100th and final blog(for this site)

Yep, that's right.  It's my 100th blog entry.  It's also the last one for this site.

It turns out that I'm blogging across too many sites.  It's time to condense.

So, starting today, I'm no longer going to be blogging on the blogger.com site.  I will be blogging at posterous.com and mainly on Next in Line's new website.

You can link here.  

I think you'll like it.  You can still subscribe to it via the RSS feed, and it will still feature the same content. It just needs to be condensed with our other content.

I appreciate your readership through these first 100 posts, and I hope that you'll continue to follow this blog as it makes the switch-over to it's permanent home.

What Every Church Should Know About Student Leadership Development Pt. 6

It’s Totally Worth It

Okay, for the past week I’ve been looking at some of the things I wish I had known about leadership development before I dove in head-first.  Some of those things have been a little scary, and you may have even been put off by a few of them.  My goal hasn’t been to scare you off, but to interject a little reality into the mix here.  

Leadership development isn’t easy with any age, let alone youth.  It’s difficult and it takes time.  There will be days when you want to throw it in because your students have destroyed your will to keep going.  It will stretch your leadership to it’s limits.  But here’s the kicker, and it’s a good one.

It’s totally worth it.  I knew this going in, but I think everyone needs to hear it.  There is no feeling like watching young students develop leadership skills and begin leading in their lives, jobs, schools, and the church.  

Entrusted to us is the future.  God is raising up young people everyday to lead His people in this generation and the next, and this same God has invited us to help Him do it.  What an amazing privilege.  What a humbling stewardship.

We may be tired, overworked, and ready to pull our hair out at times, but at others we are humbled by God’s work in our students to the point where we just fall to our knees and worship Him.  As we watch them take what God has been teaching them and apply it, we are overwhelmingly proud of our students as if we were their parents.  

Through the headache and the heartache there is pride, satisfaction, and moments where you feel so close to God that the hair on the back of your neck will stick up.  

There’s no job anywhere like working with young leaders.  Nothing more challenging, and nothing more rewarding.  It’s totally worth it.

What Every Church Should Know About Student Leadership Development Pt. 5

It Will Stretch Your Leadership

When I was in school preparing to become a teacher, it was told to me that I would learn what I was teaching better by preparing to teach it.  Sure enough, those teachers were right.  As I studied for lessons and prepared to teach, I came to a better understanding of what I was teaching.  

I’ve also been told, in my very short career as a minister, that if you don’t first preach a message to yourself, allowing it to change you, then it is very hard to preach to and ask for change in others.

It should come as no surprise that teaching leadership is the same way.  Teaching leadership will stretch your leadership in two ways.  By teaching leadership principles you’ll gain a deeper and more abiding knowledge of what it means to be a Christian leader.  Also, you’ll be leading a group of people, gaining the benefit of the experience that leadership brings with it.  

You’ll be a living example to your students for what you’re teaching.  You’ll be gaining and exerting influence, modeling the leadership principles of Christ, and showing your young people through your actions what it means to be a leader.

Bottom line is this:  As your students are learning, so are you.  As your students become better leaders, so will you.  Teaching leadership stretches your own.  

What Every Church Should Know About Student Leadership Development Pt. 4

It Will Test Your Faith in Your Students

Going in to a leadership development program, I had certain expectations of my students.  Because they had  volunteered for leadership training, I figured that they would be mature, respectful, Christ-Centered students.  

I couldn’t have been more wrong.  Without going into details, I have to say that I spent a lot of time ranging between disappointed and horrified as I dealt with issue after issue with my students.  It really rocked my boat.  Before I knew it, my faith in my students was waning.  

Because leadership development demands that we be closer to and spend more time with our students, we tend to get more enmeshed in their lives.  They also get more enmeshed in our lives.  As this happens, we learn all about our students in a way that we haven’t before.  As everyone’s warts appear, we can get rather disenchanted with our students if we’re not careful (they can get disenchanted with us, too).  

I think our expectations are at the heart of the issue here.  We must expect students to be mature, respectful, and Christ-Centered, just as we would expect any other believer to act in this way.  However, we must also remember that just as we screw up, so will our students.  Sometimes, they’ll screw up real bad.

