I've found recently that committed volunteer leaders like to be challenged. I'm not sure why this took me so long to figure out; I thrive in situations when the person who's leading me sets the bar high. Now, I'm not talking about setting unhealthy expectations for leaders, such as neglecting one's family in order to volunteer 20 hours a week with students. But when we set a high bar for what it means to love and serve students (hint: expect volunteers to be more than chaperones), more often than not, volunteers will rise to the occasion.
Allow me to share an example from our church's youth ministry. Last week, I asked our small group leaders to lead a short discussion on sharing Jesus with their friends. In the discussion guide for the week, I issued a challenge to our leaders--offset with a red background to stick out--to model in their own lives what it means to love people enough to tell them about Jesus (the challenge is in the second paragraph):
Before you start this discussion, a quick note, leader-to-leader:
My hope is that all of our high school GO Groups [small groups] will be venues where bringing new guests are a common occurrence. When we think of students inviting friends to something at church, usually it’s to a fun event like [our fall retreat] or a Sunday morning. But I believe there’s a significant percentage of teenagers in our area that aren’t likely to step foot in a church on a Sunday or even go to a fun church event—but they will come and hang out in a living room if they know they’ll be welcomed (and there will be some good food).
I encourage you to pray for your group members, that they’ll have the courage to invite friends who don’t yet know Jesus to visit your group. I also encourage you as a leader to model what it means to pray for a friend who doesn’t know Jesus and to invite that friend to join you in something as you follow Jesus. It’s not about having all the right answers to every question or obnoxiously telling others that they need to change--or else. It’s simply about loving others enough to introduce them to Jesus, whether it’s inviting them to church, a special event, a GO Group, or just an honest, non-threatening conversation over lunch. After all, we can’t expect our students to invite their friends to consider a relationship with Jesus if we, their leaders, aren’t willing to do the same.
-Benjer
In what ways have you seen your leaders rise to the occasion when the bar is set high? How can we encourage our leaders in a healthy way to be the best leaders they can be?
