The C4SO NextGen Leadership Team has identified a 3-step pathway for churches to begin NextGen ministry in their context. In this series, we have dedicated a blog post to each of the 3 steps. This post explores the second step on the pathway.
By Ryder Mills, C4SO NextGen Leadership Team
Are there young people leading in your congregation? In addition to recognizing young people as leaders, the NextGen Leadership Team believes a second key step on the pathway to a strong NextGen ministry is developing leaders.
The kind of leadership we advocate is not primarily about titles, formal power, ordination or job descriptions. We’re talking about leadership that displays a kind of well-differentiated presence; has clarity on values and goals; can remain emotionally separate in an anxious environment; takes responsibility for their own maturity; and can therefore lead others with clear vision and a heart full of compassion (read more about this in Edwin Friedman’s A Failure of Nerve).
We believe spiritual leadership is the natural outpouring of comprehensive discipleship. It takes a student beyond a receptive mindset and into the responsive posture of a servant, responsibly caring for what’s around them.
Why We Need Student Leaders
“Even in the most optimistic scenarios, Christian affiliation in the U.S. shrinks dramatically, and in our base case, over 1 million youth at least nominally in the church today will choose to leave each year for the next three decades. 35 million youth raised in families that call themselves Christians will say that they are not by 2050.” (“The Great Opportunity,” Pinetops Foundation)
I am not trying to use a scare quote or serve up a side order of heartburn with your morning coffee. But we do want to create a shared understanding of the reality of the situation.
Our focus on Next Generation ministry is not just about childcare, keeping kids off the street or entertaining consumeristic young adults. Next Generation ministry is about every one of us taking the call to discipleship seriously. We must create a sense of urgency in the midst of the most significant single-generation loss of Christians in American history. The statistics should trouble us.
In addition, the scenario of young adults leaving the church should prompt us to ask the question, “Am I leading the young people around me to be prepared and equipped for the world they’ll live in after their time with me?” Rather than engaging with a spirit of antagonism toward the culture or growing anxious over what might come to pass, we need to take seriously the reality of our time. We need to consider how we might develop the young people in our sphere of influence.
How can we do this? We’ve gathered a few essential practices for leadership development.
1. Believe in the leadership capacity of young people.
If men and women are made in the image of God, created to share his reign in the world, then leadership development is a redemptive work. Working to create a community where everyone—young and old, men and women—can lead together is woven into the vision of the Church in Acts 2: “…Your sons and daughters will prophesy, young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams…”
When we deny young men and women the opportunity to follow the Spirit where he leads in our churches, we grieve him by setting superfluous boundaries around his work. It’s as if we think God says, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people beginning when they have fully developed prefrontal cortexes at 25 years old.”
The best way to know if you believe in the capacity of young people to lead is if you are being led by them in your context.
In his ministry, Jesus took a proactive approach to leadership, calling, appointing and sending people out on mission, not waiting for them to volunteer. When we have the same mindset and approach with our young people, we unlock the capacity for leadership in everyone.
2. Partner with them through intentional development.
Leadership development must be intentional, not instinctual. Instinctual leadership development is fundamentally reactive, waiting for leaders to emerge before sending them on mission. Intentional leadership development takes a more proactive approach, casting a concise vision for Christian leadership and providing a clear development pathway that you invite all students to follow.
These pathways are more than programs. Pathways are fundamentally a trialogue, an ongoing conversation between you, another person and God. This three-part conversation is focused on discerning a calling and developing the disciplines to rise to that calling. (Read more about that here.)
3. Send them on mission equipped and empowered.
The book Growing Young from Fuller Youth Institute encourages local church leaders to develop a shared understanding of “threshold competencies” for young people to lead—competencies they can easily articulate. What are your basic requirements for the various roles in your church? It’s likely that young people aren’t ready to lead yet, but that problem is only exacerbated by unrealistic and vague expectations for what a leader is.
When we develop clear thresholds for various leadership roles that are challenging but attainable, it allows for leadership to be iterative, where specific thresholds can be met and then built upon for continued growth. Doing this defining work can focus your efforts to develop the competencies your students don’t already have.
It is possible to meet the challenges of our time with a spirit of adventure in an age of anxiety! God is not finished with us yet, and periods of struggle in Church history often precede a fresh movement of the Holy Spirit. Through integrity and humility, we can partner with God’s work in the Next Generation, preparing a group of faithful and thoughtful leaders for the Church both today and tomorrow.
Read Recognize: Step 1 on a Pathway to NextGen Ministry.
Read Send: Step 3 on a Pathway to NextGen Ministry.
Read an overview of this topic in a guest post for the Telos Collective.
Learn more about effective NextGen Ministry at the Virtual Anglican Youth Ministers Gathering. A team of student ministry leaders from around the province have organized this virtual gathering, just in time for back to school. Join with fellow youth ministry leaders to:
-Connect with your fellow Anglican youth ministers around the province.
-Be led by Bishop Todd Hunter in a Soul Care practicum.
-Listen to quick talks and discussion about hybrid ministry, a super-practical experience to use right away, and more.
-Receive encouragement and blessing from Archbishop Foley Beach.
Do you have questions or ideas about raising up the Next Generation of leaders in your community? Contact the Rev. Aaron Buttery, C4SO NextGen Leader.
Ryder Mills is three years into full-time youth ministry at Christ Church Anglican in Overland Park, Kansas. They are a church of about 750 and have about 50 students engaged in their youth ministry. Ryder is excited to plan and test strategies to develop leadership in students.