When things get dicey (and they inevitably will), our reaction determines whether a failure will turn into a lesson or into a situation that may alienate your students and keep them at arm’s length.  I’ve seen how one screw-up alienated a student so much that he quit the leadership team and fell away from the church.  Sure, He could have handled the situation differently, but I could have as well.  If we allow ourselves to become disillusioned with our students after a failure, it’s more likely we’ll lose faith in the entire process.  Our groups start to hurt, and then it disappears.  

Just as we expect our students to act a certain way, we must also expect that they will mess up.  We mess up, and we shouldn’t expect anything more from our students.  Practicing mercy and grace is not only the right thing to do in these situations, but teaches a powerful lesson that your students will hopefully pass on in their time.  

Preparing ourselves now is essential.  If someone had told me before I started that I would have periods of tremendous disappointment with my students, I would have looked at them like they had a third eye.  Now I know better.  I’ve been there.  

Best practice?  Before you start a team, or even if you have a team now, have a policy about how you’ll deal with moral and legal problems with your students.  How will you react?  What will their status on the leadership team be?  What process will be used for restoration?  How will you deal with the rest of the students on the team?  

And most of all, prepare your heart.  Ask Christ to give you a spirit of forgiveness and mercy.  Ask Him to make His grace real to you in a way that you can make it real to other people.  Humble yourself by daily reminding yourself that you too, sin and need forgiveness. That way, when the inevitable happens, you’ll know what to do and in what spirit to do it.

What Every Church Should Know About Student Leadership Development Pt. 3

It Takes Time

There are no shortcuts when it comes to developing leadership in young people.  In many business leadership development programs, development revolves around very company-specific competencies.  It’s easier to set a time frame on specific competencies, but less easy to set a time frame on the teaching of leadership principles, on discipleship, and on mentoring.

Because many churches don’t have the time or budget for a leadership development program, they tend to leave leadership development to retreats and conferences.  If your development program takes place in a weekend retreat, or a conference (no matter how good it is) then you’ll probably be disappointed with the development that’s taking place.  Don’t get me wrong, conferences are great places to develop leadership, and I love a weekend retreat to develop leaders.  However, leadership development is more organic; it doesn’t take place over the course of just a few hours.  It takes a lifetime.   We have to resist the temptation to allow retreats and conferences to constitute our entire leadership development program.  It’s easier in the short run, of course, and faster; but in the long run very little leadership development will take place.   

A leadership development program takes constant, intentional, targeted work; and that takes time.  Because we are working with individuals with different personalities who are in different places, we can’t put a time frame on their development.  Some of your students are going to soak this stuff up quickly.  With others it will be longer sinking in.  Either way, you’re going to spend a lot of time developing leadership.  

Please don’t believe that leadership development is a quick process, or fall prey to the summer intern line of thought.  Leadership development is a lifelong journey for every leader.  Young leaders are no different, except they are just starting their journeys, looking to you to spend as much time on their leadership development as you did on yours.

What Every Church Should Know About Student Leadership Development Pt. 2

It’s Hard

If you looked at some of the available literature on youth leadership development in churches (which usually consists of one chapter in a book) then you might get the impression that developing young leaders is easy.  

In fact, it reads almost like a recipe.  Pick these students, teach them these things,  and do these activities.  Next, shake them up, pour them out, and you’ll get student leaders.  Problem is that life isn’t that tidy, and neither is a youth ministry program.

One of the things I wish I had been told up front is that leadership development isn’t easy. It isn't easy to start, and it only gets more difficult as you go along.

There are no magic recipes to make your leadership development program work.  There are no super-lessons that will instantly turn apathetic youth into leaders.  There are no guarantees that the students you pour so much into will go on to become great Christian leaders.  

Like all other aspects of ministry, leadership development takes a lot of time and effort.  We shouldn’t go into it thinking that it will be a walk in the park or an afterthought to the rest of the youth ministry.  Done right, leadership development takes just as much effort and preparation as the rest of the youth ministry.  It takes constant tweaking, sleepless nights in prayer, planning, and research.  Oh yeah, and did I mention that you’ll be pouring tons of time into these students?

If you are going to start a leadership development team, keep these things in mind.  Way too many leadership teams are started and then quickly thrown away when it’s discovered that they take more than 10 minutes of prep time.

Don’t fall into this trap; your students deserve better than that.  Go in knowing that leadership development takes time, effort, and plenty of both.  This isn’t about being negative, it’s about going in with your eyes open. 

What Every Church Should Know About Student Leadership Development

There are a lot of things that I wish I had known before I started developing student leaders.  I wish I had been more prepared.  I wish I had planned more.  I wish I had thought through the whole idea.  I wish I’d known how much time it would take, and how much effort.  

