Video Transcript: Phase 3 - Leadership

We've now come to that final phase of development, and that has to do with the  emerging leaders. There's a poem that John Perkins use uses often that I think  really explains or it depicts what we're looking for when it comes to emerging  leaders. It's a Chinese proverb, go to the people. Live with them, learn from  them. Love them. Start with what they know, build with what they have, but with  the best leaders. When the work is done, the task accomplished, the people will  say, we have done this ourselves. It is an amazing thing when your high school  leaders accomplish the teaching, the development of the of the day camps  accomplish something major, and they say we did it. I didn't think I could do it,  but I did. It's really an amazing thing when, when young people tap into their  divine imprint and their their their leadership potential. Well, emerging leader  expectations. You have a your young people that are in your high school group,  you invite them to become a part of the emerging leaders. Again, as I said  before that that this is something that is not for everyone, because there's a  certain amount of commitment that needs to be made. There are certain  responsibilities they will they will have. And so already, they don't just  automatically become emerging leaders. They have to want to be emerging  leaders. So some of the expectations, one is a big one. They're consistently  striving to give as much as they know of themselves to as much as they know  about Jesus Christ. So again, you've introduced the idea that the relationship  with Jesus and your walk with Jesus is a dynamic, ongoing learning thing. So as much as they know of themselves to as much as they know of Jesus Christ,  they participate as an enthusiastic learner, encourager, cheerleader. They don't  criticize gossip or malign peers in any way, but rather pursue their very best.  They must contribute thoughtful interaction, consistent attendance and genuine  effort to the cohort team, and they must commit to learning and applying to the  best of their ability the disciplines of a life worth living. So these are some of the  commitments. You may have some other expectations of them, but these are  key. I believe these are key. It gives meaning to their involvement with the  emerging leaders. What are some potential outcomes of this. What happens  when a young person goes through the Emerging Leader initiative? Well, one is  they discover and grow their leadership potential. Not only do they discover  what their leadership potential is, but they begin to grow it. They are functioning  within it. They have fun while engaging in challenging work. I remember a few  years ago when a young man that I had I had worked with, I helped him develop a transformational discipleship ministry, and during the summer camp, one of  the youth. It's amazing. It was interesting to me what he said. He says, you  know, when I go home, I don't like being home, but when I'm here, I really I like it here. This is a loving he's talking about work. He's saying, this is a loving place,  a place that I really enjoy. I don't like going home. I want to be here and I want to be working with the kids, so you're having fun while engaging in challenging  work. They receive financial remuneration for their labor in our program, 

because in our situation, we have young people that they're asking them to give  high schoolers, they're asking them to give time to work here instead of working  at some other job. And so as a ministry, we would actually raise additional  support so that they would have financial remuneration for the work that they did during the school year, when they put in a couple hours a week working with  kids. We gave them, we gave them some money for that. And then during the  summertime, they were salaried employees, and so we didn't want money to be  an issue with them being able to give their give of their time, they serve kids in  the neighborhood. That really is key. I think we said it before, potential and hope  ignite when children see modeled by youth from their neighborhood, possibilities for their own lives, the fact that they are serving kids in their own neighborhood,  they play a powerful role in the next generation that's coming up. They show that there is an option for they show to children that there is an option for them, a  very positive and powerful option for them. As they move into adolescence, they  travel to serve children in other cities on week long mission trips to urban areas  within and outside the United States. It's my personal conviction that a young  person in high school, they really should not graduate unless they have had  some overseas experience. And the reason they need to serve in a different  community, a poorer community than the one that they grow up in. And the  reason for it is simple. There is a phrase you complain you have no shoes, until  you meet someone who has no feet. Many times, young people in American in  American poverty is very different than poverty and other in other places, and for them to experience it, to go out of their neighborhood and to be able to serve  and work with others who are in a different situation. It changes their perspective on life. And so I think it's important that they have that kind of experience, and  that has been life changing for many of them, it has just changed their lives by  being a part of another culture. For a while they also, and again, this relates to  this. Here they leave behind a legacy of service as an example other young  people can follow. And so they are leaving behind a legacy, a very powerful  legacy, in fact, that is the Emerging Leader experience. This is a matrix that we  design to describe just what happens to the Emerging Leader. The Emerging  Leader is engaged in three areas, leadership, discipleship and life study,  leadership is the experience, so is discipleship. Who with discipleship? They are in the leadership. They are lead. They're leading kids in discipleship. They are  learning and growing in their leading of kids. life study. That's a dimension where our young people, there are many mentoring programs. We believe in  mentoring, but we also think that there's something very important that needs to  be included in the mentoring, and that is that the mentee needs to want to seek  out and be with the mentor. The idea is that the Emerging Leader, as they learn  about who they are, and they begin to think about, where am I going with my  life, then you want to bring people into their life that are already where they want to be. And so they say, they may say, you know, I really feel like God has 

