1. Communicate differently
Got a student who is not coming to any programing events? Ask them out for coffee and tell them that your job is to help them. Period. We have nothing else to do but help them grow through their teenage years. You would like to know what you can do for them. Tutoring, relationship advice, cheering them at school events and spiritual help are all available – what do they need?

2. Notes on their cars
Write notes to your students on paper and place them on their car. You may look like a stalker but to be honest you are. You are pursuing them.

3. Meeting after school
Got a student in band? Offer to meet after band for 15 minutes. Got students in lacrosse? Offer to meet after practice for 15 minutes. It’s all about relationships but these days relationships have to happen in less time. Take whatever time they have.

Over the past few months the pace at LeaderTreks has picked up quite a bit (thus the lack of blog posts by me). New products, new trips, new staff, new initiatives…it’s all good and exciting… and took priority over my blog posting. But today… I’m back.

During the first week of May I went to Texas for 4 days to visit with several churches and partners we work with at LeaderTreks. I was in Dallas, Carrolton, Frisco, Cleburne, Austin, San Angelo, and Spring. It was a busy trip, but so rewarding. The purpose of my trip was just to listen to our people. I wanted to learn more about the day-to-day life of the youth pastors we work with. My goal was to learn what they are doing, what’s working, what’s not, what the struggles are, what the highlights are, and what their future goals may be.

I won’t share with you the details of my trip but I will tell you one common theme I heard, “it’s time to get serious about discipleship.” In youth ministry, and in churches as a whole, leaders are searching for a cure to the problems they see in their followers. And that basic problem is people in churches are not becoming disciples. Their faith is shallow, their lifestyle worldly, their Bible knowledge non-existent, and their evangelism temperature is cold. They are going through the motions, attending church but not radical about their faith. Churches see that the missional movement is big and growing and they want to be a part of it, but don’t know how. So much of their history and their structures are set up on a different system. Churches know the seeker sensitive or attractional models are not working to create disciples. But they have a 2,000 seat auditorium with a $100,000 sound system. What do they do? In youth ministry numbers are shrinking, kids are leaving the faith, families are in trouble, and kids are busier than ever. Sort of a dark and depressing picture isn’t it?

While I drove the roads of Texas, I began to think about how to solve this problem. It’s huge. I know the key is real discipleship. Discipleship like Jesus did it. Not another Bible Study. Not another cool event. Not just another missions trip. Not better small groups. Real discipleship is messy and hard. Discipleship means deep commitment. Discipleship means investing our lives deeply into new believers. It means walking with them, challenging them, empowering them, serving with them, developing them, rebuking them, running with them, and investing in them. It is a huge time commitment. Huge. And it’s not easy.

But what if we did it?

What if churches actually stopped focusing on all these marriage seminars, men’s retreats, golf outings, potlucks, and surface level small groups? What if they said we’re going to invest all our resources into developing disciples who will develop more disciples? We’re going to raise up mature men and women to invest in immature men and women (boys and girls even) for a significant amount of time. I’m not just talking about Wednesday night small groups. I’m not talking about just another Sunday night talk. I’m talking about life-on-life deep development. Serving together, evangelizing together, studying together, doing life together.

What if the church looked at its structures and programs and said we are spending too much time investing in programs that serve as a “hospital” or “country club” or “sin management therapy” for adults and said we aren’t going to do that for the emerging generation. We are going to get serious about discipleship of our young people.

What if?

Let’s start with the church leaders. Often times church leadership will be on board with a student leader program; after all who can better understand the need for growing new leaders. They will however be cautious about how far the program will go in letting students make decisions. Remember part of their job is to minimize risk and students being in charge doesn’t exactly scream risk free.  When presenting the program to them be complete in the scope of the program. Detail what decisions students will be making, describe the boundaries you intend to put in place to insure safety and clearly explain how the program is based on a mentoring relationship with an adult. Remember when you say “students will be in charge” the adults are envisioning a food fight followed by a small urban riot. Be clear and complete when making your presentation. The benefit of having the church leadership on board will be to create support for the program even during difficult times.

Helping parents understand the program is very important. Nothing could be better than having parents support for the leadership team and nothing could be worse if they feel left out of the process. Parents always want to know two things: who is on the team and what is the criteria for getting on the team? When answering these questions be consistent and honest. We sometimes feel like we need to tell parents what they want to hear – be honest; if their son or daughter doesn’t meet the criteria for being on the team tell the parents and layout for them the conditions on which they could be on the team. Also remember to be consistent; if you let a student on the team that doesn’t meet the criteria and you keep others off nothing will ruin your credibility faster and the ramifications could be bigger than you think.

Consider this plan. Call a meeting of the parents and explain to them the reasons for having a student leadership team, the program itself and how students will be selected. Before the meeting ask a few parents to serve with you and your volunteer team on a committee that selects the student leaders. The benefit of this will be to have cover in that you are not making this decision alone. This also gives ownership to the parents by being involved in the process. Announce who is on the committee so all the parents understand. Communicate often, let parents know the deadlines for getting applications in, let them know when the team will be announced and let them know how you will tell the students that apply and don’t make the team. I do suggest having a private meeting with students that don’t make the team to let them know why and what they can do to make it next year.

I want to encourage you to see parents as your partners in student leadership development. In the twenty plus years I have been doing this I have never been successful outside of a strong relationship with the parents.

Surprisingly adult volunteers often struggle with student leadership teams. They struggle because when you talk about students making decisions and taking leadership for events and programs you are usually talking about students taking their positions. As the youth director everybody knows your role but for the adult volunteer their role is leading the small stuff. You know, the stuff that you want to now turn over to the student leaders. See the problem – adult leaders often don’t buy-in for this reason.

The answer is to re-train your adults – move them from chaperones to mentors. Let’s be honest; you don’t need van drivers and cooks you need adults that will pour their lives into the lives of students no matter how messy it gets. By helping your volunteers see that their role is to develop deep relationships with students you will give them a vision for the future and their ministry that is powerful and inspiring.

I suggest presenting you ideas about a student leadership team soon after getting church approval and before going to parents. Volunteers will help answer parents’ questions and help identify potential student leaders. Having them understand changes they will have to make early on in the process will insure a smooth transition to the new program.

The key is to communicate. Don’t just share the reasons behind the program once; state it over and over again and have people start saying it back to you. Starting a student leadership team sounds great but remember before you start get the church leaders, parents and adult volunteers on your side. It will make all the difference.

An effective tool for preparing spiritually is a spiritual gift assessment. This tool can help you understand who God has made you to be so you can serve more effectively and with great satisfaction and joy! God is calling you to serve and along the way He is going to teach you how He has gifted you to serve.

Team Roles
There are mission groups and mission teams. The difference is not in the name but in the effectiveness. Groups participate on trips and teams use each person’s unique giftedness to make transformational change happen.

LeaderTreks has created a tool to help team members discover the role they play in task, social and destructive settings. Using this tool helps teams place members in the right role for maximum effectiveness. Use this assessment to transform your group participants into a powerful team.