I wish I had someone like Next in Line to guide me through the process.  To tell you the truth, that’s part of my passion for Next in Line Ministries.  There are so many things that could have gone better had I had someone with some experience standing beside me. 

All that being said, I was thinking about what I wish I’d known before I started.  I thought about the dirty truths that I should have known, despite what I was being told in the literature.  So I came up with five things that I wish I had been told before I started.  If you heard these things before you started, you were truly blessed.  If you didn’t, then you probably know what I’m talking about.  

My prayer is that I catch a few of you before you start a leadership development team.  I don’t want to be negative, but I want to be real about what happens in a leadership team from day-to-day.  I want to be real about the struggles that you will probably have, and about the kind of walls that you will probably have to break down.  I want to be real because I would have benefited from someone being real with me.   

So here’s the top five things that I wish I had known.  

It’s Not Easy

  

It takes time

It will test your faith in your students

It will stretch your leadership

It’s totally worth it

We’ll talk about each of them in the weeks to come.   In the meantime, if you have anything that you wish you’d been told before you started developing young leaders, let me know.   I’d be curious to know what kind of things would have helped you.  

Student Leaders Grow Into Adult Leaders

No matter what church I visit, or what church leader I talk to, they will all tell me the same thing:  We need more leadership.  Whether it’s to run new ministries or to take over old ones as existing leaders move, burn out, or pass on, the church is constantly in need of new leadership.  

Where do these leaders come from?  Do they magically appear out of thin air?  Of course not.  New leaders are the product of God’s gifting and development.  Many churches are joining God in this process and have set up leadership development programs to help these emerging leaders grow and learn.

One place that we’re not always looking however, is in the ranks of our youth programs.  The fact is, when we don’t develop leadership within our youth we are missing out on the leadership of many young people that God has gifted and called.   I know that many church leaders are careful not to put too young a person into leadership positions, but the truth of the matter is that student leaders grow into adult leaders.  Before you know it your students are out of school and out of the youth group; ready and willing to lead.  

We need to develop the leadership of young people just as we need to develop other leaders in our church.  Youth may seem too young, too immature, or unwilling, but if we don’t start developing youth leaders, we are missing a great opportunity to invest in the future of our young people, and in the future of our churches.

3 Common Buy-In Problems Leadership Programs Face

Leadership Programs fail for many reasons, but one of the main reasons is buy-in.  Here are three buy-in problems that spell certain doom for most leadership development programs.

Student Buy-In

Obviously, if the students you are serving don’t buy in to a leadership development program, there isn’t going to be much of a program.  Having committed students is at the heart of what you’re doing.  Usually, the lack of student buy-in is because of a lack of depth in other programs or a problem with the pitching of your vision.  And sometimes, they just don’t respect you.

Parent Buy-In

I know that a lot of time those who deal with youth consider parents to be their enemies.  Truth is, they should be your best friends.  Because you are only speaking into a student’s life for a short interval each week, parents’ role in leadership development cannot be overlooked.  Just like in youth ministry, parent involvement is key.

If the parents of your emerging leaders aren’t buying into a leadership development program, your program will suffer, if it survives at all.  Make sure that you are talking to parents constantly, and including them in the process.  Give them training, materials, and opportunity to help develop leadership in their own children.  

Administration Buy-In

Here’s a real killer.  Whether you’re in a school, a church, or civic organization, if the guys who run the show aren’t buying into a leadership program, don’t expect to make a lot of headway.  Studies are showing that if the lead person or persons of an organization don’t participate in a leadership development program, that program doesn’t run as well or long as it should.  

Lack of administration buy-in will affect things like budget, space, time, and participation.  Pitch your vision for leadership development early and often to the people in charge, and move forward cautiously if those in charge aren’t completely on board.

Don’t be blind.  Buy-in problems are real, and they sink leadership programs everyday.  Don’t ever assume that everyone is on board with your program.  Pitching your vision, both to individuals and groups, is essential both before you start and while your program is operating.  Involve other people; don’t run your program like its Area 51.  Buy-in is essential to your program’s survival, and if you don’t pay attention to it your program will not-so-slowly fall into trouble.  

3 Things You Can Do Right Now To Develop Young Leaders

So, you don’t have time, money, or support to start a leadership development team?  Here’s three things you can do to develop leaders without having an actual “program.”

