Next In Line Leadership

100th and final blog(for this site)

2011-05-29T13:57:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-29T06:59:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-28T08:36:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-26T15:27:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-24T15:53:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-20T18:52:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-18T15:07:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-15T05:51:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-09T15:57:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-19T15:58:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-01T03:42:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-08T16:20:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-05T08:28:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-26T04:05:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-18T20:18:00.001-08:00

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

2011-01-15T06:03:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-10T13:50:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-07T14:31:00.001-08:00

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

2011-01-06T15:06:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-05T15:16:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-03T15:11:00.000-08:00

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

A New Year for ___________

2010-12-29T05:56:00.000-08:00

I used to think that New Year's Resolutions were stupid. I didn't see the point in making a bunch of resolutions that I was going to break in a couple of weeks. I've lightened my opinion a bit, however, because for any leader, goals and aspirations are a good thing. They keep us moving in a direction and give us something to measure against and celebrate.

My wife and I sat down last night and worked out our personal goals for the year, but I wanted to share my personal leadership resolutions with you, and hope also to hear from some of you about your resolutions.

For the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be talking about some of my resolutions, detailing them, letting you know where they came from and why. For now, here is a list of my resolutions:

1. I resolve to Follow
2. I resolve to Learn
3. I resolve to Grow
4. I resolve to Lead

What's your New Year's Resolutions, and why?

Training Tomorrow's Leaders Today,
Matt

Book Review: Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas

2010-12-13T14:28:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I last reviewed a book, but after reading Bonhoeffer, by Eric Metaxas, I had to write something about it.

History, Theology, and Leadership: Bonhoeffer has it all!
I think this book is special to me because it is not only about theology, or history, but a man of God who led people through a very difficult time of history. Bonhoeffer stood for something, and his beliefs informed his actions.

Bonhoeffer is interesting because he provides such an eclectic personality from our point of view. Many different sides claim him as one of their spiritual fathers. Bonhoeffer would have laughed at this no doubt, being a player in an ecumenical movement that was vibrant and faithful. Metaxas strives to show Bonhoeffer as a theological conservative (which he no doubt was) that was also involved with monastic ideas and social justice issues. Metaxas also strives to show the man and his behaviors through the lens of his theology, which is so important if you want to understand Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his leadership during the Nazi crisis in Germany.

Metaxas' style is easy to read, yet deep and thorough in it's scholarship. It's a thick book, which no doubt could have been more thick. But Metaxas drives home his points, and the life and tragedy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer leap out of the page at you.

Bonhoeffer will drive you to your knees
Reading Bonhoeffer will somehow make you feel as though you have been cut from lesser cloth. Bonhoeffer's devotion to his God, his family, his friends, and everyone that he met will convict you and show you what is possible when a man gives himself to Christ.
His devotional life is something else that Metaxas demonstrates aptly, and again, it will drive you to your knees. Reading about Dietrich Bonhoeffer's relationship with God will make you want a deeper relationship with Him, and if nothing else is gained from the book, that is enough.

Bonhoeffer wrote that "when Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die."
We have no better example of that than Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

I hope you enjoy the book.
Training Tomorrow's Leaders Today,
Matt

Leadership Under the Christmas Tree

2010-12-09T15:54:00.000-08:00

Do you have some last minute shopping to do for the young leader in your life?

If so, I have a couple of suggestions that will not only make their Christmas merrier, but also help transform and develop their leadership as well.

1. Strengthsfinder 2.0-I don't know if I even have to explain myself after all I've written about it. If you know an emerging leader who hasn't read this book and taken this assessment yet, please buy this for them. You can not underestimate how much it will affect them.

2. Mission Trip-A mission trip presents many opportunities for the expansion of leadership, and will also give emerging leaders the opportunity to share the gospel and serve others. May I suggest not paying for the whole trip? Raising money also helps building leadership, communication, and strategy skills.

3. Tickets to the Conference of their choice-Conferences can be great fun and a great learning experience. There might be a favorite speaker, preacher, or leader that an emerging leader would like to see. These trips may be expensive, but they are a great way to learn and network with people just like your emerging leader.

4. A wad of money for donation to the cause of their choice-Everyone likes to spend money, but we would be doing a lot better if we spent some money on other people. Helping an emerging leader find and choose worthy causes is a great way to expand their horizons and give them the opportunity to make a real difference in a ministry or cause. They might also find a place where they can volunteer their time, learning more leadership and serving others.

There are many choices when buying gifts for young leaders. I'm not saying all of their gifts should be educational as well as fun, but it doesn't hurt to mix in a little leadership with the gifts under the tree this year.

Merry Christmas,
Matt

Organic Leadership Development

2010-11-22T15:44:00.000-08:00

How does the Holy Spirit change the face of leadership development?

The last time I wrote I talked about how the Holy Spirit is a differentiating factor between Christian and non-Christian leaders. What I didn't write about is what that means for developing leaders, and it means a lot.

First, the Holy Spirit changes everything. Leadership development is no longer a regimen or just a curriculum, but an organic process that we are not in charge of. This is significantly different than most programs of education. Christian leadership isn't something you can just get a degree in and be good. The development of Christian leaders takes considerably more time, patience, and discernment.

Since the Spirit is in control, the time it takes to cultivate a Christian leader cannot be set in stone. I recently read an article by the creator of Relevant Magazine where he stated that God had to teach him over 8 years before he could finally start his magazine. It might take others a lot less than eight years to become the kind of leader God wants to carry out His purpose in their life, and it might take longer. Again, we can't relegate the process; thinking that after we review these principles and such and such a program that the people we are teaching will automatically be the leaders God wants them to be. How long did Moses wonder in the wilderness before God called him to lead the Israelites out of bondage?

Because we aren't in charge of the time it takes to become a leader, we have to be very patient. So do the young leaders in our care. Can you imagine David, after being proclaimed King, waiting to actually become King? That must have been grueling, but God had much to teach David before he became king.

Lastly (please, however, don't think that this is exhaustive), I think that the organic nature of Christian Leadership Development takes a lot of discernment. Not all of your students are going to be at the same place, and each will learn and develop at their own pace. It will take a lot of discernment to know what to teach and when. This will take a lot of prayer and a deep knowledge of each of your students. Take the time to see this through. Be responsible to them and to God for their development. It's not easy, but we didn't get into this because it was easy.

Christian leadership development is difficult, and the organic nature of it makes it that much more difficult. But with patience, endurance, and perseverance, we will be blessed to see the godly leadership of tomorrow.

Training Tomorrow's Leaders Today,
Matt

What Distinguishes a Christian Leader?

2010-11-14T11:55:00.000-08:00

What makes a Christian leader a Christian leader? Is it a style? Is it training? Is it the kind of organization that the leader is running? What should be the criterion by which we designate a leader to be "Christian?"

With hundreds of books on leadership hitting the shelf each year and just as many different methods of leadership, it's easy to get caught up in method when determining what makes a Christian leader. Christ has a very distinctive method of leadership, one that is based in service and in power revealed through weakness. However, even the "secular" world has co-opted these leadership methods and uses them with much success in the corporate, government, and not for profit realms.

Neither can we determine a Christian leader by the kind of organization that the Christian is heading. There are Christian men and women in all realms of society, leading all sorts of ventures. Likewise, I fear that there are many non-Christian people who are leaders in Christian organizations.

Likewise, Christian and other leadership training is available to all people, regardless of their faith. A good leader will peruse leadership material from all sources and incorporate that which works for them and for their organization. The Christian leader will consider non-Christian sources of leadership, determine whether they are of God or not, and use them accordingly.

What then, distinguishes a Christian leader? It is as simple as this: The Holy Spirit. The Christian leader is indeed a Christian, and therefore is guided, chastised by, and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. This difference between a Christian leader and a non-Christian leader cannot be overemphasized.

God does not hold a specific training regimen for leaders, nor does He work the same in all leaders. He calls, trains, and uses different leaders in different ways. God's spirit which indwells us is manifested so many different ways. The Holy Spirit gives Christian leadership a mysterious edge that you can never quite predict and a quality that makes it incomparable with regular leadership.

This makes even the most unlikely person a leadership candidate, and makes normal models of leadership training and development irrelevant. It means that instead of solely paying attention to a book or program of leadership development, Christian leaders must also discern the calling of the Holy Spirit on the lives of leaders and be open to His leading and prompting, no matter how much this leads us outside the realms of "normal" leadership or our zones of comfort and familiarity.

And while it is important to see and understand the Holy Spirit's place in Christian Leadership, let's not forget that the Holy Spirit also plays unknowable and mysterious roles in non-Christian leadership too. The Holy Spirit factor in leadership and leadership development should not be overlooked, and those Christian leaders who do run the risk of being outside of the will of God and leading without the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit.

Training Tomorrow's Leaders Today,
Matt

Discontent

2010-11-01T18:23:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, or today, depending on when you read this, millions of people are going to the polls here in America. According to most analysts, many of the people going are quite discontent with the state of things, and for the third time in as many National elections (2006, 2008, and now 2010) the makeup of our government is going to change largely out of a feeling of discontent (that's a pretty nice term seeing as some people are more fed up and angry than "discontent").

Now, this isn't some political hack piece. I like politics as much as the next man, and maybe more, but I want to talk about discontent. Discontent is one of those pieces of leadership that I think goes overlooked in many circles.

We are told in the Bible to be content with what we have. Not being content with what God is providing us can get us into sketchy spiritual territory. I believe, however, that God has put into us a discontent with the state of the world that drives the Christian leader to act.

Why are you a Christian leader? My bet is that some aspect of the world seemed wrong to you and you acted on it. Discontent at work. For centuries God's people have seen the spiritual and physical poverty of foreign and domestic peoples and have entered the harvest. Discontent at work. This Ministry: Next in Line, is the product of discontent with the way that young people are prepared for a life of Christian leadership. Discontent at work.

God gives the Christian leader a holy discontentment with some aspect of the world and then calls that person into His work. Think of Nehemiah, being told that the city of Jerusalem lay in ruins, a laughingstock to surrounding nations. Nehemiah knew that this was less than optimal. Soon, Nehemiah was supervising the rebuilding of the walls of the great city.

When we get down, or seem to lose our way, remember the discontentment that first brought you to where you are today. Likewise, look for discontent among your students. This is a first sign of leadership capability. Listen to them, and offer them a path to "sooth" their discontent. Tell them to listen to God and hear what He is calling them into. Nourish holy discontent (not so people can complain, but so they can act. Nothing points out a person who isn't a leader like a person who just wants to complain about the problem instead of going into the work to cure the problem).

Tomorrow, or today, watch what discontent does. Pay close attention to what leaders are doing with that discontent. Look and see what discontent is capable of. Agree or not with the way that tomorrow's election goes, you have to see the beauty of what discontent can accomplish. What more can it accomplish when a holy discontent is burning within the heart of a servant of God?

Training Tomorrow's Leaders Today,
Matt

"Radical" Leadership

2010-10-31T17:16:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've noticed a jumble of books hitting the shelves that have to do with "radical" Christian living. Personally, I think that they have to do with real Christian living, but that's another topic for another time. Personally, I'm enjoying these books. I just finished Crazy Love (for the 4th time), and am in the middle of David Platt's Radical.

I know people are reading these books because they turn up in the Christian book section of Wal-Mart. Only very popular Christian books turn up there.

More than reading these books, I pray that people are convicted by them and are repenting. My first romp through Crazy Love dropped me to my knees, and I've been in two other groups who have studied it now. I know what a book like that can do to a person who has betrayed Christian ideals for the safety and comfort of our American lives.

What I also pray is that we are teaching these books to our kids; discussing them and doing what they prescribe. I say this because I'm convinced that tomorrow's Christian leaders will live in the ways that are described in these books. Tomorrow's Christian leaders will throw off the compromise that we have lived with between the world and our faith. They will live in radical obedience to God and lead a movement of radical obedience to God.

I'm a student of history, so I don't believe that the things discussed in these books have never been discussed before, but I truly believe that we are faced with a time in which our technology and state of information overload are allowing more and more Christians to come into contact with the ideas that people like Chan and Platt are writing about.

We have an opportunity, given our "new" awareness of the Christian life, to explore and integrate this teaching into our programs. We have the opportunity to model this kind of life to our students and practice this kind of life with our students.

