What Every Church Should Know About Student Leadership Development

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

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

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

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

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

It’s Not Easy

  

It takes time

It will test your faith in your students

It will stretch your leadership

It’s totally worth it

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

Student Leaders Grow Into Adult Leaders

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

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

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

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

3 Common Buy-In Problems Leadership Programs Face

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

Student Buy-In

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

Parent Buy-In

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

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

Administration Buy-In

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

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

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

3 Things You Can Do Right Now To Develop Young Leaders

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

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

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

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

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

A Difficult Vision

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

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

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

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

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

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

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt

Four Questions To Ask Yourself Before the Pitch

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

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

Who:  Develop An Identity

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

Why:  Develop A Reason

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

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

How:  Develop a Way

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

What:  Develop a Vision

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

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

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt 

Three Essentials When Pitching a Leadership Team

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

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

Pray

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

Plan

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

Prepare

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

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,

Matt