Everyone a Leader

One of my favorite concepts to communicate to the church is something Mark Oestreicher probably put most clearly: “Teenagers are not a problem to solve, but a wonder to behold.” They have so much to bring to the life of our church, energy and ideas and gifts and abilities, that we would be fools to ignore them and send them to a dark corner of the church until they’re ready. Or worse, pat them on the head and implicitly communicate that they might be useful to church life at some point in the future. Or even worse, treat them as if they are hooligans we just need to get to sit still and behave until they’re mature enough to participate in Big Church.

The wiser thing to do with teenagers is to invest great time, energy, and resources in developing their leadership opportunities in the overall life of the church. So our strategy at First Students is to help them develop skills that have direct application in a worship setting, we help them develop a vision for our community that is in line with the overall mission of the church, we offer opportunities for them to be involved in the behind-the-scenes work of leading in worship, and we bring them to the front from time to time.

The truth is that our students have areas of leadership in the various arenas of their lives. Whether official or unofficial, people look to them for cues and follow their lead. As Christian parents and church leaders, one of our responsibilities to our kids is to help them view that influence through a gospel lens; to help them grasp the reality of their position and leverage that to bring grace and truth to bear on a culture that is short on both.

As we have been making our plan for our Do Something Hard project, we’ve been following a pattern that we see roughly outlined as we look through the story of Nehemiah 1-6:
1:1-3- The Problem (Jerusalem Walls destroyed, people suffering)
1:4,11- Nehemiah’s Response (Mourn and Pray)
2:1-6- Approach the right person at the right time
2:11-16- Take time to evaluate the situation
Chapter 3- Form Teams and bring others in on the task
Chapters 4-6- Defend against rumors and attacks (internal and external)
6:15-16- Follow through and finish the task (Walls rebuilt in 52 days)

Obviously, our project isn’t as monumental as completely rebuilding the defensive infrastructure of an entire city, but applied properly this general pattern is instructive to any leader with a vision for what could be.

 We come together as a church with the common goal of worship and impacting our community for the gospel. What about at home? What is your vision for your family? What influence do you have in our community, and how might you help our teenagers understand how to leverage that influence for the light of the gospel?