Model Leadership-Lead where others can see.   Invite emerging leaders to participate with you in everyday work like planning, phone calls, lesson prep, and all those other mundane things that add up to great leadership.  Invite them into your morning prayer time, meetings, and other places that they’ll get the feel for leadership and learn the process.  Best of all, it doesn’t take up much extra time, because you are already doing these things.

Disciple-We already know that the best Christian leaders are those that are Christ Centered.  When you put an emphasis on discipleship, you are investing not only in the spiritual maturity of those you teach, but helping emerging leaders see what Christ demands in a person whom He’ll use as a leader.

Mentor-All right, this one takes a little extra time, but short of an actual program, mentoring is probably the best way to develop individual leaders.  Take a young person under your wing and pour your life into them.  Don’t just use this as a time to teach about leadership, but show the emerging leader how to live a sustainable life in Christian Leadership.  A mentoring relationship may be the most influential relationship in an emerging leader’s life.

Not having the green light to start a leadership development program doesn’t mean you can’t develop young leaders.  There are plenty of opportunities; you just have to look for them.

A Difficult Vision

It’s great to have a vision about how the world can be, but it’s not always easy to share that vision.  It can be scary, difficult to get across, and many times people just laugh at you or wonder what planet you’re really from.  Some people are taught very early that sharing their vision earns them ridicule, scorn, and shame.  They learn to keep their vision to themselves, and deprive the world of potentially great ideas.

I learned all of this the hard way when I started to share the idea of Next in Line with other people.  The idea of involving young people in leadership training had people looking at me like I had a third eye.  After a couple months of that, I wasn’t sure whether or not I wanted to do anything with Next in Line.

I say all of this because I know that many of you have the vision to start leadership groups in your organization but may not be getting any traction.  I talk to people all the time who have tried leadership development in their churches and schools but couldn’t get any support and ultimately ended up quitting or never getting off the ground in the first place.

To those of you who are dreamers and visionaries I say don’t give up.  The world needs young leaders now more than ever.  Now, like never before, the call to raise up young leaders needs to be answered.  

I know it can be discouraging sometimes; I’ve been there.  But I’ve also seen young people rising up to their potential.  I’ve seen young people do amazing things and take the reigns of leadership before anyone thought it was possible.

As we talk about pitching the idea of leadership development programs, don’t get discouraged if you’re having trouble getting your idea off of the ground, and don’t let others dictate to you what God has put on your heart.  Don’t let past obstacles dictate the route you take in the future.  Keep praying, keep planning, and prepare the ground.  What God has ordained you to do, He will bring to pass!

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

Four Questions To Ask Yourself Before the Pitch

Before you ask someone else to take on the responsibility of a leadership development team, there’s a couple of questions that you should probably have answered yourself already.  

We’ve talked about the need for planning and preparation, and here are a few questions that will help you prepare before you pitch:  

Who:  Develop An Identity

Who is the organization that you are pitching the idea to?  Are they a local school?  Is it a church?  Who the organization is and what they do will determine how you approach them about leadership development.  Do you belong to this organization?  Do you have any existing relationship with this group?  Are they a fit for a leadership development team?  You probably wouldn’t pitch a leadership development team to a local book club, but you wouldn’t hesitate to make sure your school district has a leadership development program in place.  

Why:  Develop A Reason

Why would the organization that you are pitching to want to start a leadership development team?  Is there something about the organizations purpose or mission that points to developing young leaders?  Are they equipped to carry out the team or program?  An organization is going to want to know why they would do what you’re asking them to do.  Make sure you have an answer for them.  

Answering this question might require some research.  Do it.  It’s time well spent if it answers questions before they are asked.

How:  Develop a Way

How can this particular organization be a catalyst for leadership development?  This may seem a lot like the why question, but it is different.  With why we gave them a reason, now we’re giving them a way.  Know the organization that you’re pitching to so well that you maneuver their resources and talents around like a conductor before her orchestra.  They know these resources exist within their organization, they may just not know how to use them to develop leaders.  You do.  You asked: How?  Know how they could specifically pull off a leadership development team, and be ready to show them when you meet.

What:  Develop a Vision

Finally, ask: what benefit can a leadership development team bring to this organization?  What benefit can it bring to their community?  What will be the end result of a leadership development team at this place and at this time.  This question develops a vision for you and for the organization that you’re pitching to.  It helps you see (and them, subsequently) what it is you’re working towards.  This is very important.  Without vision, this idea won’t last long.  This last question will become very important as this process continues.

