JC is ONLINE

This week I’ll be doing a series of posts on “Leading when you’re Young”. I am 23 years old and am a leadership nutjob. I love to read, probably bordering on unhealthy amounts of leadership material. From business to church, sales to service, profit to non-profit, it all is interesting to me. I hope to give some encouragement and share some struggles of leading when you are young.

And if you’re young and in leadership, hang in there. It takes time, and that is the hardest thing for me to remember.

Well this picture represents what most of think of, when we think of teenagers. Goofy, awkward, slight immature, yet full of potential. I figure I would use myself because well I like to think I am a kid at heart. O, and well, I bear a striking resemblance to….well…..uh….a teenager.

But leveraging our influence to develop these young people. Giving them an opportunity to learn about ministry. Learning the ins and outs and what serving God is all about. But being honest, alot of times, kids and students end up being used more than developed into spiritual leaders. It starts out really honest, we want to develop the potential that we see in our kids and students. But over time the day to day gets in the way of training.

When I worked at the Brown, aka UPS we were told as sup’s we were to spend 70% of our time on training. Why? Because without our people, it doesn’t work. But getting people in the right spots isn’t training. Getting people aligned with their gift set isn’t training. Training is training.

Here’s a few tips to check your influence and make sure you are developing rather than using your students and kids in ministry.

1)What: What do you spend the majority of your time with these young people doing? What is it that you are “doing” with them and not only that but what specifically are you trying to develop in them? Is it time management, communication, classroom management, or none of the above? Keep the what in focus. What is your purpose?

2)Who: Who is it that you are developing? Did they fall in your lap? Or did you hand select them? Generally taking part in the selection process tends to nip this using thing in the bud. Why? Well because you personally picked them and have more of an idea of your purpose. You picked these young people and you know the reason and the intent.

3)Where: This seems a bit odd, but generally if your “mentoring” only takes place on a Sunday and on campus. Then most likely it’s not mentoring. Go offsite, it shows the people you are pouring into that you see that they are valuable.

Those are things that I would continue to check myself on. Keep those in focus and come up with a plan and strategy. Set a time and pour into these young people.

I had people do this for me, they cared for me and invested time and money into my development. But I’ve also been used before. A lot actually. And we wonder why young people sometimes have problems with authority? Leverage your influence. There are young folks out there dying for someone to see potential in them and give them some guidance.

orange eruption, originally uploaded by schmaecky.

Decided on another random pic for Kenny

I know that most here will give you some awesome illustrations of this very thing for their own kids. But I am deciding to give you some of my own. I don’t have kids and a lot of people call me a kid so I think it’ll work.

I remember a SS (that’s Sunday School) teacher that I had when I was a young boy. His name was Charlie Bishop. He worked with his hands, in fact two of the fingers on his right hand were injured at work. He created marvelous things out of wood. He was there all the time, every Sunday and I remember how endeared we were to him. He made different kids different things. But for me he had made a case to hold my Hotwheels in. I still have those things at my parent’s home in Memphis.

I will never, ever forget Charlie Bishop.

I wish I could tell you how incredible a communicator he was or how this one particular thing he did for me was more incredible than the others, but honestly there wasn’t any of that. He was consistent, humble, and he loved us.

He invested in my life as a very young boy and he prayed every Sunday for us to know God. As I got older I had fewer and fewer interactions with him but I always remembered the impact that he had on my life.

Then in different stages of my life, I would have someone else there to guide me on my way.

Now I am searching for more influencers to help guide me into being a great husband, and one day a father.

And we must focus the same efforts for our children. Helping put coaches, mentors, and teachers in place that will partner with the parents to develop a child.

It can’t just be one, there have to be more. Eventually kids will look elsewhere. Instead of fighting, help find people that those kids can run to who you can trust and will be a positive influence.

It’s true that it takes a village. But you can be the village idiot by being unaware or fighting against it. Or you can be a village leader by using the situation to benefit your child.

Outer space….or?, originally uploaded by Stefan Söderström.

It’s very hard to take yourself too seriously when you look at the world from outer space.
-Thomas K. Mattingly II

fast asleep, originally uploaded by rodbotic.

So like Kenny so aptly put it, church has stepped into the role of primary spiritual leader in the life of children and students. And it’s true but in order to step out of that role we have to stop being that for parents. I mean think of the things that the church has in place: Recreation, Teaching times, How to serve, Time Management workshops, Math Tutoring, etc.

Yet we expect for Parents to lead the Spiritual Development of their children. I think the thing that most of the people in this Orange Week will tell you is this:

There is no magic “(insert thing, program, event, curriculum)” that will solve this issue. But somehow we have to make that shift. We have to put the power back in the hands of the people that 79% of kids say they look up to the most, their parents.

But how do we put the power back with the parents. I’ll give you a couple ways that I see it happening.

1)Connecting with Parents-One of the flaws in the traditional childrens/student ministry setting is the lack of connection parents have with the ministry. *unless they are volunteers of course

We have to find a way to give Parents tools to deal with the issues that their kids are going through. I’ll give you a good place to think about:

Kids now spend more time online than watching television. That is completely opposite of their Parents. How can we equip parents to connect with their kids and set limits and consequences in an area that children are really the experts?

2)Re-prioritize-quick think about this particular work week. How much of your time is directly focused on parents? Probably not much huh? Yet, we expect Parents to step up to that spiritual leader role, but we spend most of our time preparing to be in that role on a Sunday morning. And just so you know, I am right here with you. What does that look like? What is something tangible that I can do for parents that will help me get my priorities aligned.

3)Pray and Think-It’s a big issue. It’s a big problem. It needs to be solved. There is a way. Pray and find some people to connect with that can help you brainstorm through some things. You aren’t alone in ministry. There are plenty of PEOPLE to help you. Here’s a couple of places to start if you don’t know:

Twitter
cmconnect
Blogs

As a young person in ministry. Don’t blame someone else because they don’t come to you. Go find someone to help you.