Thank you, Francis Chan and David Platt, and all of those like you, for being the modern day prophets that we need, and for calling us back to the truth. Now, for the rest of us, lets take that truth, live it, and teach it.

Training Tomorrow's Leaders Today,
Matt

Field Day

2010-09-15T05:53:00.000-07:00

Today, I'm doing something I've never done before. I'm going to talk to the offices of two senators. I'm taking two youth to our local senator's offices for IJM and we're going to have a little chatty-chat about human trafficking.

I'm doing this for a couple of reasons. First, human trafficking is one of my hot-button issues and tends to be pretty important to the young people that I teach. Second, this is a wonderful opportunity for the leadership team to actually do something that can make a difference in so many lives. Our leadership students need this kind of experience.

In this case, it was one of our leadership students that became aware of this opportunity because of her past dealings with IJM. There's a bill that's going through the Senate concerning human trafficking, and of course, senators need prompting and briefing about these sort of things, so we volunteered.

Participating in these kinds of activities now can very well wet your student's appetites for their entire lives. I doubt that the students will forget what happens today, one way or the other. It will mean even more to them because the idea didn't originate with me, but with them.

Now, some of you might not want to involve your students in politics like this, but I assure you there are lots of ways different activities that your students can do that will increase their leadership skills without visiting the offices of the local politicians. Here's a couple of things I've found about these sort of trips that really help cement them into the minds of students:

1. Make it important. If your students feel that what they are doing isn't important, the activity isn't likely to have much impact. Even if your students can't see the importance of what you are doing, it is our responsiblity to show them how important what we're doing is. Students want to do important things. They want to be involved. Give them that opportunity.

2. Give them ownership. This opportunity didn't come from one of my sources, it came from a student's source. It means more to them that way. As much as I'd like to talk a lot today, I'm not going to. My students are taking the lead. They are coming up with the agenda and the talking points. They will lead the meeting.

3. Debrief. Luckily, we have time between our two visits to talk about how the first one went and what we can do to improve the second meeting. Make sure you are thoroughly debriefing your activities. I've found that the real learning takes place after the activity as we all sit down and digest what we did.

4. Make it Fun. After we're done, we're going to go have coffee at one of our favorite coffee shops and just chill out for a while. These kind of activities can be wonderful times to strengthen your relationships with your students.

Training Tomorrow's Leaders Today,
Matt

Explosions of Worship

2010-09-12T20:08:00.000-07:00

This morning at Desperation Church, our worship pastor talked about the Spirit of God filling us to such an extent that we just exploded in worship to our God and King. I had never heard this analogy before, and like so many other things, this got me to thinking about leadership.
My worship pastor talked about glorifying God in explosions of worship. He prayed that there would be explosions of worship all over the world. It was simple and beautiful, yet so poignant that I have been thinking about it all day.

So I began to think to myself: "What is it that we want to see out of the next generation of leadership?"
The answer? I want to see explosions of worship in leadership positions all over society.

It's true that if we explode in worship people will see and be drawn to God. It's also true that if we have godly leaders living lives of worship in positions of leadership throughout society, people will see and be drawn to God.

This is what God wants. This is what I want. It's why Next in Line Ministries exists. It's why we do what we do. It's why I write this blog, and why the board of Next in Line works their tails off to help raise new leaders. We believe that Christian leadership througout society witnesses of Christ, honors God with just and true decisions, and changes society at it's core by leading like Christ.

Just as our worship pastor prayed today, I also pray tonight: Father, raise up a generation of leaders that live for you. Fill them with Your spirit that they may burst in explosions of worship to You. May their every action, their every word, and their every interaction be fueled and guided by love for You and others. May they be a light in the darkness, a constant witness for You, and a guide to those who need it. In Christ's Name, amen.

Training Tomorrow's Leaders Today,
Matt

Sometimes You Just Need to Keep Your Mouth Shut

2010-09-08T14:47:00.000-07:00

It's not easy for me, but the art of keeping your mouth shut is just as important as knowing how and when to speak. A lot of leadership literature today hinges on communication, and I don't mean to denigrate communication, but sometimes it's better just to keep your mouth shut.

A lot of leaders feel they need to add something to every conversation. Please kick this impulse in the teeth. There are many times that people just want you to listen. There are many times that you need to just listen.

Learn before you speak.

Though you may have something to add to the conversation, always having something to add to the conversation will get you a reputation that you don't want.

Equally important to a leader as speaking is listening. Communication without understanding doesn't happen. That's miscommunication; and if we feel the need to talk more than we listen, miscommunication is exactly what we're going to have.

As leaders, we are expected to be charismatic, witty, charming folks that liven up all conversation with our intellect, wisdom, and anecdotes. We can do those things to. There is a time and a place for that. More than that, though, is the need to understand before being understood. If we truly serve the people we lead, our job is to listen to them more than we talk at them.

In all honesty the more we listen and understand other people, the more poignant and guided can our words be. Hastily speaking we miss important aspects of a situation, or have a less than full understanding of a person. A leader can't afford misunderstanding; sometimes there's only one opportunity to lead correctly and wisely.

I'm not suggesting a prohibition on talking, but I am suggesting that we not only learn to listen better, but find ways to teach our leadership students to listen more carefully and thoroughly. Doing so will be a long haul, because listening to others without interjecting our own opinion and beliefs is not an art that is being taught by today's culture.

Your overtures into this disicipline are going to need to be planned, intentional, and plentiful. We are constantly encouraged to give our view on something, no matter how little of it we know, and so as teachers we will have to be contantly vigilant to expunge that tendency in our students as much as we can.

Remember, a servant listens, and then acts. It is a tyrant that dominates a conversation or a debate without understanding the situation or the person.

Learn to listen. Listen. Model listening. Raise listeners.

Training Tomorrow's Leaders Today,
Matt

The Hardest Lessons

2010-08-08T05:53:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I blogged, and I feel I owe you some explanation. The last few months have been one of transition for me, and have been extremely difficult. There have been a lot of changes in my life, and a lot of difficult decisions that I've had to make. Through it all though, I've learned some incredible leadership lessons, and am looking forward to finally getting back on track with blogging and Next in Line in general.
These last couple of months have shown me that the hardest things that a leader will face can't be completely prepared for. As teachers, we can academically prepare our students for a lot of things, but our students will have to experience them to understand and learn from these experiences.
Academically, we can teach our students how to make hard decisions; but they will never know the stress and pain that making them entails. We can academically teach our students how to confront someone, even one of their closest friends, but we can't teach them how difficult it really is, or how much anguish there can be in confrontation.
Only experience can teach these things, and they are lessons that will stick with them for the rest of their lives. The hardest lessons learned are those that will be strongest in their minds throughout their lives.
Does this mean we shouldn't try to academically prepare them? No, of course it doesn't. By training students in the proper way to handle a situation such as confrontation or decision making, we can help them push through the emotional aspect and make the right decision, or confront in a loving and productive way. We can and must continue to teach our students to do things correctly and in a Christ-honoring manner; however we can't expect them to fully understand some of these situations until they have gone through them themselves.
Along with academically preparing them, we also have to let them get real experience in the leadership world. By allowing our students to "get their hands dirty" we allow them to have some of these hard experiences early, where we can come alongside of them and help them through. The earlier these hard lessons are learned, the more prepared our students will be for where God will put them in life.
Keep carrying on, and remember that the hardest lessons learned will also be some of the most important lessons learned.

Training Tomorrow's Leaders Today,
Matt

The Forgotten

2010-07-01T22:22:00.001-07:00

We've had a busy day here in Peru. We went to Canete; and when I say that we went to Canete, I mean we went to a surrounding village where the people and the animals live very close to the same existence. In fact, I saw some places where they literally lived side by side.

When we came into the village, I was privelaged to talk to two people. Both were fascinating, but one in particular caught my immediate attention. He knew who he was talking to, and his was a cry for help. He told us that they lived in poverty (which was obvious), and that the government had forgotten them. Forgotten them. Candidates often campaign there and promise running water, but then of course conveniently forget their promises. The people live in whatever hovels they can eek out, and they work in the fields or as mototaxis pilots throughout town. They drive donkey carts. They also herd goats and sheep.

Needless to say, this saddened me, but something hit me as hard as that man's statement:

They are not forgotten. Though every man on the face of the planet may forget them, and they are oppressed beyond measure, they are not forgotten.

God knows their names, and has numbered the hairs on their head. They are not forgotten.

God is moving among them right now. As I write, He is raising up people with a heart for the people of Canete and with the right mix of Spiritual Gifts and natural talents to serve them. He has moved, is moving, and will move.

The people of Canete are not forgotten.

The Whole Cultural Experience

2010-06-30T19:59:00.000-07:00

Up to the jumping off point of our trip to Peru, I prayed fervently that God would allow me a complete cultural experience. I wanted to meet the people, taste the food, and experience some of the hardships that plague these people on a daily basis.

Well, my prayers were answered. Yesterday morning, I was blessed with illness. not just any illness, but a gut-wrenching, can't get warm, feverish, out of both ends extravaganza. I don't think I have ever felt so badly. But beyond that, it was very, very lonely. I came to Peru to work, and for the last two days I have stared at the pale yellow walls of my dorm. Usually, when I am sick, I have all of the comforts of home to keep me company, and my wife to wait dutifully on me and dote on me. Not here. This was a very new experience, and one I am already learning from. That may sound wierd (and it may well be delusional), but let me just offer a few of the things that I am learning about myself:

1. I am way too hooked up in things. It is obvious that I take way too much comfort in my stuff. This was revealed to me when I was sick and had no stuff save a couple of books. I didn't have my favorite comfort food, or my favorite comfort movie, or my favorite comfort coffee (yes, such a thing exists). My comfort should be wholly in Christ alone, and it is obvious that it is not.

2. America is so privaleged when it comes to medicines. Jeff told me prior to coming here that they sell medicines by the capsule. Even in my rural home, I have almost instant access to gobs of medicine. I even have a cabinet full of it. The major remedy here: herbal tea. Herbal Tea. And you know what? The herbal tea worked. It settled my stomach and comforted me. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm taking my cipro, and I'm glad to have it. But I am learning to be very grateful for the abudance of medicine we have in the United States.

3. Community is everything. After I took ill, Kailyn went across the street and in her best Spanish, explained to the Bodega owner that I was sick, and asked which crackers would be best for me (her sweetness never fails to melt me). she came back across the street with a pack of Saltines that she gave to me when I woke up that evening. Brandy had a powerade waiting for me, and all evening, I had people come into the room to check on me and make sure that I was okay. Even the directors of operations here in Peru came in to check on me. Those people made me feel better than any medicine or hot tea did. it is obvious the power of community and that of having those that care about you around you.

I am a firm believer in learning from all of your experiences, and I am learning mightily from being sick. You'd think I wouldn't need a Peruvian stomach bug to teach me these lessons, but in this place, where you are forced to slow down and look at life rather than watching it fly by you, learning I am.

Dignity in Labor

2010-06-28T19:57:00.001-07:00

I have heard it said that there is dignity in labor, and I beleive it. Today was a rewarding and an exhausting day. This morning, our team divided up and worked on different aspects of the property here. We painted, dug irrigation ditches, and built shower partitions. The morning went very quickly.

In the afternoon, many of us went back to our jobs while the others went into Chilca and handed out invitations to VBS.

Our debrief time this evening was full of questions about the people and customs of Peru, the spiritual needs of Childreach, and about reacclimating back into America.

We are really looking forward to tomorrow, and our first VBS. More on that tomorrow.

Praying for a good sleep and clarity of purpose for the morrow.

We're All In This Together

2010-06-27T18:18:00.001-07:00

Okay, We are in Peru, working with Childreach Ministries in Chilca. I have been amazed at the number of different mission teams we have run into. Last night , as we boarded the plane to get to Lima, we ran into two different teams, one from Alabama and one from Mississippi. This morning at Church, we ran into yet another team from Alabama. To top it all off, Pastor Jorge, who is the pastor of a church in Chilca, was talking about an imminent trip into the highlands where he shares the gospel with the villages of the highlands of Peru.

It struck me as funny, even though it shouldn't have, that there are so many churches that are taking up the great commission. It also struck me, even though it shouldn't have, that even the church that we have partnered with to serve is taking the gospel to those who have not heard in their own context.