If you’re about to pitch the idea of a leadership development team to someone, I hope you’ve already asked yourself these questions.  If you haven’t, take some time and mull them over.  When it comes to pitch time, you’ll be glad you did.

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt 

Three Essentials When Pitching a Leadership Team

I’ve been thinking about how difficult it was to get a leadership development team off the ground when I first did that five years ago.  The hardest part, as I remember, was pitching the idea to the church.  I had to pitch it to our leadership board.  I had to pitch it to my pastor, and I had to pitch it to the youth.  I also had to pitch it to myself, but I hope you’ve done that already.  I broke two of the three suggestions below (plan and prepare) and I paid for it.  It cost me time, momentum, and ultimately support.  

If you are looking to set up a leadership development team in your church, school, for your homeschool association, or in a local civic organization, then the next few posts are going to be for you.  They’ll tell you why and how you should pitch the idea of a leadership development team in your particular setting.  In the meantime, there’s three things you should probably do no matter who you’re going to pitch to: Pray, prepare, and plan.

Pray

 I can’t emphasize this enough.  This whole process should be bathed in prayer.  Time in prayer should help work the other two out.  This whole thing belongs to God anyway, so it might be a good idea to consult Him about it.

Plan

You need a plan.  If you go at this haphazardly, you’re not going to get anywhere, and you’ll get there quickly.  Who are you going to talk to?  In what order?  Have you set up those meetings?  You get the picture.  Get a plan.

Prepare

Preparing is the second most important thing you’ll do as you pitch the idea of a leadership development team (next to prayer).  Do you know why you should have a leadership development team?  Most people will want to know that.  Do you know what your leadership development team will do?  Most people will want to know that.  Do you know what your leadership development team will cost?  That’s the 64,000 dollar question, now isn’t it?  Preparing for the pitch meeting means you can answer some of the questions that will inevitably come your way, and you look like you know what you’re talking about, even if you don’t.

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt 

The Long View

Instant Gratification is the order of the day,

but when it comes to developing tomorrow’s leaders, we aren’t going to get any instant gratification.  We aren’t going to see amazing results in hours.  We aren’t even going to see amazing results in days.  We have these young people for 4-6 years in our youth groups, and it will probably take every bit of that time to see results.  This isn’t like a paid advertisement where our gizmo does everything in ten seconds or less.

Experts tell us that Leadership is a lifelong journey. 

so why is it that we think a weekend retreat or a one-week conference is going to develop our young leaders?  Do we really believe that?  Why do we develop non-programs to teach young leaders and believe that we have done them a favor?  Is it us?  Are we seeing things wrong?     

Leadership Development is a lot of work.

I’m not going to deny it, I’m going to embrace it.  Does it mean another item on my plate?  Yeah, it does, but it’s an important item.  I believe very strongly that giving our students the opportunity to lead and to learn leadership is one of the most important things we can do for our young people.  

I’m Adopting a Long View

I’m spending my time putting together materials that will help you develop students over the long haul.  I’m not concerned with force-feeding them a leadership course in a weekend, I’m concerned with how these young people will fare over a lifetime of leading.  It’s a long haul, but so is leadership.  If leadership is a lifelong journey, let’s not short-change our students as we prepare them.  Let’s model the long view.  They’ll be in it for the long haul, and we should be, too.

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

Pride Popper

As I’m fond of doing, I was listening to Matt Chandler’s sermon yesterday morning before work.  He’s started a series out of Habakkuk, and I’ve been so looking forward to it.  

So, while not what the sermon was about, Chandler said something during his sermon that really struck me.  He was talking about King Josiah.  King Josiah, King of Judah, led a revival in Judah the likes of which had never been seen.  He restored worship in the temple, and hunted down idolatry throughout Judah.  Then, mysteriously, he went out to battle against Pharaoh  Necho, and was killed in battle.  You can read this story in 2 Kings Chapter 23.

Chandler’s point was this:  When you read Josiah’s story, it should strike you that his death and burial took one verse.  In the next verse, the story continues with King Jehoahaz.  

Literally, Josiah died in one verse, and then the story went on.  This was the great revivalist of Judah, the man who restored worship to the temple and was instrumental in turning the people’s hearts back to God.  

And with that much fanfare, his story ended.  but God’s story went on.  

