Video Transcript: Creating Leaders

All right, lecture eight. We want to talk about creating leaders. In some ways, this whole study is about leadership. Well, I guess Christian Leaders Institute is all about leadership. You know, in some ways, everyone taking a class at Christian Leaders is a leader or wants to be a leader. I mean, that’s the whole point of all of this.

And it’s sort of interesting that God—I mean, God is the one who makes things happen—but He, in His goodness, decided to use people to make what He wants happen. And the way He does it is through leaders—leaders who step out and say, This is the way. Walk in it. This is the way. Follow. Leaders who prod, who poke, who make things happen.

That’s what you are. If you’re taking this class, you are a leader. You’re at least a leader enough to know that you want to learn about something. You have a desire. You have a sense of calling. You want to make a difference. That’s the first step in being a leader. Then it’s just learning how to do it in the different arenas and ministries out there. How do I do this? How do I use the gifts that I have?

So that’s what you’re doing as a leader—you’re learning how to do this with this class. But in some ways, you need to bake that same thing into how you lead. See, there are two ways to lead people.

One way is to lead people in such a way that you stay the leader, and your followers stay the followers, and that never changes. You’re the leader. You’re the one who knows. The people following you are the people that follow, and they’re the ones who don’t know. They cannot stand on their own two feet. They need you.

And that’s often the case in ministry. Leaders tend to want to lead. They like leading. They like helping people. But they can suddenly keep people needing their leadership.

You know what I’m talking about. In a family, you know, a father and mother have children, and then the children grow old. The parents do all the parenting. They’re leading the kids, but at some point—biologically, socially, and in every other way—the kids want to get out. There’s something inside of them that says, I want to get out and do my own thing. I need to.

And then they do. And sometimes, the parents are forced into letting them go.

But in ministry, sometimes there isn’t that force. And some of the images we use—like shepherds and sheep—reinforce this. The shepherd is the leader. The sheep are the ones following. The only downside of that metaphor? Sheep never become shepherds.

And a lot of times, ministry leaders never let their sheep become shepherds.

So you have to fight against it. And the way to fight it is to put leadership development into everything that you do. Every act of leadership should be done with this question in mind: How am I helping these young people become leaders?

That’s my goal. It’s not just to help them. It’s not just to mentor them and disciple them and do it to them. It’s How do I help them do the same thing?

You have to be aware of that from the very beginning.

So how do we do that?

1. Get all your youth walking with God in their personal lives, friendships, and groups.

1 Timothy 3:5 – If anyone does not know how to manage his own family (their own circle of influence), how can he take care of God’s church?

Get all of your youth walking with God. Because that’s the first step in becoming a leader. If you’re not walking with God, you can’t lead anybody else. If you’re walking with God, you’re at least taking the leadership role in your own life.

A basic walk with God—prayer every day, reading the Bible every day, a devotional experience with God every day. Then, teach young people how to have a devotional experience with their friends, with the group.

If you’re the one doing all the prayer at youth group, if you’re the one doing all the Bible explaining at youth group, well then—you’re not helping them become leaders.

Get them all walking with God.

Some kind of Bible format that you’re following—maybe a verse of the day that everyone is reading together. Young people taking ownership of their own walk outside of youth group.

And then, when you do get together, you can say:

"How did it go? What verses spoke to you this past week? We all read the same thing. Seven different verses over the last seven days. How did it interact with your life?"

And now, young people get to lead. They get to say how this verse impacted them. They’re doing a mini, mini, mini Bible study. And it’s a Bible study that they prepared for. You didn’t prepare it for them.

You see what I’m saying?

You have to get young people owning their own walk—not just owning the walk that you do once a week.

Youth group cannot be the substitute for young people not walking with God all week long.

The youth group meeting should be the culmination of each kid’s walk with God all week long.

Do you know what I’m saying?

This is it.

If you don’t hear anything else in this whole thing about starting or leading a youth group, this is the absolute number onemost important thing.

Let me put a big star.

Write it down.

Pause the tape right now and put this down.

You can’t let this go.

Everything else will be lost if you don’t do this.

2. Make participation easy.

It’s the same thing.

Ephesians 4:16 – From him (Christ), the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

It’s not about how much you do.

It’s about how much young people do.

You have to delegate. You have to get people to try.

"Oh, but they’re not very good at it."

Well, yeah.

They’re youth.

Get them doing it. Get them trying. Get them over their fears of failure.

Encourage. Encourage. Encourage.

Challenge. Challenge.