- Learn the language and customs of the culture which you are serving;
- Use your knowledge and experience from #1 to communicate the truth of Jesus to the culture; and
- Establish indigenous leadership that can effectively continue to lead God's people in that culture.
My question is How well do we do with the different parts of this job description? In this last post, I'll focus on #3: Establish indigenous leadership that can effectively continue to lead God's people in that culture.
What does "indigenous leadership" look like when teenagers are our mission field? This is a tricky question, because at some point in time in the next one to three years, each person in this mission field will no longer be a teenager. By the time a teenager is ready for a true leadership position, he or she may no longer be a teenager? There is no one way to answer the question of what indigenous leadership looks like when ministering to teenagers, but there are two principles that can help us along in our endeavor.
Allow teenagers to serve according to their gifts.
There are so many things that students do in our ministry that they are much better at than I could ever be. I can honestly say that I have no idea how to run our computer or sound system in our high school room, because we have students who do an amazing job at making sure that area of ministry is taken care of each Sunday. But it's not just about delegating tasks. It's about allowing students to take a role in shaping what ministry "looks like" to students. Last month, two high school girls helped teach evangelism techniques to their peers when we did an experiment and broke our large group into four teaching groups for two weeks to learn about apologetics and evangelism. Our high school room is being transformed because a group of students are redesigning it. I love it when students serve in our ministry. One important principle that I've learned over the years is that I can't just expect students to fill a slot that's open. I need to allow students to express their passions and serve in those areas. This week, two students are leading an acoustic worship set because they asked to, and I feel comfortable allowing them to serve in that way. The following week, an exchange student from Germany is going to introduce the group to Taizé worship through a service she has designed. Sure, I'm still the pastor of this particular ministry to students, but it doesn't mean that I can't share leadership responsibilities with students.
Encourage students to serve outside of the youth ministry.
This one is sometimes tough. On the selfish side, when there is a student who exhibits leadership potential, I want him or her to serve with me! In addition, some church cultures make it difficult for students to serve and lead in a real way outside of the youth ministry. It is crucial that students be encouraged to serve in all areas of the church. I'm reading Essential Church? by Thom and Sam Reiner right now, and in it, they stress that one of the biggest reasons teenagers "drop out" of church after high school is because they don't feel like there's a place for them in the wider church body. Our church doesn't have it all figured out, but on any given Sunday and throughout the week, you will find outside our high school room a lot of high school students serving and leading in a variety of ways, including worship, tech crew, children's ministry, our food pantry, just to name a few. And the best part is that it's just a part of the culture of our church; I can't take credit for any of it, because it was happening before I ever arrived.
Allowing students to lead inside and outside the youth ministry is one of the most important things we can do to help them grow spiritually. My goal needs to be to pass along the baton of leadership to them, because my job is not to simply teach them about Jesus; I need to teach them to teach others about Jesus as well.
"...and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." -2 Timothy 2:2, ESV
Read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of the series.