While Josiah might live eternally in scripture and in history, it’s very probable that we won’t.  Many of God’s people who have done tremendous work haven’t, and there’s no reason for us to believe that we will either.

So many young people I know believe that leadership and godly work are going to somehow secure them a place in history.  They want to make a mark, and are using leadership and works to make that mark.  Rather than wanted to be servants, they want leadership to serve them.  I wish this kind of pride didn’t exist in us, but it does.  

Josiah’s story is a good reminder that even the godliest men and women die, are buried, and then the story goes on.  So it will be with us.  At best, we have very small parts in God’s very large story.  Whenever we can remind ourselves of that, I think we should.  It gives us proper perspective.

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt  

A Plea to See

We live in a celebrity driven news world

I don’t know what it is about celebrities, but sometimes we pay so much attention to them that we look at nothing else.  If you don’t believe me, go to your local supermarket, get in the checkout line, and try to find me a magazine that isn’t celebrity related or that doesn’t have a celebrity on it.  Harder than it sounds, isn’t it?

This obsession with celebrity that we have has taken on new dimensions this last week with the tragedy in Tucson.  While I don’t wish to take anything away from Rep. Gifford's miraculous recovery, I am deeply pained that we are paying very little attention to the 19 other victims.  

In fact, I did a little research into shooting sprees from 2010 and found something interesting.  There were quite a few shooting sprees last year, some with death tolls much higher than last week’s spree in Tucson.  Unfortunately, they were never news for more than a day or two.  We rarely ever knew the names of the victims, nor were the national news networks covering them like they have the Tucson shootings.  

See every victim the same

Like I said, I don’t want to take anything away from Rep. Giffords and her amazing recovery;  On the contrary, I thank God for it.  What I do want to do, however, is remind everyone that every person who was killed in last week’s shootings; in every shooting, had a family which is now devastated.  They had friends who are mourning them.  They had a life and a purpose which was cut short by a madman. 

 Don’t play favorites.  Love and serve everyone.  Please, please, please remember every victim of the Tucson shootings.  All 20 of them directly, and every family member and friend whose life has been turned upside down by this tragic event.  And the next time you hear of another one of these tragic shootings, please don’t dismiss it or let the news stations determine your focus.  

Pray for peace.  Pray for Justice.  Pray for Christ to return and redeem this world unto Him.

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

Leadership In the Line of Fire

A Tragic Example of Evil and Sin
My prayers go out to the families of those killed and wounded in Tuscon, Arizona on Saturday.  My prayers are also with every one of the wounded for their quick and complete recovery.  It rips me apart that human beings are capable of such atrocities.  I know we live in a fallen world, but unconceivable evil such as this I just can't get my head around.

It would seem, according to the news stories, that the gunman's intended target was Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.  If this is so (and we might not ever really know, given the unstable nature of the gunman), I think this might be a good opportunity for us to talk to our students about the dangerous side of leadership.  


A Teachable Moment
I know it might sound somewhat callous to do this right now, but I believe that this tradgedy can shed some light on the dangers of leadership and being in the public eye.  It might also be a good time to talk about how taking a stand for what you believe can be very costly to you and those you love.


 Irrespective of political stance, theology, point of view, or whatever, every leader attracts the wrong kind of attention at one point or another.  The more a leader is in the public eye, the more this is true.  Sometimes this puts the leader in danger and sometimes it doesn't, but negative attention is always a trial.    


We don't need to look any further than the Apostle Paul for examples of a leader whose life was constantly in danger.  Any of our elected officials can probably supply ample evidence of death threats, threats of violence, or just general weirdness from constituents that they'd rather avoid.  The danger is real and our students need to know that leadership isn't always rosy.


Even if out of reverence for the families of the victims and the tenuous situation of Rep. Giffords you decide not to use this example to talk about the possible dangers of public leadership, it is a discussion that needs to be had in your leadership team.  


If you need some help talking biblically about it, look to 2 Corinthians to see how Paul deals with threats to his well being.


I'm praying for everyone touched by this tragedy, and I'm praying for you, too:  that perhaps through this or another situation like this God will prepare our young leaders for the work ahead of them.


Training Tomorrow's Leaders Today,
Matt

Resolve to Learn

To be a leader is to be a lifelong learner.

