often form friendships that last a lifetime with our students. So how can we be friends with our students, pour into their lives, and love them as brothers and sisters, yet still remain a teacher to them?
I think it all has to do with where you find your value as a human being. If you derive your value from the friendship of your students, then you’ll likely be a poor teacher. It’s more than being a friend to your student, at this point your self-image is caught up in it.
As Christians, we have to find our value in Christ. Personally, I don’t know any better identity to have than as a son or daughter of God. God created you, therefore you have intrinsic worth.
We are supposed to look to God for our value and worth as His creation, and not turn to his creation for that value.
That’s where we have to sit as youth leaders and as developers of young leaders. Most of the time, we can’t help but befriend the youth we work with, and well we should. But we should never derive our personal worth from being their friend. This leads to a bad motivation, less teaching, and a less than godly relationship.
Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,
Matt
I have a deep respect for teachers that knows no bounds. I went to school for four years to become one ( I ended up one, just not like I figured).
One of the things that I was warned about during my college days was not to be the student’s friend. I never could figure this out until I got into the classroom and saw how this worked. If you were worried about being a friend to the student, you were often less of a teacher. It was a rare teacher that I saw or see today that can pull off being both to their students.
Thinking about this in terms of Youth Ministry, and especially in regards to leadership development, it occurs to me that we are brothers and sisters with our students. We love them, and often form friendships that last a lifetime with our students. So how can we be friends with our students, pour into their lives, and love them as brothers and sisters, yet still remain a teacher to them?
I think it all has to do with where you find your value as a human being. If you derive your value from the friendship of your students, then you’ll likely be a poor teacher. It’s more than being a friend to your student, at this point your self-image is caught up in it.
As Christians, we have to find our value in Christ. Personally, I don’t know any better identity to have than as a son or daughter of God. God created you, therefore you have intrinsic worth.
We are supposed to look to God for our value and worth as His creation, and not turn to his creation for that value.
That’s where we have to sit as youth leaders and as developers of young leaders. Most of the time, we can’t help but befriend the youth we work with, and well we should. But we should never derive our personal worth from being their friend. This leads to a bad motivation, less teaching, and a less than godly relationship.
Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,
Matt
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
The Change Agent
I know a lot of people who believe that they are the defining element in the lives of young people.
I hope this isn’t you.
As a youth worker, and as a developer of young leaders, if we’re not careful we can somehow get the idea that we are the change agents in the lives of young people; and nothing could be further from the truth.
We have no power to truly change a person. Most people would tell you that a person will only change if they want to, and to an extent, I would agree with them.
But to another extent, I wouldn’t; mainly because our God is bigger than any person, and having made us, He can certainly change us. I am a living example. I was not what you would call a people person before my conversion. Even after my conversion, you probably would have found in painful to be in my presence for any length of time, but not more painful than I would have found it.
By the grace of God, I am no longer as introverted as I used to be, and not from my trying to become an extrovert. I fought God tooth and nail every step of the way of my introversion.
What I’m trying to say here is don’t get cocky. God may be using us to affect the lives of many youth, but it is God, not us, that in the end is the Agent of Change. Their success is due God. Their change is due God. You are but another faithful servant that God uses to bring this about.
So the next time that you find yourself surveying your little kingdom and start mumbling something like “his success is due to me,” or “look at the affect I’m having on such-and-such a person,” remember a certain Chaldean king and the time God humbled him by driving him into thinking he was a wild animal. I’m just saying.
Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,
Matt
I hope this isn’t you.
As a youth worker, and as a developer of young leaders, if we’re not careful we can somehow get the idea that we are the change agents in the lives of young people; and nothing could be further from the truth.
We have no power to truly change a person. Most people would tell you that a person will only change if they want to, and to an extent, I would agree with them.
But to another extent, I wouldn’t; mainly because our God is bigger than any person, and having made us, He can certainly change us. I am a living example. I was not what you would call a people person before my conversion. Even after my conversion, you probably would have found in painful to be in my presence for any length of time, but not more painful than I would have found it.
By the grace of God, I am no longer as introverted as I used to be, and not from my trying to become an extrovert. I fought God tooth and nail every step of the way of my introversion.
What I’m trying to say here is don’t get cocky. God may be using us to affect the lives of many youth, but it is God, not us, that in the end is the Agent of Change. Their success is due God. Their change is due God. You are but another faithful servant that God uses to bring this about.
So the next time that you find yourself surveying your little kingdom and start mumbling something like “his success is due to me,” or “look at the affect I’m having on such-and-such a person,” remember a certain Chaldean king and the time God humbled him by driving him into thinking he was a wild animal. I’m just saying.
Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,
Matt
Monday, May 3, 2010
What Others Say
Usually I think we’d say that we shouldn’t listen to what others say about us; “sticks and stones,” and all that tosh.
However, as we are raising up young leaders, sometimes it’s good to get out of your church box and bend an ear towards the community. You should know by know that many of our students put on their best when they are with us. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what progress is being made and what problems need to be addressed if you’re basing your analysis solely on how your students act when they are with you.
Listening to what others are saying about the leaders you are developing can be a humbling experience. It can be hard. You may hear some things that you don’t want to hear. You may also hear some things that cause you to praise God and rejoice.
The problem is, if you’re not listening you don’t know.
How long has it been since you had a chat with your student’s parents? What are they saying about your student? Are there problems? Are there victories? What areas do the parents see that needs work, especially when it comes to character?
Talk to teachers. School is a harsh place, and teachers have a unique insight that neither you nor their parents have. Ask the teachers about leadership qualities being displayed at school. Ask them about character issues and homework issues. Remember that many of the good work habits your students will form will take root (or won’t) in High School.
Talking to these other influences on your students has a great advantage: it draws other parties into the leadership development of the student. The parents (which I hope are already engaged) will be on the lookout for specific leadership and character markers, so will teachers.
Use all of this information as you coach your students. We are called to lead an integrated life, and our students will need help in doing that. We do them a disservice when we base their growth strictly on what we see. If we are truly committed to seeing these young people grow into Christian leaders, we’ll get other people’s input.
Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,
Matt
However, as we are raising up young leaders, sometimes it’s good to get out of your church box and bend an ear towards the community. You should know by know that many of our students put on their best when they are with us. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what progress is being made and what problems need to be addressed if you’re basing your analysis solely on how your students act when they are with you.
Listening to what others are saying about the leaders you are developing can be a humbling experience. It can be hard. You may hear some things that you don’t want to hear. You may also hear some things that cause you to praise God and rejoice.
The problem is, if you’re not listening you don’t know.
How long has it been since you had a chat with your student’s parents? What are they saying about your student? Are there problems? Are there victories? What areas do the parents see that needs work, especially when it comes to character?
Talk to teachers. School is a harsh place, and teachers have a unique insight that neither you nor their parents have. Ask the teachers about leadership qualities being displayed at school. Ask them about character issues and homework issues. Remember that many of the good work habits your students will form will take root (or won’t) in High School.
Talking to these other influences on your students has a great advantage: it draws other parties into the leadership development of the student. The parents (which I hope are already engaged) will be on the lookout for specific leadership and character markers, so will teachers.
Use all of this information as you coach your students. We are called to lead an integrated life, and our students will need help in doing that. We do them a disservice when we base their growth strictly on what we see. If we are truly committed to seeing these young people grow into Christian leaders, we’ll get other people’s input.
Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,
Matt
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