It's beautiful that no matter where I've been this weekend, I am running into churches that are taking missions seriously. It is such a blessing to know that even the church that our missions team is serving is itself conducting missions.

It will take all the beleivers of the world; carrying out the great commission, to see God's work done.

We're all in this together.

Educated Above Our Obedience

2010-05-21T07:00:00.000-07:00

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

Penetrating the Culture

2010-05-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

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

Uniquely Gifted

2010-05-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

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

Mediocre

2010-05-12T05:45:00.001-07:00

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

Finding Your Value

2010-05-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

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

The Change Agent

2010-05-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

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

What Others Say

2010-05-03T17:17:00.000-07:00

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

Character Weakness

2010-04-19T14:59:00.000-07:00

Last time we looked at why we shouldn’t try to overcome weaknesses in the abilities and talents that God gave us. This time we’ll look at why we can’t take that same tact when it comes to weaknesses in our character.

Unlike talents, where there isn’t a prescribed set for any given individual, there is a handbook on character, and there is a very definite list of traits that God has given us to have. What that means is that when we have a deficiency in character you have to address it; and it must be changed.

Character weaknesses affect us unlike a talent weakness. God has given us talents to serve in certain places within His Kingdom. Character is something God wants everyone to have, and without it not only are we not obedient to Him, but no one is going to follow us, limiting what we can do for God’s Kingdom.

The thing about character weaknesses, though, is this: they are part and parcel of being a sinful human being. And that means that we can’t beat them on our own. It also means we all have them.

As we are leading in our organizations, and as we are raising up new leaders, we are going to have to identify and eradicate these weaknesses. Our obedience depends on it, our organizations are depending on it, and our students are depending on it.

Here’s a few pointers:

1. Identify your weaknesses. Chances are you probably are already well aware of where you fall short in the character arena, but you may also have some weaknesses that would blindside you. There are two ways that you can ascertain where character weakness has started choking the ministry life out of you:

a. A trusted peer-ask a trusted friend to gracefully share with you where they think you’re character might be coming up short. Prayerfully prepare for this, it’s not a fun experience. There will be times when you will have wished you didn’t ask.

b. Prayer-Pray that God would show you where your weaknesses are. He will, because He wants you to confess your sin and repent.

2. Set up better disciplines. From a knowledge of your own weaknesses, sometimes you can overcome them with discipline. There are some situations that you react badly to, and so you avoid those situations or through knowing about the weakness, control it. However, when you can’t take care of it(and that’s more than often the case)…

3. Pray. God will work with your character weaknesses. Through His word, prayer, and other spiritual disciplines He can and will change your life.

As we are bringing up the next generation of leaders, let them see this process in you. Be transparent with your students about your character weaknesses, and encourage them to do the same. Pray for each other. If your students are well versed in their own weaknesses before they allow them to screw up their ministries, they will be that much more prepared for leadership.

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

Weakness

2010-04-14T05:54:00.001-07:00

I love “Strengthsfinder 2.0.” If you haven’t read this book or taken the strengthsfinder test than please do that. Lately, this book has me thinking about how we overcome weaknesses. I have been talking to my friends and associates about this a lot, and so I thought I’d share my thoughts.
We all have a lot of weaknesses. We’re not so good at more things than we’re good at. That’s not a diss, that’s just a fact of life. Maybe we should start with just being able to admit that. Take a deep breath, and repeat after me: “I am a flawed person. I have weaknesses.” There you go. That wasn’t so hard, was it?
When we’re talking about weaknesses, remember that there is a huge difference between character weaknesses and talent weaknesses. We have to approach them in a different way. Today, we’ll look at how we overcome weaknesses in our skills and natural talents.
Okay, when you’re dealing with your natural skills and talents, it should be obvious that you aren’t good at everything. I’m no good at math. It’s true. I stink at it. I’m not real good with science, either. Some of you might contend I’m no good at writing either (and you’d have a legitimate point). Anyway, I think that if you’re honest with yourself you’ll find that you’re better at some things than others. So, how do you overcome those weaknesses?
You don’t.
It’s that simple, and that difficult. Our natural tendency is to work harder on those things we’re bad at in order to become better. As Strengthsfinder 2.0 pointed out, that’s probably a waste of time you could spend becoming the best at the things you are good at. And still we try to overcome it. Read the book, you’ll see what I mean.
In the meantime, stop trying to be good at everything. And when you’re dealing with young leaders, please don’t be trying to make them good at everything, either. God has given them gifts and talents that fit them and their purpose. Don’t waste their time trying to “fix” their weaknesses.
And don’t say “weakness” as though it’s a bad thing. It’s usually not. The more a student believes that a weak spot is a bad thing, the more apt they are to pour tons of time and effort into something they may not ever be good at. What a waste.
And please remember, that as Paul pointed out, God moves in our weaknesses. Sometimes those weaknesses are there in order to bring glory to God when He uses them to do mighty things.
Instead of focusing on weaknesses, focus on your strengths. You’ll find building them much more rewarding for yourself and your students. You’ll also find yourself much more equipped to do the work God has for you to do. And that’s rewarding; Much more rewarding than trying repeatedly to improve in an area that I’m just not gifted in.
Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,
Matt

You're Wrong!

2010-04-08T19:07:00.000-07:00

Yes, you are, and so am I. We’re wrong a lot, and if we’ll be honest with ourselves, we’re wrong more than we like to admit.

That is between you and God, but when you are working with youth and raising young leaders, you have other obligations as well.

The more you work with and around youth (or other people for that matter) the more often you’ll do or say something stupid around them. It’s not an “if” situation, but a “when.”

The question is, what do you do when you do screw up?

Let me give you an example from my own life. I recently took our leadership team to a local leadership conference. On the way home, I made a snarky comment about one of the hosts, who had been extremely rude to us.

The kids thought my comment was hilarious, but I immediately knew I was wrong for having said it, and that it had come out of my pride and hurt.

What to do?

On the next Sunday, during our weekly meeting, I apologized. They still thought it was funny, so I told them exactly why what I had said was wrong, why my pride was sinful, and how I am responsible for only my own actions, and not the actions of anyone else. I then asked their forgiveness.

By the time I was done, they knew it wasn’t funny anymore, and they learned a hard lesson about themselves, their reactions, and their leader.

When we screw up in front of our students, it is imperative that we explain to them what we did wrong, apologize, and ask their forgiveness. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it also provides a model for them to follow.

I could just have easily not said anything, let them think I was snarky and funny, and let everything go. This would have been easier for me, and not near as humiliating, but would have given those students who heard it the idea that comments like that are okay.

How often do you admit to your students that you are wrong? How do you handle those situations?

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

Embrace the Messy

2010-04-06T14:33:00.000-07:00

How much control do you try to exert over your leadership development team?

I’m not talking about a kind of iron fist control that you’d find in a totalitarian government, I’m talking about how deeply planned you’re meetings are, how much we try to influence outcomes, and how hard we try to steer our lessons in a certain direction.

While each team is different, I have been finding lately that the more control I try to exert over activities of the leadership team, the less the team thrives. Most students need structure, and even welcome it, so why does more control equal less outcome?

I think it has to do with the very nature of leadership and leadership development. While some structure is necessary, the more structure we put into the system, the more it chokes the life out of our young leaders. Our students aren’t normal (whatever normal is), and being leaders, they don’t always operate under the same norms that we’d expect all students to. The more I work with young leaders, the more exceptions I find to developmental theory as explained in my many college classes on the subject.

Leadership development is messy. It happens in real time, and no lesson plan, no matter how good and how detailed, can take into account every student and their personality. No activity, no matter how well planned and what outcome it’s supposed to achieve, can fully take into account every student on your team.

What I’m trying to say is this: plan for the unexpected. Plan to get off-plan. Your lesson or conversation or activity may take your team in a direction that is totally unexpected, and may even seem like a waste to you. Don’t judge it too quickly. Don’t shut it down too quickly. Real growth can happen where you least expect it.

Control is comfortable, control is planned, and control is, well, controlled. Leadership development is messy. Embrace it.

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

Value in Struggle

2010-04-05T17:10:00.001-07:00

Life is hard.

Even so, I bet the best “ah-ha” moments in your life have come through struggle. While we do gain much by learning principles in the spotless laboratory of the classroom, it can’t teach us the most important lessons. Life teaches those, and it’s not always a nice teacher.

When we work with youth, and as we develop young leaders, our relationship with them will often lead us to want to keep them from struggle in life.

Don’t.

There is great value in struggle. In many ways it’s so easy to supply the right answers, or give them the best choice to make, or to help them in the moment that they start to founder in the face of a monumental task.

Don’t.

As mean as it sounds, I can’t think of a worse thing to do. The lessons and clarity that come from struggle will endure long after your boring lectures and teaching have faded from their memory.

Instead, when push comes to shove, come along side of them. Encourage them. Pray with them. Let them know you’re there for them. But let them face the struggle, beat it or succumb to it, and then learn from it.

This can be as easy as letting there be some silent moments after you ask an important question, or not giving them the answer on that history homework. It might be something more involved, too, like not bailing them out when they don’t prepare for a lesson.

Now, don’t take this too far. I’m not talking about putting them in imminent danger. But don’t baby them, either. They’re learning; let them.

Not only will they learn more when you let them struggle, but in the long run, as they look back on their life and reflect on their most poignant lessons, they will thank you for not stepping in and giving them a safe way out.

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

Problems Young Leaders Face

2010-03-29T18:14:00.001-07:00

New leaders always face problems. Think back to your first leadership role. What kind of problems did you face? Were they pleasant? Probably not, but they did teach us a lot. Your young leaders will face these same problems and then some. As a leadership developer, you’ll be there to help them through, pick them up when they’re down, and warn them ahead of time about what they’ll face.

Here’s a few of the problems that I see our young leaders facing as we “hand-off” leadership to them…

1. Few or no people will follow them. It stands to reason that if they are brand new to leadership some people might have a problem following them. This is to be expected, and if you’ll recall you’re first forays into leadership, you probably faced the same problem.

2. Fear. I don’t know about you, but my first leadership position scared me to death. Make no mistake, as you hand off leadership to your students, they are going to have fears.

3. Generational Conflict. The new and the old have always clashed. Every generation’s new ideas have been rejected and trashed by the generations before. Honoring the old and following through with the new is a skill that they will have to learn and hone.

4. Age Discrimination. This is nothing new. Many people don’t believe that youth (teenagers) have anything to offer until they are adults (and many times teenagers don’t do much to improve this viewpoint). I think we need to keep Paul’s admonition to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:12 in mind here.

5. Failure. Failure has such a negative connotation in today’s society. Will our young leaders fail? Yes, they will, just as we did and still do. The problem is when, instead of learning from failure, our students stop trying because of perceived humiliation or fear.

Here are five that I know my leadership students are facing. How about your list? I can pop a few others up there, but I’m more interested in hearing from you…

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

John Hartford and The Story

2010-03-24T07:01:00.001-07:00

This morning I had to run some errands, and I took along a CD I hadn’t listened to in a while. In fact, it’s been so long that I didn’t even have it on my itunes. The CD is by a guy named Gene Goforth, who was a Missouri traditional fiddle player (I know, this doesn’t bode well for the geek-o-meter). It was produced by a guy named John Hartford.

Some of you may know John Hartford. He’s a musician and entertainer. He plays all sorts of instruments, but is best known for his fiddle and banjo work. He was on the Smothers Brothers show (now I’m dating myself) and has recorded numerous albums.

Hartford spent the latter years of his life telling stories. He would find some obscure traditional American musicians, record them if they were still alive, dig up their old recordings if they weren’t, and research their life and music. The end product was a collection of music and stories, some told by the musician, some told by Hartford, all woven into the music.

The end product is fascinating. Besides unbelievably great music, the untold story of these people’s lives unfolds in word and music. It’s a great look into the life and music of an era and people that is all but extinct in modern culture.

This morning while I was listening, something hit me. I am John Hartford. So are you. We’ve dedicated our lives to telling God’s story in a culture where his fame and glory are relatively unknown. We tell this story in different ways. Some of us tell it to youth, some of us share it with adults. Some of us sing this story, others of us preach it, and still others weave it into our activities and our lifestyles.

