Tag: leadership

Reframing Student Leadership, pt 2

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One of Maxwell’s Laws of Leadership is the Law of Explosive Growth – If you want to grow, lead followers; if you want to multiply, lead leaders.

Here’s what I’ve found in ministry: I have to lead both.

Hear me out. I’m not contradicting one of the foremost leaders on leadership.

Instead, what I’m saying is that if all I do is spend my time and energy looking to find leaders, then I’m spinning my wheels.

But, if I develop a mindset that says “I’m going to develop anyone who shows interest”, then I have a system set up for greater leadership potential to rise to the top.

Once I have identified a student with a higher leadership ceiling, then I can spend more time trying to draw that out of them, helping them grow and develop.

The truth of the principle is still there–leaders make a greater impact. I believe that with all of my heart. But willing leaders still make the difference. I can never lead someone to a place they are unwilling to go. I can take a little willingness and help them achieve new heights, but I cannot make an unwilling jumper a world class diver.

What system are you putting into place that allows students to explore their leadership leanings? Do you have ways of identifying leaders with higher ceilings? Do you need to add something like that?

Check It Out: Reconsider Student Leadership

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Have you ever read something from someone else and thought “That’s exactly what I think!”? Well, that happened to me this morning.

Doug Franklin at LeaderTreks consistently develops quality student leadership resources, and I got an email in my inbox today that led to pure gold. (Side note, when I find someone with content I value and think is worth my time, I subscribe to their email list–I hope you’ll consider subscribing to 3QL!)

Here’s a clip from the article:

What I mean is, what if student leadership wasn’t another program we add on top of our youth ministries and busy schedules, but was something we integrated into what we’re already doing? We’re already doing worship, service, retreats, mission trips, etc. Maybe all those things would be better with student leaders involved.

Doug Franklin

The article, titled “4 Reasons Why You Should Reconsider How You Do Student Leadership”, can be found by clicking here. It will take about 3 minutes to read, and has solid content and ideas. Go check it out!

3 Observations about Developing Student Leaders

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Last week I got to spend time at camp with a group of six student leaders. For the last three summers, I have helped develop and grow what we call the Horizon Leadership Camp (HLC).

The concept is simple: when a church group comes to camp, they have the option to have a student or two apply for HLC. The student goes to camp with their own church group, is part of a leadership focused small group, help lead rec, and pour back into someone from their group–trying to grow relationships that will last well beyond camp.

In total, HLC has convened seven times over the past three summers, and I have been in the room for most of them (although not all). Along the way, there are a few things I’ve started to notice:

  1. Students are hungry for the leadership conversation. Some of the students who walk into HLC have been through some leadership training already, but nowhere near all of them. Prior training or not, however, almost every student has been hungry for the leadership lessons and the opportunity to step up and lead.
  2. Shared experiences build community. Kind of a “no duh” statement, right? But it’s true, and I’ve watched it play out over and over. As the students lead rec, get put in awkward situations thanks to over-zealous adult leaders (rarely students), and then evaluate their time, they begin to trust one another more and more, which in turn makes the processing times even more rich.
  3. Youth Ministers benefit from the leadership conversation with students. I know this is true for me, and again, I’ve seen it play out over and over. As a student comes into HLC, the youth minister is challenged to up their leadership in order to help their student grow.

All in all, I have learned so much about myself over the past three summers (running concurrently with the beginning of this blog, if you hadn’t made the connection). Few things in ministry excite and energize me as much as being able to have authentic conversations with a student who is wrestling with their own understanding and ability to lead. In turn, my leadership influence grows as I challenge those around me to grow.

So, as I ask from time to time, Student ministers: what are you doing to train your student leaders? How are you equipping them? How are you pouring into them? What opportunities are you providing them? Where do you need to start?

Check It Out: Redundancy

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There are a few leadership ideas and thoughts that have a way of resurfacing in my life from time to time.

I love routine. Once I find a good routine, I have an uncanny ability to stick with it.

Last year I wrote a post fleshing out this redundancy idea, and thought I would share it today. You can check out it out here.

Lessons from the Farm: The Right Tool

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Today’s thought probably goes more naturally with the “Lessons from the Farm” series, but it crossed my mind last week and I thought I would share.

I don’t know your level of agricultural background, so I’ll get kind of basic right now. I’m guessing you know what a tractor is. One of the things (of many) that gets pulled behind a tractor is called a plow. There are different types of plows, but they all have one thing in common–their job is to break the soil.

In order to break, or till, the soil, you will sometimes use a different type of tool to actually go into the ground. These attachments are mounting onto a shank. There were three different main types that we used growing up–a chisel, a sweep, and a duck bill.

One of the most dreaded days for me as a hardly working 11 year old was when my dad would inform us (usually my brother and I), that it was time to put {chisels/duck bills/sweeps} on the plow. This was a tedious task that involved sitting exposed to the sun, scooting around for an hour or two, and likely getting a pretty nasty gash on your finger.

But the principle was simple: the tool on the shank wasn’t the correct tool for the job at hand.

Sweeps killed weeds, chisels didn’t.

Chisels dug down into the earth turning the soil over, sweeps didn’t.

Different tools, different tasks.

The same is true in leadership. There is no one size fits all answer to our leadership approaches. There are constants (tractors and plows), but the specifics vary based on the situation and the need at the moment.

We should always be moving forward (there’s no plow we ever used that worked in reverse), but the specifics we use to move forward must be adaptable. Your group dynamics can change in a few months, so be willing to adjust.

Maybe your approach to leadership (if you have an approach) is working great right now. Great! But be ready for a shift in the near future, probably sooner than you realize.

Maybe you don’t have an approach. Put the plow in the ground and move forward. I see too many people try to make leadership development something requiring a PhD. It’s not. It’s creating awareness, providing opportunity, and collaborative evaluation.

At the end of the day, we never changed from chisels to sweeps and parked the tractor. We moved with purpose and for a reason. Do the same.

Not sure where to start when developing student leaders? Here are three questions I’ve started teaching students leaders in an attempt to help them take steps. You can also subscribe to get posts like these in your inbox every week.

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