Tag: Developing Students

Will vs Skill

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When it comes to developing student leaders (or leaders in general), What’s more important: willingness or skill?

Put another way, would you rather have someone who is incredibly skilled and arrogant, or someone who is incredibly willing and less skilled.

In my experience, willingness wins.

I would love to have people who are the absolute best at what they do in every role. But the truth is, I would much rather have someone who is humble and willing to grow because when that person develops their skill, we will accomplish infinitely more.

I can help a willing person grow in skill. I’ve seen it over time, especially in the realm of student ministry. I’ve seen students with a heart to make an impact, discover and strengthen a gift they have.

Very rarely have I seen an arrogant person go the other way. I don’t remember seeing anyone who has shown up believing they have arrived become a positive influence. When the task becomes more important than the heart, we miss the point.

There is someone in your life at the moment who is willing and simply needs someone to invest in them. Take some time today to look around and evaluate how you can help them grow.

The Best Reason to Step Up

There’s something powerful when we ask someone to join us in leadership.

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There’s something powerful when we ask someone to join us in leadership.

A few weeks back I had a student step up and serve in a way that almost no one noticed, but in the exact way I needed at the moment. It was unprompted and genuine–two of my favorite aspects of serving.

On the heels of that morning, I encouraged him to sign up for our worship team, and in return I got one of the best answers I’ve seen.

Our worship team (and leadership team) application was online this year. One of the questions read: “Why do you want to be on worship team? Put some thought into this.”

His response? “Because Wes asked me to.”

I’m still smiling. Here I was expecting a thoughtful response from anyone applying (I should know better, right?), and he tells it how it is. Simple. Understated. Truth.

I mentioned my struggle with this last week, but I regularly try to find the line between acknowledging what I see in a student and trying to coax out the potential I see in a student. A healthy conversation uses encouragement, an unhealthy conversation uses guilt.

One of those works in the long term. The other doesn’t.

This kid would likely never see himself as a leader. He would, especially at this point in his life, never acknowledge he has influence. But I saw something in him that morning, and encouraged him to pursue it. Now we are going to take steps together to help him grow.

A quick note: he unknowingly answered the first two questions of 3QL: what needs to be done and what can I do. Some kids get it. When they do, I want to continue to train them to build on what they do naturally, and then help them take the next step to ask the 3rd question: who can I get to help? That’s the power of the three questions. It gives a student a framework to follow to help them leverage their influence.

The same is true for us! The three questions help me leverage my influence to accomplish more. And I hope you would say the same thing!

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Real Time Thoughts on Student Leadership

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Back in January, I blogged about the process I was walking through to create a student leadership team at my church. You can follow the progression by starting here.

As we kick off the new school year, I’ve opened up applications again, and here are a few thoughts that have been bouncing around my head. I hope they provide some thought and motivation for you to take a step in developing student leaders.

  1. Every kid who signed up in January, signed up again. I try not to base my value and worth on things like this because sometimes life or other transitions happen, but I’m excited the kids who started are planning to stick with it.
  2. Instead of going to kids whom I thought would benefit from what we’re doing, I encouraged our “alumni” to invite two people each. From there, we’ve added a couple more applicants, one of whom I’ve been hoping would join us. Side note, I wrestle with this concept. I think about how much an invitation to serve has meant to me over the course of my life, especially from adults who saw something in me. While at the same time, I’ve had kids to whom I’ve extended an invitation who only signed up out of obligation, and it did not end well. This is definitely a delicate balance, one which I haven’t completely figured out to this point.
  3. I went all online for the application this year. With inconsistencies tied to COVID, this was a great move, and something worth doing moving forward.
  4. I had one incoming 7th grader ask about joining us. In a normal year, our incoming 7th graders wouldn’t be promoted when applications are open, but that’s not the end of the world. I’m thrilled he wants to be part, and think he will make some good contributions down the road, but I ultimately decided January will be the on ramp for 7th graders, allowing them time to be part of the ministry. This may be too quick or too slow, but for the time, it’s what I’m sticking with.

What are you doing to develop student leaders?

Do you have a process for students to join in leadership? What does the process look like?

Or maybe you need to start somewhere. Let me challenge you to gather a few students who are interested in making a difference and equipping them to do so!

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When Something Wins

Something is better than nothing, but everything is not always the best thing.

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A couple weeks back I was talking with a friend and had a thought. We were talking about the delicate balance of ministry (and any activity, really) during our current COVID reality. Our debate centered on how much should we be doing in comparison to a normal year.

More specifically, how do we find the balance between doing too little and doing too much. We wanted to be smart. We do not want to be reckless or careless. And we want to be present. It’s all a very difficult balance. Then, it hit me.

Something is better than nothing, but everything is not always the best thing.

I’ve written in the past about how getting started is often the most difficult part for me. And I think in our current context, the struggle to begin and not overthink remains.

But at the end of the day, just because I’m doing something doesn’t mean I have to do everything.

The same is true for you. I’m going to guess you are probably living in the tension of activity vs inactivity. You’ve had to cancel key events, or decide altogether if they were going to happen at all. Your calendar does not look remotely close to what it was 365 days ago. The things you were anticipating have either been significantly altered, or cut altogether.

And so you’re left looking at what’s next.

Something is better than nothing, but everything is not always the best thing.

We have an incredible opportunity at this point in our lives. We can cut some of the fluff and focus on the meat. We can make the most of the day and age in which we live, or we can lament all that’s been lost or altered.

Make a move today. Plan something. Do something. But rest in the knowledge that it’s okay for that something to be less than everything. It’s okay to trim the fat.

You can do this. Now, go lead.

Time to Get Started

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This weekend was a remarkable weekend for me. There was no significant event that really happened. I had nothing on the calendar. But I had a few Audible credits. So I bought a book.

A few years back, during a guest talk by a leader I respect, I heard about John Maxwell’s 5 Levels of Leadership. It was intriguing, but it just sat in my brain for a few years. Then, on Friday, I redeemed an Audible credit for the book and started listening.

Early on he had a pdf included for the listener to work through. Because I’m trying to engage books more than finish them these days, I sat down and worked through the pdf. And my world was rocked.

I’ve lost sight of developing leaders the way I know I can (and should).

That got me thinking. I’ve said for a few years that as I talked to Youth Ministers about leadership, my first question would always be “What are you doing to develop student leaders.” The answer? Most of the time the response was an event or two they had students attend, maybe even a camp.

The sense I always got was everyone has developing leaders on their list, it’s just not close enough to the top to get our best energy. And that’s where I’ve been lately. I’ve been so focused on treading water, and honestly, getting my wits about me since starting my new position, that the difficult part of leadership development has gone by the wayside.

So let me ask you this question today: Are you developing the people you lead to become better leaders? Not just the ones who are easy to develop, but the ones that make you sweat thinking about trying to help them develop. Are you doing the difficult work of developing and leading and teaching and training? Are you willing to do so? What step can you take today?

Now, go lead.

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