The cool thing about Hartford is that he knew so many of the musicians whose story he told. His story became intertwined with theirs. That fact made the stories so much more real, interesting, and relevant.

Our story is also intertwined with God’s story. We are right smack in the middle of it, living it and telling it. We play a part in this wonderful story, and we get to tell it. We are every bit the story crafter that John Hartford is, and our story is so much more important.

How is your storytelling? Do you represent your subject well? How are you teaching others to be storytellers?

Here’s to the story of God, and here’s to your storytelling…

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

Following to Lead

2010-03-19T07:16:00.001-07:00

Why does it seem like most of the qualities of a Christian leader are also those of followers of Christ? Because in Christian leadership, all leaders are followers. Christian leadership isn’t like secular leadership in many ways, but the most important way is this: no matter how high up the ladder you go, the Christian leader always follows. Always; with no exceptions.

We often forget that Jesus told His disciples that to lead meant to serve everyone else. Jesus said that those who wished to be first would be last. To be a good leader, you must also be a good follower.

You must be a good follower of Christ. Remember that no matter what you lead, as a Christian leader, you still answer to God. That is what separates Christian leadership from a lot of business models. If you don’t follow Jesus, then you don’t have to answer to anybody else, and you don’t necessarily have to be a follower. As a Christian leader it’s different.

I think it would do a world of good if all leaders spent some time following, maybe every day. I think it would change the leader/follower paradigm in most companies. They would begin to understand what Christian leaders should already know: following is an essential part of leading.

How are we teaching our young people to follow? Seems like a strange question coming from a leadership blog, but it is pertinent. The ability that our students have to follow godly leadership now has a huge impact on how they lead tomorrow.

Do you want an arrogant, impetuous Christian leader? Don’t teach them to be a follower.

Do you want an out of touch Christian leader? Don’t teach them to be a follower.

Do you want a Christian leader who abuses their power? Don’t teach them to be a follower.

Question: How are you teaching your students to follow? How are you connecting those lessons to future leadership?

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

Character Development is Hard

2010-03-15T15:57:00.003-07:00

Having just finished “The Character of Leadership” by Jeff Iorg, my mind has been wondering around thinking of ways to educate character into my students. I hate to say it, but it’s hard. It’s hard because you can’t make someone else behave in a certain way (and if you do you’re as bad as the person who wasn’t acting right in the first place); it’s hard because we don’t get to spend a lot of time with our students as opposed to other influences on their lives. It’s hard because behavior modification is easier than character development.

I truly believe that you lead out of who you are. If that’s the case, then character development is one of the more important things that we will do for our youth, and especially our young leaders. Its importance cannot be understated.

Here are a couple of ideas when it comes to developing character that I’ve been mulling over:

1. Partner with parents. Parents are the main influence on students, whether they’ll admit to it or not (actually, they have admitted to it. See “Real Teens” by George Barna). If we’re going to have any real impact on character development, it will have to be a multi-front fight. Make sure parents are on board with you.

2. Constantly harp on Character. Maybe harp is a bad term. Don’t nag them, but keep character issues in front of their face at all times. Talk with your students about their character. Do exercises that stretch their moral mental muscles.

3. Give them real moral dilemmas to work through and figure out. Make them as real and as relevant as possible.

4. Cultivate a rich inner life in your students. A student who is out of their bible and not spending time in prayer is not going to develop biblical character. Help your students come up with good spiritual disciplines and then help them stick to them.

Question: How are you developing character in your students? What is working, and what isn’t?

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

Student Expectations

2010-03-08T12:09:00.001-08:00

What do your students expect out of your leadership program? Do you know?

Why not?

If you don’t know what your students expect, than you might be in for a few nasty surprises down the road. You might experience losses from your group or a general discontent from certain individuals if you don’t figure out their expectations.

Now, many of you are probably saying: “What does it matter what they expect, aren’t I running this program?” This is a good thought. It is our responsibility to let students know what we expect of them, and what the program is, before we even consider them as a candidate to join the team.

However, leadership is a big word, and means many different things to many different people. Find out what it means to your students up front. Find out what they expect to get out of a spot on the leadership team. By doing so, you might find some otherwise good candidates that won’t be satisfied with the program you have put together. You might also be alerted to some weak spots in your program.

In the end, it’s just good practice to find out what your students expect from you, just as you are eager for them to find out what you expect of them. It’ll save you some headache down the road.

Here’s a couple of ways you can work student expectations into your program where they will benefit you most:

1. On your application, have a spot where each student talks about their expectations.

2. Hold an informational meeting with prospective students where you can openly talk about expectations; both yours and theirs.

3. Make one of your first leadership meetings about expectations. Let them know that they need to be prepared to talk about their expectations, and that you will talk about yours.

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

Your Approval Rocks Their World

2010-03-04T14:43:00.001-08:00

You may not realize it, but you have the power to make or break a youth’s world. How you react to a youth’s accomplishments means the world to your students.

Whether we invite it or not, our word carries great weight in their lives, and our responsibility is to use it with love.

I think, as we rush through the day and all the things that we have to do in it, that we often forget to look for the things that our students are doing right. We spend inordinate amounts of time preaching about, counseling to, and dealing with the things that they do wrong, but somehow don’t find the same time to talk about the things they are doing right.

All of our students need this approval, this reinforcement. Many times they aren’t getting it at home, or at school, and they may start playing to the lowest common denominator. They don’t need that, we don’t need that, and the world doesn’t need that. Believe me, if you are told that you are stupid all the time you will start to believe it.

We have to counteract this tendency with truth and love. Look for ways that you can give your approval to each of your students. I think you’ll be amazed at how they’ll react.

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

Why I Need to Exercise

2010-03-01T13:22:00.001-08:00

Want to get some discipline? It’s not easy. But it is useful. Discipline is essential to life. It takes a lot of discipline to get up every morning and go to work. It takes a lot of discipline to get up and go to school. It takes discipline to stay in the Word, to pray, and to take time out of your day for others.

If you want to beef up your discipline, start doing something you don’t want to do. Sounds simple, right? In my case it’s exercise. I hate exercising with every last shred of my being. But it’s good for me, so I do it. I don’t do it as often as I should, but I do it. In fact, as I write this I just finished exercising.

My point is this. Those of us who are running leadership development teams are constantly looking for ways to help our kids put some discipline in their lives. Here’s a good way to do it, even though it’s painful. Some of your kids don’t like to read. Have them start reading (preferably their Bible). Some of your kids don’t like doing the dishes. Get with their parents and have them start doing the dishes.

You get the picture, but here are a couple of thoughts as you ponder doing this:

1. Don’t have your kids do something that is useless just to instill discipline. They need to be doing something useful. They have to see the correlation between discipline and doing things that need to be done, no matter how they feel about them.

2. Make sure you don’t just talk about this and then let it go. Follow up. Even better, get parents involved. I’m sure parents would love all the help they can get instilling discipline in their students.

3. Make sure you are participating just like your students are. Make an online diary or some other public form of accountability so your students know that you’re in it with them.

Question: How do you instill discipline in your students?

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

I'm So Selfish

2010-02-26T07:23:00.000-08:00

I’m sure you’re aware of this, but I’m going to tell you anyway. This world is so selfish. We are a selfish people. We are all about me. I’m sure that if you’re real with yourself, you’ll admit that most times you love yourself more than God. It’s bad, it stinks, and it’s part of being human.

This is the world in which we are bringing up a new generation of leaders. I don’t have to tell you that these leaders will have to be more altruistic than any other generation before it to counter the rising tide of self-centeredness, but how do we do that? What is so counter-cultural and life-changing that it swings this generation against the tide and captures their imaginations strongly enough to hold them against the generation of self?

The gospel. That’s what. The life of Jesus is a study in selflessness. It sounds strange, but it’s selflessness that will trump selfishness.

The truth is that we are bringing up a generation that does truly care about others. With Bono as their guide, they have taken on problems such as Darfur, the environment, poverty, AIDS, and the list goes on. The elements of selflessness are in place, but you need a spark that keeps them there. That’s the gospel.

The rest of these causes are just that: causes. They don’t necessitate selflessness, just a bit of giving and advocacy. The true gospel demands a selflessness to be like Christ; To deny ourselves, and take up our cross. This isn’t easy, and it does take a lifetime (sanctification) to perfect, but there’s no time like the present to start.

How do we do this: practice. Believe it or not, this generation’s attitude won’t be changed overnight. Despite the sudden shift of concern for others, selfishness still has its hold on us. We can’t change this attitude overnight, but we can change behavior. Over time, God uses that change in behavior to change the heart. Bingo. End game. Selflessness

Here’s a few ways we can partner with God in this process

1. Focus on selflessness. Make sure our students know where it comes from (that’s from God, who alone is perfect). Play the broken record and study it extensively during devotional time.

2. Practice altruism often. Serve others at the expense of ourselves.

3. Pray for changed hearts in this generation. Pray for a changed heart for yourself.

We know that the perfect won’t come until the end, but in the meantime, let’s get as close to selflessness as we can. Our fallen world and the lost who live in it depend on it.

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

Making a Leadership Team Personal

2010-02-24T14:38:00.003-08:00

Leaders don’t learn the same, they don’t act the same, and they don’t lead the same. So why do we try to make cookie-cutter leadership teams? One of the greatest challenges of running a leadership team is trying to personalize it while still maintaining a team atmosphere.

Before you can personalize your team, you have to know how your students differ. Make sure you are utilizing leadership tests so that you and each of your students know how they are different from each other. Leadertreks has a fantastic set of leadership tests that will tell you everything from how each of your students lead to how they learn. This is very helpful information, and after you learn about your students, you can start to personalize your team.

Here are a couple of other ideas:

1. Make sure mentoring is part of your leadership team. One-on-One sessions with your students make sure that they get personal attention they need and that you can teach and coach with them individually.

2. Make sure your teaching includes activities that speak to different learning styles. Mix it up a bit.

3. Do activities that incorporate everyone’s areas of passion and strengths. Don’t do activities that only get you fired up.

4. Continue to sit down and learn about new things that are going on in the life of your students. Keep current with them individually and with the youth culture at large. Utilize this information to create catered leadership activities for your students.

5. Make sure you are balancing individual activities and group activities. Learning individually and learning how to play nice in a group are both very important.

Personalizing your team takes time and quite a bit of effort. Make sure that you’re not playing to your personality or one of the easier personalities on the team. Your students will notice, and they won’t grow as much as they could if you put forth the extra effort to personalize your teaching.

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

Learning Your Strengths

2010-02-17T13:21:00.001-08:00

I’ve blogged here about Strengthsfinder 2.0. I love that book, and I love what it does for people, especially leaders. Well, I’ve just finished its sister book, Strengths Based Leadership, which I also loved. I will do a review of that at another time. What I really want to talk about is this: Gallup released some data in Strengths Based Leadership that I think we can all pay attention to. It’s not strictly related to Christian Leadership, but I think that the stats that I’m about to quote say it all.

Gallup reports that people experience a significant gain in self-confidence after taking a Strengthsfinder test and learning more about their strengths. I don’t think this should come as a surprise. Knowing what you’re good at and being freed up to do it are confidence boosting bits of information. But there’s more:

In 2008, University of Florida released a 25 year study about confidence and work. Here’s a few of the highlights.

People between the ages of 14 and 22 who had more self confidence were making about 3,500 dollars more than their peers in 1979.

These same people saw dramatic increases in their income each passing year.

Those people with higher self-confidence had fewer health problems in 2004 than in 1979 25 years later.

Gallup Polling that has been released suggests that having the opportunity to learn about your strengths has the same effect as the gain in self-confidence. People 15-23 who learned about their strengths were reporting “significantly higher” job satisfaction levels 25 years later.

So what does this mean for us? I don’t know. To my knowledge, there hasn’t been any longitudinal studies on Christian leaders and how Strengths Test and the resulting self-Confidence affects them. I have my guesses though.

I cannot imagine that it would be anything short of revolutionary in the life of a Christian young person to know what strengths God built into them. We are always testing for spiritual gifts, which is very important, so why don’t we test to know how God put us together in other ways?

Imagine the possibilities if we had a generation of Christian leaders who knew both their Spiritual Gifts and their God-given Strengths. What would they be capable of? What difference would it make in their personal lives? How much less burn-out would we have?

