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Monthly youth leaders column

Let's ask the young people...

I once sat in on a church youth leaders meeting which left me a little perplexed. Issues were raised and discussed; people spoke their minds and there were some good ideas and solutions advanced which everyone agreed. The only downside was that after every issue was discussed by the team, the leader said something like ‘Let’s ask the young people what they think’.

So the team, thinking that their evening had been given to deciding what was to happen, ended up thinking that all their plans now had to be filtered by the youth group. And it wasn’t just a small group, as all the issues had to be aired at the next youth group meeting. It left me asking who the leaders were around there.

Total bully?

Before I’m accused of being a total bully who loves to throw his weight around, let me assure you that I often had a small group of young people who I met with to discuss the group and often had them working in service roles within the group. But leaders are there to lead — not to ‘lord it over the flock’ (1 Peter 5). If 1 Timothy 3 contains mostly character issues when talking about leadership, leaders are there because they are people who are ‘sober, self-controlled, and respectable’ (along with many other characteristics). That example is there is to lead young people by their teaching and example rather than because they are natty dressers or incredibly cool. I believe, therefore, that their wisdom and discernment is greater than that of the youth group and that they are more capable of making godly decisions about the ministry they exercise. That’s why they are leaders.

Deciding while listening

If we are in the business of training our youth groups, some of them will be leaders in the future and need to see good models of leadership being exercised. Church is not a democracy with everyone having an equal voice, but neither is it a place where one person makes all the decisions and then tells everyone else what has been personally revealed to him. If we are to train leaders of the future then we must let them in on the process of making decisions which follow the Scriptures. This means there has to be a way in our group whereby we communicate decisions to our young people and sometimes invite them to share their views with us. But there will be times where leaders have to be leaders and sometimes that will not make us popular — we are there to please God not men (1 Thessalonians 2).

So I’m very happy to ‘ask the young people’ and let them see how leaders lead. But, if they are to learn to lead their university or school CUs, they also need to see and experience good leadership. So let’s endeavour to be 1 Timothy 3 leaders so that our young people become the same when they are the leaders of my church in my old age!!!!

Dave Fenton