We welcome Dave to the blog — he is the EFCC’s new Leadership Development Catalyst.
I’ve been around the “ministry block” enough times to have heard too many times the groaning and moaning coming out of pastoral huddles concerning the lack of leadership in their ministry situation, especially young leaders. Seldom though does the frustration turn into any kind of action taking steps toward changing their perceived reality.
This blog post suggests some practical steps to take in raising up young leaders:
7 Ways to Raise Up Young Leaders
Don’t miss his last two questions:
- What’s missing?
- What are you doing?
(Comments are open! Who knows how your input could inspire and encourage other leaders, including young ones!)
4 Comments
Leadership is an influence to people , young leaders are influenced by dreams of their life and causes lack to people
Yes, we value our youth because they live so close to their dreams. Their enthusiasm and energy are to be cherished now, and channelling that well will serve them well, and by extension the church body as they become more experienced and mature.
Thank-you for sharing this. Our church has the same problem of not having young leaders and I think that the two main problems are: things must be done our way, the old way, instead of letting them have real input. Secondly we do not know how to address their world view. By this I mean that we have fast and easy answers to things like creation-evolution, without really listening and trying to understand their side of the story. Thus, we often speak pass each other instead of listening and dealing with each others concerns.
Just keeping youth in some of our churches would be a giant step forward and one that we need to work hard at. But we need to be willing to enter their world without condemning them. We need to learn to listen without being judgmental, but at the same time not condoning sinful behaviour. This is not an easy task.
Great point, Jack. Youth are the ‘canaries in the cage’ for our current culture. They are closest to the issues that we all face. This factor and lack of experience are sometimes treated as scary by established leaders; we forget that proximity and naivety can also be a blessing!