I can’t answer these questions (right now), but I am convinced, now more than ever, of the need to test and teach students about their strengths. In fact, I don’t know why every student in the world shouldn’t be taking a Strengths evaluation. I think it’s that important.

Question: What has your experience with Strengths testing been? How has it affected young people you know?

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

Spiritual Gifts and Natural Strengths

2010-02-15T17:08:00.000-08:00

The more I talk about books like “Strengthsfinder 2.0” the more I am asked, “how do strengths and spiritual gifts coincide?” The question has come up enough that I think I should address this.

These conversations come about because of my insistence that as we move forward with Next In Line, every student that can should take a battery of “tests” that will help them know themselves better. They will also help their teacher know more about them and help them set up a more personalized leadership development program (see the article “Explore” in the Next In Line Starter Kit).

I am finding that many leaders in the church are leery of secular tests that help pinpoint your strengths, as these are not your spiritual gifts. While it is true that we cannot confuse God-given talents with God-given spiritual gifts, I don’t see why we can’t be aware of both.

Some people started asking me which was more important, the Strengths Test, or the Spiritual Gifts test. I couldn’t exactly answer that question, because both are important. Here’s how I broke this down to them, and I hope this is helpful to you as well:

Spiritual Gifts are those supernaturally imparted gifts that God gives to us upon conversion that allow us to perform a certain ministry within the church, for the edification of the body (see Ephesians 4 or Romans 12 for a partial list of the gifts and their purpose). Notice a couple of things about Spiritual Gifts:

1. They are given by God

2. They are supernatural

3. They are for ministry

4. Given at conversion

Strengths (or talents) are also God-given. They are things that God wove into our personality and genetics. They are used for more than just ministry, but cannot be separated from it, as we are created for God. They aren’t exactly listed in the bible, but you know what I’m saying: some of us are better at math than others, and some can publicly speak better than others. Others of us have been given incredible wisdom, or inherently understand mechanical things. Notice a couple of things about Strengths:

1. They are given by God

2. They are not supernatural

3. They are for ministry (and other things)

4. Woven into our fabric as God’s creation

The big difference between the two is when they are given and their nature. Otherwise, they are very similar. Ultimately, they also serve the same purpose: the Missio Dei.

The reason that I insist on students finding out their strengths and their Spiritual Gift(s) is that God often uses both in their call to ministry. I love that God would equip us naturally to do certain things well and then complement that with a Spiritual Gift that brings all the glory from that activity to Him.

Our students are more than their spiritual gifts. They are (much) more than their talents and strengths. They are “fearfully and wonderfully made” for amazing purpose. Spiritual Gifts and natural talents are just two aspects of the same person that God has made for His work.

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

Defining Success

2010-02-12T13:10:00.001-08:00

How do you define success in leadership? How do your students define success in leadership?

One of the board members here at Next in Line was at a Christian Bookstore (which shall remain nameless) the other day and was perusing through leadership books. He was horrified to find that more than one of them qualified a successful leader as one who had a large following, was making lots of money, or was very successful(numbers) in his/her business or ministry. He immediately called me and asked me what was going on. I really didn’t have an answer for him.

I have a small problem with Christian leadership success being defined by numbers, followers, or dollars. I know that this defines earthly success, and don’t get me wrong they are not bad things. I just don’t think they are the things a Christian leader defines themselves by.

The Apostle Paul’s boast was never in numbers, but the kind of people that were being raised up under his leadership. Further, he would usually boast in the things of God, not of man. I don’t think Paul would have been considered very successful as a leader by the world’s standards. He was constantly run out of town, stoned, shipwrecked, having problem with the organizations that he started, etc. But he is probably one of the greatest Christian leaders of all times. Why? Because he did the things God called him to do no matter what the cost. He did the right thing, even if it meant upsetting his “followers” (which he would have rightly said didn’t belong to him anyways).

Maybe a better idea of Christian Leadership success should come from that of a successful steward. This is an example that Jesus would use when he told parables about Christian leadership. The steward does well with what is given to him. As Christian leaders, I think that should be our definition of success as well. It should also be what we are teaching our young people. Help them to understand the difference between a steward, who doesn’t own anything but is rather a caretaker of someone else’s things, and a “success”, who owns much and has much.

When the world begins to pollute how we see “success”, then we have lost the fight.

Question: What do You See as Success for a Christian Leader?

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

Increase Your Wisdom

2010-02-08T15:53:00.001-08:00

I was reading in Proverbs the other day and this little tidbit stuck out at me. “The wise man listens, and increases wisdom.” I love this.

In our world, to be “the man” we’re expected to talk. We’re expected to have all of the right answers, and know everything in our field (and a host of others).

The Bible sees wisdom in a different way. Take a close look at that verse. First of all, the person who listens is already wise. Second, when he listens, his wisdom increases.

The next time you are out with a group of friends, at a meeting with fellow professionals, or are just talking to another person at church or work, listen.

It’s amazing what you learn when you aren’t trying to insert your own opinion. Listening has two great side effects. First, as the Bible says, you gain in wisdom. Second, people like to be listened to. You’ll make somebody’s day if you actually listen to them.

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to listen, especially if you disagree with the person you are listening to. Discipline yourself. Hear everyone out, no matter what their opinion. That’s how you learn. That’s how you grow.

Wisdom doesn’t figure much into today’s world. Unfortunately, to get ahead it seems that listening to others isn’t as important as telling them how it’s done. The wise leader listens before speaking, and they learn from what the other person is saying.

As we teach young people to be leaders, we should make sure that we are teaching them to listen. There are plenty of people all around them more than willing to tell them how they should be doing things. They can start practicing their listening skills right now.

What are some important things you have learned while listening to others?

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

Book Review: "The Character of Leadership" by Jeff Iorg

2010-02-03T09:55:00.000-08:00

We lead from who we are. This is true of leaders on the secular and Christian side of leadership. Who we are and how we acts determines whether we are a leader worth following. Jeff Iorg’s book, The Character of Leadership, explores what a leader should be in an easy-to-read book that is both insightful and convicting.

I have read quite a few books on leadership, but not one like The Character of Leadership. Jeff Iorg, who is president of Golden Gate Theological Seminary, explores nine characteristics that he believes a leader should posses in order to be successful as a leader. His book is biblical, reflective, heartfelt, and personal. Iorg’s extensive experience lends a personal note to the book that makes it at once engaging and practical to any leader.

Iorg explores the following nine areas of character with advice, definition, and anecdote:

Integrity

Security

Purity

Humility

Servanthood

Wisdom

Discipline

Courage

Passion

Far from being a rehash of old leadership principles, Iorg manages to challenge many long held beliefs about these nine characteristics and engage them in new ways. Iorg offers practical advice on how to practice each of these characteristics in your life, while being very real about his struggles and victories in each category.

Whether you have been a leader for many years or are just starting your leadership journey, you will find The Character of Leadership extremely helpful and practical for personal and ministry growth. You will find yourself identifying with Iorg’s heart for leadership and personal development, while engaging biblical leadership principles freshly in your own life.

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

My Winter Reading List

2010-02-01T06:05:00.000-08:00

At this time of year, with the outdoors closed off to us, many of us pick up a good book to pass the time. If you're looking for a couple of good reads, here's my reading list for the winter. I've included a website where you can get more information about the book or the author with each entry. Hope it helps, and happy reading!

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount by D. Martin Lloyd Jones

Six Thinking Hats by Edward De Bono

5 Minds for the Future by Howard Gardner

Mentoring Leaders by Carson Pue

Make Poverty Personal by Ash Barker

PNTC Commentary: The Letter of James by Douglas Moo

Moses by Chuck Swindoll

The Search to Belong by Joseph R Myers

Real Teens by George Barna

Master Leaders by George Barna

The Making of a Leader by Dr. J. Robert Clinton

Six Pixels of Seperation by Mitch Joel

Youth Leadership Resume: Intimacy

2010-01-28T16:00:00.001-08:00

A Christian leader has a piece of the puzzle that a non-Christian doesn’t have: a relationship with Jesus Christ. Many people would ask what in the world this has to do leadership, but I would say “everything!”

Jesus didn’t lead like other people. He spent a lot of time drawing the line between the world’s leaders and the way that his disciples were supposed to lead. Living the Christian life gives a person a sense of leadership that others don’t have.

Now, let’s get one thing straight. We don’t read the bible and culture a relationship with Jesus in order to become better leaders. In fact, a Christian leader is called by God through their relationship, in order to serve. The Christian leader is also equipped by God through Spiritual gifting and sanctification, the process of being made more like Jesus. So rather than us using God to improve our means, it’s quite the other way around. God uses us as leaders to advance his kingdom and to equip His people to serve Him.

Our relationship with God, in fact, makes us worth following, and gives us the true way of leadership. This being the case, teaching our students to foster a relationship with God should be of high importance to us.

That is easier said than done, obviously, because we don’t see our students every day. It’s hard to help them set up lasting habits even with something as important as a relationship with God. That means we have to work even harder and smarter in helping our students do so. We have to partner with parents, work with our students, and model intimacy for our students in our own lives.

If we are to have a generation of Christ-followers as leaders in all areas of society, they will have to have an intimacy with God that informs their purpose, calling, and leadership.

Question: How are you teaching intimacy to your students?

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

Youth Leadership Resume: Humility

2010-01-27T06:09:00.001-08:00

Humility. I’m not real good at that. I tend to go the other way: rampant, arrogant pride. So does most of the world.

Leadership goes hand in hand with pride. After all, you’re in charge. You’re the man (or the woman). You get it done. With all of that, it’s no wonder that most leaders do not show any humility. Even though this makes sense, it’s not the way it should be.

At its core, humility is recognizing who and what you are. If you are a Christian, then you know that everything you are comes from God. If everything you are comes from God, there shouldn’t be any room for pride, but rather worship, praise, and thanksgiving.

Many leaders, even Christian leaders, seem not to make this distinction. A young Christian leader is going to need to learn humility early, and continue to work on it as they gain in respect, influence, and stature. The higher up they get, the more they will probably struggle with pride.

Pride is an easy trap to fall into, and the world expects high-placed leaders to be prideful. But imagine a group of leaders who gave glory to God for results rather than glory to themselves. Now that’s counter-cultural.

In the course of our leadership development, we have to address humility. Humility, in its naked form, shows just what a person believes about God and themselves.

Question: how are you teaching humility to your students?

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

Youth Leadership Resume: Integrity

2010-01-25T06:33:00.000-08:00

Over the next week, I want to talk about three elements of character that are most important to a leader. As Christians, we find ourselves in a world that wouldn’t agree with most of our character traits. We seem weak to the world; we seem different. I think different is good, but all too often Christians, in an effort to fit in with the world and not be seen as an outsider, will adopt the world’s standards.

If young Christian leaders are going to have an impact in the world at large then they must remain different. We must be set apart. The three elements of character that I have picked to write about this week represent what I believe are the core aspects of leadership that set us apart.

The first character trait is Integrity. My dad was big on integrity, and I grew up hearing that word every day. Unfortunately, many people didn’t grow up with my dad.

Integrity, at its heart, means doing the right thing all the time, even when people aren’t looking. I think that last part is the most important, because it talks about more than behavior; it talks about attitude. I can follow the rules to a person’s face, and as soon as they turn around, dump all the rules out the window. That is a sure sign that I don’t have integrity. I’m following the rules because it gets me ahead. Integrity is when we do what’s right because it’s right.

In a world of situational ethics, instilling integrity in our kids isn’t easy. In fact, it’s an uphill battle. But it’s a battle worth having. In fact, it’s a must. People follow a person with integrity. They look up to them. They’ll follow them because people with integrity are so different.

We need different. I don’t want the status quo in charge anymore. If we’re going to raise up the next generation of leaders, let’s give them some tools to be different. Let’s show and teach them integrity.

Question: how are you teaching integrity to your students?

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

Long Term Hope for Haiti

2010-01-21T17:19:00.000-08:00

The third and last blog on Haiti this week is going to talk about a long term strategy for rebuilding Haiti. Specifically, what our churches can do in the long term to help rebuild the country and share God's amazing love with the Haitian people.

Something I've been thinking about is organizing the church into teams of people with a specific skills mix and sending them down in shifts to help with rebuilding projects. It would take a great amount of planning and coordination, but could really help when a full-scale rebuild is underway.

