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 third step on the pathway.
By Teesha Hadra, C4SO NextGen Leadership Team
In the 2006 romantic comedy, Failure to Launch, Tripp (played by Matthew McConaughey) is a 35-year-old man who lives at home with his parents. Tripp has not fallen victim to the economic downturn that led many millennials back to their parents’ homes. Tripp is gainfully employed and has strong connections with family and friends. He just enjoys the cushy life that his parents have provided for him, and he sees no reason for anything to change.
Tripp has, to use the language of the movie’s title, failed to launch. Admittedly, the premise of the movie is based on the decidedly Western view that when one turns 18, they should leave the home of their birth and live on their own. Accepting this basic premise, the fact that Tripp remains at home even though he is in his mid-30s represents a kind of unwanted detour in his life, a departure from what his parents desire for him.
Perhaps the movie could be titled “Failure to Send.” It seems that Tripp was equipped with the tools necessary to live life as an adult, but he was never launched out of the nest, so to speak. He was never sent.
In this series, we have been advocating a pathway to raise up the Next Generation of leaders. Recognizing the power and effectiveness of young leaders who are already on the move in our culture, how can we bring these leaders into the mission of the Church? We have proposed the way to do this is to Recognize the next generation as potential and emerging leaders; Develop their early skills, leadership capacities and spiritual formation; and Send them into venues and situations where they can exercise their gifts. Having explored recognition and development, we turn now to the third step of sending.
What does it mean for the Church to send the next generation in a way that furthers their ability to initiate and sustain leadership in the Church, the marketplace and culture?
First, we must situate sending in its proper biblical and missional context. We serve a God who sends. Jesus gave the 12 disciples the authority to heal diseases and cast out demons (Matthew 10:1). Jesus then sent them out to preach the good news that the “kingdom of God has come near,” healing the sick, raising the dead, and casting out demons as they went (Matthew 10:7-8). Facing an imminent death, Jesus prayed for his disciples, “As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world” (John 17:18). After Jesus’ death and resurrection, he appeared to his disciples, spoke peace over them and said, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21).
The Christian faith is not solely characterized by right thinking or belief. Our faith must be active and worked out in the world. Just as Jesus sent the disciples, so we must send the Next Generation.
Here are a few practical tips as you prepare to send young people in your context:
1) Send young people before they are ready.
We may tend to underestimate the Next Generation’s ability to lead effectively and competently. As a result, we may be too conservative in our estimations of when a young person is “ready.” Missional leadership requires young people to navigate new environments and the unknown. Missional leadership is innately a learning field.
2) Send young people into meaningful leadership roles.
Think beyond having young people only serve on the altar guild. Consider including young people on the church communication or worship teams, commission them to lead portions of the Stations of the Cross, include them in the formation of elementary and preschool aged children, or send them to create new partnerships in your community to address a felt need or injustice.
3) Send young people with a team that can support them while experiencing their leadership.
Young people are naturally inclined to work as a team, but too often they only see leadership exemplified as a solo enterprise.
4) Establish appropriate safety nets.
As much as we wish that things will go perfectly when we send the Next Generation out to lead, mistakes will happen. Try to anticipate potential pitfalls and put contingency plans in place. The goal is to hold young people accountable to their commitments while also making it safe or low-risk to fail.
5) Re-imagine the meaning of “success.”
We want to see the Next Generation succeed at whatever they take on. We want things to go smoothly for them. “Success” does not mean the absence of failure, nor does it have to mean that everything goes perfectly. Reimagine the meaning of success in a way that makes space for the Next Generation to fully exercise the very gifts you have recognized and developed in them.
This 3-step pathway we have described—Recognize, Develop, Send—is not a straight line. We don’t always engage them as sequential and perfectly linear steps. Rather, we may move back and forth among the three steps as the circumstances require. There is also no finish line. Our prayer is that churches will engage Recognize, Develop, and Send in a cyclical and iterative manner, resulting in a generation with an ever-deeper sense of leadership capacity and spiritual growth to be used for the expansion of God’s kingdom.
Read Recognize: Step 1 on a Pathway to NextGen Ministry.
Read Develop: Step 2 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.
Teesha Hadra earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Florida. She practiced law for nearly seven years before leaving to begin full time ministry in 2013 at Buckhead Church, an urban campus of North Point Community Church in Atlanta. She will graduate with an MDiv from Fuller Theological Seminary in June 2020. She recently co-authored Black & White: Disrupting Racism One Friendship at a Time with her friend, John Hambrick.