designed me to be a school teacher. Then you want to bring into their lives a  school teacher that could come and share. This is where I was at your age. This  is how I got from there to here. And so, let me help you. I can show you again.  It's someone who can show by the example of their lives. It gives some gives  some direction, some ideas, some counsel. As this emerging leader begins to  say, I see myself emerging in this direction. Who do I know, or who can I meet  that can help me get there. So leadership, discipleship and life study, those are  the three dimensions of the Emerging Leader experience. But out of that come  some results. One is direction again, when a young person understands, they  understand who they are. In Christ that the answer to the identity question  causes them to start pointing them in a direction that is, that is in line with how  God has made them. They develop in character. They begin to see just like the  illustration of Skye when she was walking with her friend, and she said, No, I  can't stay with my friend who's who's swearing like this. And in fact, I I can't be  that way. I have to be different. It influences them in their own character  development. It helps them in their knowledge, their knowledge of who they are,  their knowledge of God, their knowledge of life, the questions that they ask.  They're developing skills, skills around their their divine imprint. They're  developing skills on how to how to carry that out, how to express that, how to  utilize that, and then the last one, they leave behind a legacy. They are the ones  that make a difference. See again, they are the hero in the story. We are there in their lives as the as the coach. We coach them, we help them discover and then  they are the ones that are making the significant difference in the lives of  younger people in their community, and those children will never forget them.  They have left behind a legacy that's the Emerging Leader experience and so  they're learning while they are leading. They're learning in a number of ways.  One, they're influencing children. They're meeting together over the course of  the school year. They're meeting with weekly, with with children, and they may  be a cohort, a team. They each take turns leading. One of them leads, and the  others, usually the teacher is the leader. And so the person who is teaching for  that week, that person is in charge of telling everyone else what they're going to  be talking about and how they can assist. When you have one person leading  the others. It's not that the others have nothing to do. No they support the  leader. They are always in that relationship with the leader. They're never when  they're with a meeting. By the time from when the meeting starts to when the  meeting ends, they are engaged. They have a role to play. And then, and they  take turns doing this. So they can play the role of the of the leader, the lead  person, and they can play the role of the supportive person. They learn how to  do that. They're always working with the kids. Then there's where are you?  There you go. They take turns leading for roles and again, working at third  through fifth grade. That that pivotal time where children are there. It's a time in  their lives where they're going to go one direction or another, to have a positive 

role model that is only a few, few years older than them can make a tremendous difference in the direction of that child. And then these children that they work  with, they become the core group for the summer day camp, so that small group of kids that they're working with weekly over the course of the year they work  with, they become the core group of young people that will be involved in their  vacation Bible School, Summer day camp, whatever you call it, but whatever it  is, it's something where they have already have that relationship with the  children, and so that just carries on. And the children, the core kids, already  respect their leadership. They earn that. And so so they're learning while they  are leading. That's what the emerging leaders do, what they experience. But  now we want to take a look at how does, how does preparing for the summer  day camp make a difference in their life?