First, what will the Haitians need in the long term?
Architects
New infrastructure
Consultants
Construction Workers
Carpenters
Teachers
Long Term food supply.
Counseling
Temporary workers in proffesional jobs where people were lost
and the list goes on.

Does anybody in your church fit this list? How about your list?
The resources to help rebuild this country are right here, under our very noses.

I'm curious. What can your leadership team alone supply in the way of expertise or skill? I'd be interested to hear from you.

Training Tomorrow's Leaders Today,
Matt

Passports at the Ready

2010-01-20T05:24:00.000-08:00

I got this comment about Haiti relief efforts the other day from Michael Rhodus, a friend of mine from Excelsior Springs:

"my church is urging people to get the passports. When this phase is done we will be sending teams down to help a missionary we help support in Carfu . He was out out country when it hit , but arrived there a few days ago with a medical team.I would like to go if it is safe enough.Pray about it. We are also taking up offerings to help him. He does not get money from the Red Cross."

What a fantastic idea! One of the things about the disaster in Haiti is that the relief efforts will not be short term. We will be at this for a long time. Not knowing where the biggest need will be, we should be developing short term (money to good organizations) and long term (may I suggest mission trips and long term relief teams) strategies.

Getting your church in gear with passports and whatever training you can give them is a good first step in preparing for a long-term relief strategy.

Training Tomorrow's Leaders Today,
Matt

Haiti-Do Something

2010-01-18T05:58:00.000-08:00

This week I'm going to put a pause to the normal leadership stuff and talk about ideas that have been coming in for helping the people of Haiti. My prayer is that we can share some ideas and by communicating help the people of Haiti better.
My prayer in all of this is that the church rise up as one and flood the nation of Haiti with food, water, shelter, support, rebuilding effort, workers, and of course, the gospel.
One idea that came to me yesterday really caught my attention: A benefit concert. I expect that at anytime, the worldwide music community will start having benefit concerts for the people of Haiti. Why can't we do the same? Surely in your community there are some bands and a central location that you could use to put on a benefit concert.
As for me, I love the idea. After talking with my leadership development team last night, we decided to start putting it together. It's going to take some work. In fact, it's going to take a lot of work. But it's worth it. I'll let you know what organization we will partner with to get the proceeds to Haiti.
In the meantime, share some of your ideas with me. Let me know what you're up to to help the people of Haiti, and how your leadership team is getting involved.

Training Tomorrow's Leaders Today,
Matt

Student Leadership and Haiti

2010-01-15T05:54:00.000-08:00

Over the last couple of days, my heart has been breaking for the people of Haiti. I cannot imagine the devastation, pain, and loss that they are going through. There is only so much that pictures and news reports can convey.
As I have been wrestling with my own response to this crisis, I was thinking that this situation would be a perfect opportunity to allow our leadership students to plan and execute some relief programs for the people of Haiti. It is an opportunity for them to share the love of Christ with a devastated people and to learn and grow themselves.
I can't tell you how this is going to go, because we're just starting it. My team is still deciding where the Lord will have us work, and how. I will keep you updated on what we have decided to do, and how. Like me you might be figuring out just what your response to this crisis will be. Maybe you've decided to involve the leadership of your youth, or maybe your whole youth group (whatever the leadership team in my group decides to do will involve the whole group).
Whatever the case may be, and whatever you've decided to do, I'd like to ask that we share those ideas with eachother as much as possible. While this is a good opportunity for our students (and ourselves) to learn, the focus must be on the people of Haiti, and sharing the love of Christ with them.
I'm anxious to hear what you are doing, and eager to get started on our own projects for this ravaged people.

Training Tomorrow's Leaders Today,
Matt

Mini-Me Leadership

2010-01-13T09:12:00.001-08:00

What kind of leaders are coming out of your leadership program?
This is a very important question. The purpose of leadership development is not to turn out clones of you. I can’t think of a more egocentric way to pollute the world. What the world does not need is another you. I’m sorry, but it’s true. What the world needs is a man or woman that God has created specially and specifically for their own task.
Let’s stop trying to turn out mini-me’s and let’s start partnering with God to help Him turn out the kind of leaders that He wants.
Our job as leadership developers is to work with and hone our students as individuals, allowing them each to become what God has intended them to become, not what you are. This is very difficult for some leaders to put into practice, because they are very familiar with what trained and honed them as leaders. Each of us are different though, and each of us are going to need a different “program” to train us as leaders.
Let me give you a good negative example. I am a reader. I read voraciously. I learn from reading, and I love it. Right now I am mentoring a young leader who is not a reader (not that they don’t read, but they don’t read like me; see how egocentric this can get?). At first, I tried to make them read. That didn’t work so well. When that didn’t work I found out what kind of a learner I was dealing with and began to teach to their strengths. That worked much better.
What this means for us is it’s not going to be easy to train new leaders. It’s hard, messy, and time-consuming. But nothing worth doing was ever easy.

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,
Matt

Not of Your Church

2010-01-11T05:35:00.000-08:00

Last night I took our youth group on a little trip. We went to a church in a small town on the other side of Kansas City that was running a ministry for young mothers. It's called Baby Grace Ministries, and is run by Anne Farmer and Juli Yocum. This is a great ministry whose effectiveness is clearly visible.

The students that I took really enjoyed it, and I think it did them a lot of good to get out and see others in action. This reminded me that it's so important to learn about and celebrate the things God is doing outside of your local church. Youth can get so used to the things in your own church that they forget that there are other churches doing other things. Sometimes they forget that those other things serve and glorify God just as much as the ministries your church participates in. And sometimes, if we're not careful, our youth will begin to think that their church is the only one capable of doing things right or worth doing. We have to guard against this kind of pride and arrogance.

Here's why I think visiting other churches and ministries is effective:
1. It gets the kids off of their home turf. Students need to see that God is worshiped and served in more places than just your church.
2. Students gain an appreciation for other people and denominations when they see them in action.
3. People from different churches and denominations think differently and have a different culture than do the people that we serve and worship with regularly. Letting our kids see and experience different people will broaden them and perhaps give them new insights they might not have received staying on familiar ground.

Question: What have been some successful trips to other churches, denominations, or ministries that you or your youth group have taken?

Training Tomorrow's Leaders Today,
Matt

New Year's Resolutions Part 3

2010-01-08T06:14:00.000-08:00

My last resolution is also the hardest.

Resolution 3: keep my resolutions.

I’m sure you can recall making a resolution, being very excited about it…for about a week, and then just lamenting the fact that you can’t keep your resolutions (if you can’t recall anything like this happening, then you need to be writing this, and not me).

Keeping my resolutions is a mixture of keeping the excitement, the determination, and the importance of my task at the forefront of my attention. Here’s my plan of attack for this year:

Read. A lot. Reading always keeps my attention focused. Two of my dominant strengths are input and learner. I love to read, and it helps me stay focused on the task at hand. It also keeps my subject close to my thoughts at all times.

Collect Blogs. I’m collecting quite a few leadership blogs on my igoogle page. I’m finding that over time I’m refining them more and more, so if you think that reading blogs about your resolutions will help you stay focused, here’s a couple of tips:

1. Look for blogs that are relevant to your resolution; in my case: leadership. If you want to get involved in some other blogs, then sort them in another file, another reader, or another page, so you can concentrate. Given the choice of reading a blog about work or about your favorite sports team, you know which one you’ll pick.

2. If you find you aren’t reading a blog or that it’s not helpful, delete it. It will only clog up your reader and make it less likely that you’ll wade through the bad stuff to get to the good.

3. Always be on the lookout for fresh content and new blogs.

Just Do It! Nothing trumps getting your hands dirty. If your goal is to start a leadership team, then the best way to keep your resolution is to start a leadership team. Tell other people about what you want to do. Enlist their help. You are less likely to drop the ball when it will be embarrassing to do so. Lay your groundwork, and prepare. The more you invest in a project, the more likely you’ll be to carry it off. This week is my jump off, and already I’m putting into play the foundations for expanding my leadership team, and I’m starting to organize a leadership seminar.

I pray that you carry through on your resolutions.

Question: If you have resolutions about leadership, what are they? How do you plan on carrying through with them?

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

My New Year's Resolution Part 2

2010-01-06T06:25:00.000-08:00

So, my second New Year’s resolution ties in with my first, but it’s a lot more work.

Resolution 2: Share leadership with others.

I don’t mean delegate (although I need to learn to do that better, as well). What I mean is that I’m going to actively seek to build leadership principles and practice with other people this year, namely teenagers. You may not be in to teaching teenagers, but if you’re honest with yourself, you probably know someone who needs to be taken under your wing and shown the ropes.

Teaching leadership can take several forms, and each person, depending on how deep they want to go and how much time they are willing to devote to leadership development, will take a different road. Here’s how I resolve to teach leadership this year:

Mentoring: This is a more one-on-one experience, where just you and another person or a small group sit down and discuss leadership. This is a very intimate way to pass on leadership to someone else. I currently mentor one individual and plan on taking on one or two more this year

Group Teaching: A leadership development team or class can teach leadership principles to a larger group of people. While this tends to still be very personal, it is not as personal as mentoring. This type of platform is good for imparting basic leadership tenants and being part of an overall leadership program. I currently have a leadership team, but plan to expand it this year and deepen the teaching.

Conferences and Seminar Teaching: This type of teaching is good at reaching many people at once, and while you can learn a lot of great stuff, it’s not very personal (although it is a great place to make lots of new contacts that can become more personal). My organization, Next In Line Ministries, plans to do several seminars this year.

As you can see, there’s lots of ways that you can pass your leadership knowledge on. You don’t have to be speaking at seminars to make a difference. You don’t have to Mentor 20 different people to make a difference.

This New Year, resolve to pass on your leadership knowledge, even if it’s to one other person.

Question: How are you passing on your leadership knowledge?

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

New Year's Resolutions Part 1

2010-01-04T07:38:00.000-08:00

Resolutions can be so cliché. Most of the time they’re gone and forgotten within a week. But with the New Year here, I suppose it’s time to take a stab at them once again.

What’s Your New Year’s resolution? Have you thought about it yet? Have you set them yet?

I have a couple that I’d like to share with you, and maybe even suggest to you. The New Year is a good time to start down a couple of roads that you’ve wanted to for a while, but have just been too busy to start. It’s also a good time to plan, and take stock of who you are and what you’re doing.

With that, here’s the first of 3 resolutions that are on my list for 2010.

Resolution 1: Strengthen my leadership skills

One of the things that has always bugged me is the wealth of information on leadership in the marketplace and how little of it gets back to the consumer. That’s one of the problems with the information overload that the internet is providing us with right now.

There are some amazing resources to explore your leadership out there, and I plan on taking advantage of them this year. I want to strengthen my leadership with as much knowledge and resources as I can, to be the best leader I can be in the coming years. I am deliberately setting aside time to explore my leadership style, my strengths, my learning styles, and my personality type. I am taking a lot of time to explore what Jesus said a leader was and become that leader.

Why is this important: Leadership is an art. It is a skill. It has to be practiced and developed. And, because I want to be the best that I can be. I want to be everything that God has made me to be. I want to be the best leader that I can be for those who follow me.

This New Year, I'm making it a priority to strengthen who I am as a leader. I hope you do, too.
Here's a couple of the books that I'm going to use this year. Give them a shot and see how they work for you.

Question: What resources are you using to strengthen your leadership?

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

Blog Hiatus

2009-12-28T15:34:00.000-08:00

I'll be taking a short blog hiatus this week. Just wanted to let you know, so you don't expect any content this week. I'll be back next week, revived, energized, and ready to talk some leadership!