We should never stop learning.  This morning, I ran into a lady who knew quite  a bit about natural remedies and healthy living.  I know very little about any of that, so I had a lengthy conversation with her, soaking up every bit of information I could get.  Natural remedies don’t have much to do with leadership, but you never know when that kind of information will come in handy, or who I can introduce to my new friend who can use that kind of information.

We need to seek learning experiences.

We shouldn’t just wait for them to happen.  The world is full of learning experiences waiting to happen.  They come in all forms, from books and magazines to a planned lunch with an expert in a certain field.  This is the information age, and there’s no end to the things we can learn if we just put our minds to it.

We can’t be an expert in every field, but a general knowledge over a broad range of fields opens up our ability to make better decisions, communicate better, and be better stewards of our world.

Last year, I didn’t read as much as I should have.  I didn’t deliberately seek out learning experiences.  As a result, I had trouble growing.

This year, I resolve to Learn everything that I can.  I pray that God will show me to good learning experiences, put people in my path that I can learn from, and give me the patience and good sense to learn from them when He does.

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

Resolve To Grow

The Status Quo is the leader’s enemy.

We can never take for granted that the same thing that we’ve been doing is going to keep working, or that the newest methods are going to fall flat.  We can never be complacent with our level of expertise, knowledge, or wisdom.  

It’s very difficult to grow in the day-to-day of leading.

But we have to.  It’s hard to eek out time to read, reflect, and scrutinize what we do when we are in the middle of it, or when what we really want to do is take a day off or spend time with our loved ones.  

The hardest part of growing is changing.

When we read and reflect and do all those things that lead to growth, we have to have the courage to carry through.  Sometimes that leads into strange new territory.  Change is almost always scary.

We have to make time to grow.  

The rest of the world is going to continue to grow.  People around us are continuing to grow.  The organizations that we work for are continuing to grow.  We have to grow to.

This year I resolve to grow.  By the grace of God, I will make time to reflect, listen to God, read, and change where I need to.  I pray that God gives me the courage to change when He calls for it, and to go faithfully wherever He leads me.

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today

Matt

Resolve to Lead

Leading is an intentional act. 

 It takes making an effort that we don’t always want to make, and sometimes forget to make.  Either way, when we don’t lead, we turn into something that we don’t want to be, and something people don’t want to be around.

To lead in a Christian manner, you have to put others in front of yourself.  

You have to remember that not only are you not the most important thing going, but you are the least important thing going.  People are people, not “human resources.”

Being a Christian leader means realizing that people don’t work for you or follow you, but that you actually serve them; you work for them.  Being a servant isn’t easy, but it’s what God has called leaders to do.  

Maybe most importantly, being a Christian leader means being tuned in to God’s plan rather than your own.  This means that you don’t work the way the rest of the world does, you don’t view success the same, and you don’t treat your “resources” the same.  It’s a whole new paradigm to work and lead by, all powered by the Holy Spirit.

This year, I resolve to lead.  

I pray God gives me the courage and strength to put myself last and those I serve first; that He guides me in intentionality, and anchors my leadership in love.  

It is a great privilege to lead in God’s Kingdom.  It is an even greater responsibility.  I pray that this year God makes me worthy of the privilege and empowers me for the responsibility.

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today

Matt

Resolve to Follow

My first resolution of the year is to be a better follower.

All Christian leaders are followers.  Nobody gets the top spot in this organization except of course God.  One of the things I've learned this last year is that your Christian leadership ability is tied closely with how you follow God.

A person who isn't following God very closely isn't going to be able to lead in a godly manner or influence God's people.  God isn't going to bless that person with a supernatural ability to lead, and that leader won't be leading in the power of the Holy Spirit.

I find myself in that position more often than I'd like to admit.  I find myself reading the Bible only to study for my writing, or for curriculum development, or to teach a bible study.  In those times I'm not having a relationship with God, I'm using Him as a resource.   Like a library.  I seriously doubt He honors that, and I can tell when I'm drifting away from Him even though I'm in His word every day.

This year, one of my main goals is to really develop a living relationship with God.

 I want to be closer to Him.  I want to know Him better.

It's more than a matter of reading my Bible more.  I read it a lot.  I'm planning on meditating on His word, spending more time in prayer, and especially in listening, and spending some serious time in solitude and quiet listening to Him.

A Christian leader needs a close relationship with God.  It is from God that a leader's abilities and work flow.

What are you doing to draw closer to God this year?  How about right now?

Training Tomorrow's Leaders Today,
Matt