Training Tommorrow's Leaders Today,
Matt

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Next In Line Leadership Reads of the Week

2009-12-23T06:58:00.000-08:00

Credibility ≠ Likability

2009-12-21T07:12:00.000-08:00

I heard one of my professors say this a while back, and it made me think quite a bit. Deep down, we all have this need to be liked. Well, unless we’re sociopathic. Unfortunately, many of us need this so much that we let it get in the way of our teaching. This is not good.
For just a minute, examine yourself and ask yourself if this is what you do. Would you rather be liked, seen as a friend, or teach the hard lesson and be seen as a jerk for a week?
In the long term, of course, the answer is “I want to be both.” I think we can have both, but not always at the same time. Don’t misread what I’m saying. You want likability too. You won’t do much for the cause of Christ by being a jerk-face. But there will be times when you’ll have to choose between the two, and that’s what I’m talking about here.
Sometimes it is demanded of us that we do the right thing, say the right thing, even if our student isn’t going to like it, or us, for a while because of it.
Their future and their godliness is more important than whether they like what we have to say, or us. Sometimes we have to bite the bullet, say or do the hard thing, and let the chips fall where they will. They may not speak to you for a couple of weeks, but in the end, when they “come to themselves” they will realize that you said what you did, or did what you did, for their benefit. You’ve just established credibility.
Whether they realize it or not, you need credibility with your students. They will know when you’re softballing it for them. Hardballing might not get you any friendly texts that week, but in the long run you’ll establish yourself as someone who truly cares.
This principle might be even more difficult in a leadership team, where you are probably closer knit. However, here more than in youth group this principle is so important. Softballing doesn’t help anybody. We’re messing with the future, and God has called us to raise up these leaders. Credibility is imperative. Say the hard things. Your leaders should be able to take it. When it comes time for a yearly review, don’t hold back. Be real, be truthful.
Credibility will allow you to build leaders.
Question: Are You Choosing Likability Over Credibility? How Do You Balance The Two?

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,
Matt

Developing Principles

2009-12-16T05:28:00.000-08:00

Leaders lead from their principles. Principles are like the big filter that all information goes through in your brain. Information is processed through them, and a person’s behavior is processed through them.
When it comes to leaders and leading, we want those principles to be Christ-Centered. Consider Jesus’ saying about the eye being the lamp of the body (Matthew 6:22-23). Jesus is saying that whatever is at the center of your life is going to dictate how you behave and what you think. This is a scary thought when you really sit down and consider it.
If we try to lead from anything other than Christ, we may become leaders, but to what end? The answer of course is ourselves, our fame, our fortune, etc. As we seek to raise a new generation of leaders, we have to impart Christ-honoring principles in everything we do.
There are so many ways that the world offers to do leadership, and some of them might even make sense to us. However, if we can’t find a Biblical parallel, we had probably better stay away from it. Our students need to be inundated with Biblical leadership principles, and not those of the world. There are plenty of worldly leaders out there who are not the salt and light of the earth.
The next generation of leaders will have to be different. They will have to be Biblical. They will have to be relevant. Here’s a few thoughts on training them to be these things:
1. Train your students with Biblical Leadership Principles. Make sure that anything that you encounter from a secular source can be corroborated with scripture. This usually isn’t as hard as it sounds, but you’d be surprised what doesn’t pass the smell test.
2. Give your students opportunity to practice leading in Biblical ways. Establishing principles isn’t just about learning them, it’s about doing them. See James 1:22
3. Model Biblical leadership for them. Always lead in a Biblical manner. Monkey see monkey do.
4. Don’t always assume you have to move on and teach something exciting. If we don’t instill Biblical principles in our students, we haven’t succeeded.
5. Long after the fancy “tip of the day” stuff is long forgotten, if you’ve given your students a bedrock of Christian Leadership Principles, your young people will still lead out of them. That is where we have to spend our time.
Question: What is the Best Way You Have Found To Instill Christian Leadership Principles?

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,
Matt

Don't Pretend It's Working

2009-12-14T04:52:00.000-08:00

Have you ever become so stretched in your personal and professional life that you let things slide? Of course you probably have, and so have I. Many times we become so busy, and therefore caught up, that we will let programs or curriculum continue long after they have stopped being effective.
When our consciousness begins to nag at us about it, we justify ourselves by thinking that maybe the students can glean something from it, no matter how terrible it is. This is not good thinking, so think again.
If we continue using a program or curriculum that isn’t working, our students will not so slowly lose respect for us. Here’s why:
1. They know it’s not working, and they know you know that it’s not working. You’re not fooling anyone.
2. If you use something that isn’t working, they are going to assume that you don’t care. And if you don’t care, neither do they.
3. You aren’t modeling responsible leadership when you allow a failing program or curriculum to continue. You aren’t being a leader, and they know it.
Don’t turn a blind eye when things aren’t working. It only aggravates the problem. Be responsible, be the leader, and set things right. Walk your leadership students through why you are changing things up. Help them to understand the process and the reason. They will learn a lot more from that process than they will if you let a dying program linger.
Question: Have You Ever Found Yourself Nursing an Ailing Program? How Did You Finally Put Things Right?
Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,
Matt

Reads of the Week

2009-12-12T07:35:00.000-08:00

The Young Leader's Prayer Life

2009-12-09T06:04:00.001-08:00

One of the problems I have been seeing as I develop young leaders is the complete lack of or at least seriously deficient prayer life of young people. This is partly my fault, as a Youth Leader it’s obvious that I have been deficient in teaching and modeling this area of spiritual disciplines. But it runs a lot deeper than just my youth group, and I’m willing to bet that if you’re honest with yourself about you and your students, your prayer life and that of your group leaves something to be desired.
My friend Jerry Powell has been reminding me lately just how important a leaders prayer life is. I couldn’t agree more, but I think that often as leaders we struggle with our own prayer life so much that we also neglect to train our students in prayer and show them just how important prayer is to a leader.
So how important is prayer?
Well, Paul says to “pray without ceasing,” so it must be pretty important. On a practical level, prayer is so important that we can’t live without it. Praying shows a reliance on God for all things. It shows more than just a list of things we want; it signifies that we know where all things come from.
So much of the bible is devoted to prayer. We have plenty of biblical role models if we want to study prayer.
I think our first step is to get our prayer lives in order. Once our lives are in order, then we can begin to speak into the lives of our students about prayer.
So how do we teach our students the importance of a prayerful attitude and life?
1. Model it for them. There’s no better way to help them develop a prayerful attitude and life than by modeling it for them.
2. Show them the Bible. Show your students how important prayer is in the Bible. Show them biblical characters and how and when they prayed. Do studies on the prayers of Paul.
3. Assign accountability partners. Let your students remind each other about the need to pray.
4. Remind them. Use social media and texting to remind your students to pray. Keep a weekly prayer list for your group.
5. Give them Practice. Have your students pray every time you meet. They will get used to it. Remember, many times behavior changes attitudes.
In the Trenches,
Matt

Leadership Lessons from Tiger Woods

2009-12-07T07:08:00.000-08:00

When “Saturday Night Live” does a Parody of your misdeeds, you know you’re newsworthy. Unfortunately for Tiger Woods, it’s no laughing matter, and it shouldn’t be a laughing matter to any leader who pays attention to the missteps of those in the public eye.
Tiger Wood’s fall from grace carries with it a poignant message to all of us who are leaders. Mr. Woods may be the best golfer who has lived, and he has definitely done a lot for the sport in the way of racial reconciliation, but all this means squat in the face of the news last week that his family life isn’t what everyone thought it was.
I have heard many people (especially in the talk radio industry) asking why Tiger’s indiscretions should matter in the face of his talents. This is a good question, and one that needs to be asked by all leaders. We have seen what happens to Christian leaders when they make mistakes: generally speaking, they lose their ministries. Now, I’m not comparing the work of ministry leaders and Tiger Woods, but what I am saying is that the same principal that has the nation giving a collective sigh of betrayal over Tiger is the one that will sink any leader that betrays the trust of their followers.
Mr. Woods may have never claimed to be a paragon of virtue, but people have invested in him emotionally. They don’t just see him as a golfer. Golfing is just what brought him into the limelight. Now, he’s a role model, a guy you see on the television selling you goods. He’s become a household name, and a certain amount of trust and emotional investment go into that. Unfortunately, it’s that very trust that people feel has now been violated. Even though they didn’t know Tiger Woods apart from his public persona, the masses thought they did. Thus his fall has been great.
If Tiger Woods, who plays golf and appears in a few commercials, takes this kind of fall when he screws up; how much greater will the fall of a Christian leader be? People don’t just emotionally invest in us, they invest their lives and the lives of their families. We are with them in their greatest moments of joy, and in their moments of greatest sorrow. We share life with them. Further, as leaders we guide them, give them advice, and do so in the name of God.
If a fan of Tiger Woods involves themselves emotionally, those who follow us intertwine their lives with us. To these people, a moral failing like Mr. Woods’ isn’t just a news headline, it’s a horrible violation of trust and family that tears them apart.
Now, obviously we fail and fail badly, but I think the difference between Mr. Woods and us is what we do with that sin. He obviously tried to hide it. And it came out in the worst way. This says something about the merits of transparency, but that is another post for another day.
In the meantime, let’s remember that those people we serve wrap their lives up in ours, and it is our God-given responsibility to shepherd them well. We owe them more than to play with their trust or hide our failings from them; and if we do, we shouldn’t be surprised when we end up the butt of a joke on “Saturday Night Live,” or worse.
In the Trenches,
Matt

What Motivates You?

2009-12-02T05:37:00.001-08:00

What motivates you to run a leadership development team? I was thinking about motivation this last week, and I asked myself this question.
My motivation comes from many quarters. I love teenagers, and want them to have the best of options as they go into life. My motivation also comes from a general dissatisfaction with the status quo in Christian leadership. By raising up a new generation of leaders, the status quo can be broken. I also feel very strongly about giving the next generation ALL of the tools they need to lead in a manner that is honoring to Christ.
What motivates you?
Is it an intense love for your students and their future?
Is it a way to take some of the work off of you in the youth ministry?
Whatever motivates us will eventually become known, so you had better be honest with yourself right now. You know that you’re students are more discerning than we’d like to think. They smell a phony a mile out.
Being up front about our motivation will help them understand the way you teach and why you teach.
By the way, find out what motivates your students as well. Why are they on the leadership team?
By working to eliminate greed, self-centeredness, and laziness from our motivation, we teach better and become more effective. When we eliminate these traits from our student’s perspectives, we turn out better leaders.

In the Trenches,
Matt

Practicing Leadership

2009-11-30T10:18:00.000-08:00

My wife and I live right across from the High School and it’s football field. We don’t have to leave the house to hear the play by play on Friday night, we just turn off the radio.
Saturday morning, we were greeted to a new sound coming from the football field: a young person announcing a little-league football game. I stepped out onto the front porch to listen for a few minutes, and it was true.
The school, or little league program; whichever it was, had the foresight to let an interested young person announce a little league game. No doubt that this young person was elated at the opportunity, and from his voice you could tell he was having a great time. The opportunity also allowed this young person some on-the-job training that could very well sprout into a lifelong passion and career.
We should learn from this little league game. We need to hand off as many opportunities to our leadership students as we can. They will no doubt be excited (and nervous) about the opportunities, and it is great training for larger ministry in the future. The opportunity we offer them also just might spark a passion that they didn’t know they had, leading to a lifetime of service to our Savior.
Don’t pass off responsibilities that you should be taking care of; this isn’t the reason to have a leadership team. The school probably wouldn’t let that same young person announce the high school game on Friday night. But, after about five years of experience gained in little league, and then maybe Junior High and junior varsity games, that young man might be ready to tackle a Friday Night.
We need to be very intentional about the opportunities we give our leadership students. Let’s get them into practice.
Practice makes perfect.
In the Trenches,
Matt

Reads of the Week

2009-11-28T06:29:00.000-08:00

New Opportunities

2009-11-27T16:11:00.000-08:00

My church had a pastor from South Dakota in over the weekend. Our church has a partnership with his church. He came down this last weekend to talk about all of the ministries and ministry opportunities that he was dealing with in his church.
As I listened, my head started filling with ideas. Good ideas (or so I think). I had taken the leadership team to his presentation in order to brainstorm ideas for a possible mission trip. We generated a lot of ideas altogether.
These ideas are all good, and after this pastor’s talk, we discussed our different ideas with him. He seemed quite elated with them. Now we have a lot of ideas to sort through and start to put together as we plan a mission trip for our church.
The question now becomes this: How do we balance this new opportunity with the opportunities already in front of us? How do we decide between them? How much time do we put into planning this ministry opportunity and what role will the leadership team have in it?
New opportunities are a great thing. They keep us fresh, keep us thinking, and keep us working for the Lord. Beware though that they don’t replace existing commitments and thought processes that you are currently working on.
The challenge for my leadership team now is to balance this opportunity with a mission trip to Peru in June of 2010, some projects that we are working on individually, and the amount of time we devote to it now, as opposed to in the near future.
My challenge is to juggle the logistics and planning of such an endeavor with the leadership training opportunities that such a trip will present. How much do I hand over to the leadership development team? How large will this trip become?
These challenges are good and bad. They will try our leadership team and stretch us. We will learn. On the other hand, some of us will lose focus. This is the first time that I’ve allowed so much to be on the team’s plate. It is overwhelming to most teenagers.
New Challenges are great. I personally love them (my gifts set is particularly fitted to new ministry opportunities). In fact, I get giddy about them. But there is a dark side, and if we’re not careful, new opportunities rob us of our ability to keep on track with existing projects. They can also take up too much of our time.
Just some thoughts. Would relish your thoughts as well.

In the Trenches,
Matt

Get into the Personal

2009-11-25T06:15:00.001-08:00

As we are teaching our students how to be biblical leaders, we must keep in mind that as their mentors and teachers, we need to be careful not to neglect their personal lives.
The following quote from a Tony Morgan blog has haunted me this week, and I hope it haunts you as well:
“At the end of Brian’s message today, he invited people to come forward for prayer and anointing. I was one of a number of pastors and elders who were available to pray with folks.
The experience impacted me. It reminded me that the people that walk through the doors of our church every Sunday may look okay on the outside, but many are dealing with some tough stuff on the inside. Addictions. Marriages collapsing. Kid’s heading in a wrong direction. Medical challenges. Financial crisis. Lack of purpose.”
Our students are human beings, not information repositories. We often (I often) make the mistake of filling them full of knowledge and practice and scripture and all of those wonderful things without attending to their needs.
Big Mistake.
The student who is going through a personal crisis (and we all do) is not going to be able to concentrate on how to be a leader.
The student who just had a fight with her mom is not going to be on her “A” game.
Remember that you are more than a teacher to these students. You are a pastor, a mentor, a guide. You are sometimes the person that they trust the most with spiritual matters. Don’t neglect them by treating them like robots.
Leaders are people too.
In the Trenches,
Matt

More Than Motivation

2009-11-23T06:39:00.000-08:00

What are we offering our students?
Are we offering them a spiritual pep talk and sending them out into the world?
How’s that going?
At first, they need a refill every week, so they come back. Sooner or later, they realize that what you’re offering them doesn’t and can’t last, so they stop coming. That’s the problem with motivation. Motivation brought on by emotional pep talks is extremely satisfying in the moment, but as the experience fades, so does the motivation.
So what are you offering your students?
We have to offer something more than motivation.
We have to give our students something to stand on, so they don’t have to come to you for motivation. Jesus gives life, He gives them the Holy Spirit, and He gives them purpose. When you understand your purpose, you don’t need motivation so much. When you have the Holy Spirit, He’s there to help when you start to slow down.
Our job isn’t to give motivation. It’s to lay the foundation of Christian Leadership Principles and to help them discover their purpose. It’s to go on the journey with them and help them make sense of it, but not to motivate them. This does lead to them not needing us so much, but it’s not us they’re supposed to lean on, it’s Jesus.
When we offer our leadership students motivation, this is what we get:
1. Students are dependent on us.
2. Students lose interest quickly.
3. Students looking to external motivation, and not to the Holy Spirit’s prompting.

Knock off the self-help stuff and give them something they can use.
In the Trenches,
Matt

Training Opportunities

2009-11-21T07:47:00.000-08:00

Here are five excuses I often hear about why a person couldn’t or shouldn’t take advantage of a training opportunity, and why they are full of it:
1. I don’t have time
While it is true that you may not have a lot of time, since you probably work at least 2 full time jobs (counting your ministry), and never see your spouse anyway, don’t let time become a factor in continuing education. The fact is, learning is a great way to spend your time. Remember, a day without learning something new is a wasted day.

2. I don’t have the money
This one probably rings true as well, but I guarantee you that there are ways to get money for training, and a whole lot of training that is free. Just the other day I went to a discipleship training seminar put on by Dare 2 Share. Now obviously, I had to sit through a pitch on their upcoming conference season, but the training was good (and they fed me). If you want to go to some training that actually costs money, ask the governing board of your church. Or, if you know it’s important, ask some people who support you and your work. It’s not out of the way to ask some of the people you minister to.

3. I shouldn’t take off from Work
Yes, you should. I know you have a lot of work to do, but training is renewing and many times energizing. And besides, you’re going to bring back the things that you learned and apply them in your ministry. You’re kinda working anyway.

4. That conference isn’t part of my denomination
May I say that this is the excuse that I disdain the most. I know we all like to hang around people that we agree with, but believe it or not, your denomination doesn’t have the corner on training or new ideas. It’s amazing what happens when different denominations get together to worship, learn, and train eachother. Make sure your discomfort with other trains of thought isn’t keeping you from an amazing training opportunity.

5. I can learn all that from a book
No, you can’t. While it may be true that you could get some of the same information, what you won’t get is community, other ideas, and an opportunity to synthesize those ideas with other people. I love to read, so this is my favorite, but it’s just not true. Many of us (myself included) learn well from just reading, but we give up the boost to education that other people bring to the table.

Let’s make sure that we’re taking every opportunity to make ourselves the very best we can be. Our God deserves it, our ministries deserve it, and we deserve it. Let’s also be a positive model to our leadership students to show them that they should take advantage of every opportunity they get to better themselves. It’s a lesson that will serve them, and us, a lifetime.

In the Trenches,
Matt

The Crisis Point

2009-11-18T05:40:00.000-08:00

What is a Crisis Point, and how can we use them to develop young leaders?
For our sake, the Crisis point is anytime our students are faced with a decision whose outcome causes them to grow spiritually, or to maintain the status quo in their walk with Christ. It can be a point for change in behavior, or thinking. Our students may go through many crisis points every day. Their decision at these points has tremendous effect on their lives, their spiritual growth, and their leadership.
Many educators and counselors use Crisis Points in their education and therapy to bring a person to the point of a decision based on learning and experiences. Others, instead of facilitating the experiences, look to use them as they come up naturally in life. Whatever side of that coin you fall on, I think these points are crucial in leadership development. These practices can also be used to train leaders. Here’s what I’m thinking:
1. Crisis Points reflect a time of possible growth in our student’s lives. We should be standing with them, counseling with them, helping them out in any way we can, but we should never make the decision for them. Doing so decisively kills any chance of growth the student may have.
2. Many times, a crisis point and its decision will necessitate a drastic change in lifestyle for the decision maker. Some students won’t make the decision because of the security or safety that could be lost. As we see our students at these crossroads, help them through fears that they may have. Don’t sugarcoat the options, but help them face fear as a believer should: in faith.
3. As leadership developers, we can often create Crisis Points for growing our leaders, or giving them the opportunity to grow, with our lessons and especially our activities. Examples of this can include giving people the opportunity to lead a group for the first time, or coaching an individual who needs to make a change in their lifestyle. We have to be careful not to manipulate our students into making a decision we want them to make, but to always allow the student to make a decision and grow on their own.
Crisis Points are very important times in our lives, and they don’t stop when adolescence ends. We need to help our students identify these times as we come alongside them and help them through.
How do you use Crisis Points to help develop leadership in students?

In the Trenches,
Matt

Count the Cost Student Edition

2009-11-16T09:03:00.000-08:00

When we start a Student Leadership Team, it can be pretty exciting. Many students think that this is the cream of the crop, the youth pastor’s favorites. Many people will probably join this team without realizing what it will cost them.
One of Jesus’ favorite subjects was the cost of discipleship. Jesus constantly told His disciples and those around them that it would cost them everything; and He wasn’t kidding. Jesus’ teaching became so difficult that many people stopped following Him.
Have we let our students know what it will cost to join a leadership team? To be a leader? Have we been real with them, or have we sugar-coated it so more people will be interested? This is a very important question.
So what will it cost to join the leadership team?

Here’s a few of the things it costs to join the leadership team at my church:
1. A leadership team member should be a sold out Jesus Freak, living their life for Jesus. This is no small feat in itself.
2. Time: It costs at least an extra two hours per week for a weekly meeting, bible study, and planning. Often it costs more than that because at least once a month we have a leadership outing, where the leadership team goes to a conference, a camp, or to some other related event.
3. Resources: We buy extra materials ourselves, we donate money and time to other organizations, and organize projects on our own. The extra trips we take also take money and other resources.
4. Extra Study: I expect leadership students to be into their disciplines. I expect that they are going to read their bible more and spend more time in prayer because of their calling.
5. Dedication: If these are truly tomorrow’s leaders, then I expect them to take everything with a certain degree of seriousness. I expect them to be at the meetings, at church, and at youth group.
6. Use What You Learn: If a student is going to spend all the time learning to be a leader, then why wouldn’t they want to use that knowledge to further God’s Kingdom?

When I first started a leadership team, I didn’t express my expectations to the group. As a result there was often chaos and hurt feelings. These days, they know ahead of time what’s expected of them. There are still some problems, but one of them is not expectation. This is what it costs to join the leadership team.
Just as we are to count the cost of being a disciple of Jesus, our students should be made aware of the cost of joining a leadership group. You don’t want to waste their time, and you don’t want to waste yours.
Make sure you tell them what it’s going to cost. Make it plain to them. This is where a contract comes in handy, but more about that another time. You want them to know what’s expected of them, and you want them to be as serious about becoming tomorrow’s leaders as you are about molding them into tomorrow’s leaders.
In the Trenches,
Matt

Bible Study

2009-11-11T08:12:00.000-08:00

As we work with our students to develop their leadership skills, we should take a holistic approach. While I believe that laying a foundation of leadership principles is important in the development of every young person called to leadership, I believe just as wholeheartedly that they must lead out of their character.
Leaders lead from their character. They can’t lead if they don’t have anything to lead from. This character is developed primarily by the Word of God. It is developed by God over our lifetime through the reading of and meditation on His word.
What this means to us who develop leaders is that we can’t merely teach leadership principles when you teach your students. We have to incorporate spiritual disciplines, especially the reading and study of the Bible.
In my leadership group, we mix lessons on leadership with a Bible Study. Even if we have a lot of things going on and don’t get to the leadership lesson, we definitely get to the Bible Study. Right now we are going through the book of Revelation. We have camped out in chapters two and three studying the letters to the seven churches.
What a treasure trove of leadership lessons there are there! And that’s not beginner’s stuff, either. That’s hard-core boots-on-the-ground leadership lessons. That brings the leadership principles we are imparting face-to-face with real life scenarios in a local church setting.
By incorporating a Bible study into your leadership time, you can accomplish many things, and here is a list of the things that I think are very important:
• It gives your students a base of biblical knowledge, and encourages them to read the bible for themselves.
• Through the Bible, God builds our character, from which we lead.
• The Bible allows our students to see real leaders at work.
• The Bible gives the students historical situations with which to apply the leadership principles they are leading.

Get your students into the word. In the end, that will be more productive than just teaching them leadership principles. If you want to round them out well, teach them both.

In the Trenches,
Matt

How To Destroy a Leadership Team in One Easy Step

2009-11-11T08:08:00.000-08:00

Want to destroy a leadership team in a hurry? Here’s how: Don’t get to know your students. It’s that easy. Don’t learn anything more than their names. who needs to know more than that anyway?
Okay, you do. You need to know a lot more than just their names. Your leadership development team is going to hinge on intentional relationship building. If you want your team to be cohesive, meaningful, and fruitful, you must get involved in the lives of your students.
What drives them? What scares them? What are they truly passionate about? What can’t they stand? These are all things that you want to know; and that they want to share. This isn’t a shallow relationship, this is the real thing. Know them.
I know that this is risky. It involves emotional involvement. Emotional involvement means possible (probable) hurt. It comes with the territory. Get used to it. Remember, these relationships are there to build leadership principles on, not for your emotional health.
If you want to connect, if you want to have real impact on the lives of your leadership team, cultivate real relationships with your students. Be real with them and insist they be real with you. You’ll find that as you do, your group will begin to operate as a real team. And that’s when the real learning starts.
In the Trenches,
Matt