Reading: Chapter 13: The Initiative

Chapter 13

THE INITIATIVE

UNLEASHING LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL

We have come to the component that makes transformational discipleship come alive in the life of the adolescent. It is the creation of a leadership task force: the Emerging Leaders Initiative. Participants in the Emerging Leaders Initiative are your “Twelve.” They are to you what Jesus’ disciples were to Him. The Emerging Leaders are the group into which you pour your life. They are apprentices who, in part through your influence, are being prepared to change the world.

Your task is to lead them toward the discovery of their leadership potential. You apply to emerging leaders the exhortation of an ancient 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.”

Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher and poet, 6th century BC

You have lived with the emerging leaders (as a neighbor and mentor), learned from them (through listening and understand- ing), and loved them (by seeking for them God’s best). Now you establish an environment in which they “start with what they know” and “build on what they have.” When the ministry year is over, they will look back and marvel at what was done. And they will thank God for it.

The Cohort

Crucial to the success of the Emerging Leaders Initiative is the selection of the “cohort”—the group of young people who will participate as youth leaders. The Initiative is not suited for everyone. Candidates must adhere to the conditions of the program. This might include the expectation that participants will:

• Consistently strive to give as much as they know of themselves to as much as they learn of Jesus Christ.
• Participate as an enthusiastic learner, encourager and cheerleader (not criticize, gossip, or malign peers in any way, but rather pursue their very best).
• Contribute thoughtful interaction, consistent attendance and genuine effort to the cohort team.
• Commit to learning and applying to the best of their ability the disciplines of a life worth living:
• Prayer: Talking and listening to God
• Study: Learning about life through God’s grid
• Service: Caring for others, contributing to life
• Stewardship: Treating all you have as a gift entrusted to you by God
• Fellowship: Enriching and being enriched by others
• Fun: Enjoying life and relationships
• Worship: Honoring God in all areas of life
• Integrity: Living an undivided life
• Respect both elders and peers; seek wisdom from others’ life experiences and godly examples; strive to imitate others inasmuch as they imitate Christ.

The Initiative asks a lot of participants, but in return, members of the Initiative receive many rewards, including experiencing the joy and richness of growing their leadership potential. Among other possible outcomes, they will:

• Discover and grow their leadership potential.
• Have fun while engaging in challenging work.
• Receive financial remuneration for their labor (stipends during the school year; salaried employment during the summer).
• Serve kids in their neighborhood.
• Travel to serve children in other cities, on weeklong mission trips to urban areas within and outside the United States.
• Leave behind a legacy of service, as an example other young people can follow.

Cohorts should be small—made up of no more than 6 to 7 people, who together lead a children’s group of no more than 35 kids. (You may need multiple cohorts, depending on the size and capacity of your ministry.) Cohorts should be small enough to give members adequate attention, and the ratio of youth leaders to children should be no less than 1 to 5.

Activities

Emerging leaders experience five primary activities over the course of a given year.

Most children’s programs consist of a weekly meeting. Each meeting engages in activities appropriate to the age group: crafts, singing, games, etc. There is also a Bible lesson, creatively delivered and designed to capture a child’s imagination.

Within the transformational discipleship model, the Emerging Leaders Initiative cohort is the children’s program staff. Each week, a designated teacher is responsible for the selection and arrangement of activities, along with the crafting and delivery of the lesson. The teacher is the leader. For the first meeting, the Cohort Leader will model (role play) for the cohort how to lead the meeting.

That first week’s session should look something like this:

1. Prior to the start of the meeting, you meet briefly with your team to explain the activities, assign responsibilities, and answer any questions regarding the flow of the evening.
2. You explain the lesson you will be teaching and give the staff any special instructions.
3. You allow time for setup.
4. You lead the meeting.
5. Afterwards you gather the staff for a time of debrief/evaluation.

Subsequent meetings will be led by emerging leaders who take turns teaching/leading the children’s program.

An important part of training is in crafting the lesson. Do not provide a pre-designed curriculum; rather, teach the youth how to develop their own. Help them brainstorm ideas and themes. Talk about structure, components and flow. Provide resources from which they can glean ideas and find games or other activities. It is important for leaders to learn early on how to design lessons and not be dependent on someone else’s work. The Cohort Leader should lead by example, modeling both presentation and the process of design.

During the school year, the emerging leaders should meet regularly for times of group study (weekly), fun (monthly) and retreat (in the fall and spring).

Ideally, the weekly study should not take place at the ministry headquarters but in a home. The setting should be warm and com- fortable—conducive to honest discussion.

The focus of the study time should rotate among three activities:

• Bible Study. This should include books of the Bible and doctrinal topics, such as faith, salvation, the Trinity, etc.
• Issues. Current events and questions about life should be examined from a biblical perspective.
• Life Study. As awareness of personal capacities and purpose increases, potential adult mentors should be invited to share personal stories and provide wise coun- sel and advice for those who might wish to follow in their footsteps.

Emerging leaders are responsible for designing and implementing a month-long summer day camp for third through fifth graders. Accomplishing this task will stretch and add muscle to their al- ready growing leadership potential.

Preparations for the summer program begin in January: setting of dates, official hires/contracts, selecting a camp leader (usually an older emerging leader or local emerging leader graduate). During February through May, the cohort should meet every month for a three-hour training session. The spring weekend retreat should also be a time of preparation. Together the Cohort is responsible for four aspects of the camp:

Theme

The role of the Cohort Leader is to help make the ideas of the emerging leaders come alive, so in January the group chooses a camp theme by brainstorming theme ideas and examining each one in light of the demands of the camp. “If we chose this theme, what would our Learning Center class topics be? Could we develop classes around it? Are there biblical concepts that support it?” These questions evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each idea, lead- ing the team to the best theme choice.

I remember clearly the process of choosing what turned out to be one of my favorite camp themes: Animal Kingdom: The Wonders of God’s Creation. We began at a 6 a.m. group meeting at my house. The discussion went something like this:

“Guys, we need to take some time to decide on a theme for this year’s summer camp. Any ideas?”

“How about something related to technology and computers? Kids are fascinated by computers,” Johnny piped up. 

“That won’t appeal to everybody,” Danyelle countered.

“What about science?” Danny chimed in. “We could study the natural habitat right around our neighborhood.”

“That’s a possibility,” I responded. “If we choose science, what would our learning center classes look like? Do you think we could come up with Bible lessons that would relate to science?”

“Hey! How about animals?” Levi shouted. “There are all kinds of animals in our neighborhood. And the Bible talks a lot about animals.” 

“I’m interested in teaching culinary arts. I could come up with learning center classes tying animals to cooking,” said Skye.

“I like poetry. I could create classes studying poetry that talks about animals,” said Danyelle.

“We could use National Geographic movie clips to illustrate how amazing and unique animals are,” Raquel noted.

“It sounds like we’re on to something,” I concluded.

We all agreed. When we met for our first preparation session in February, we designed the camp around the theme Animal Kingdom: The Wonders of God’s Creation.

Content

Once a theme is chosen, it is time to develop the content of the summer program. We generally used a process called—for lack of a better word—“Stickies.”

The Stickies process includes several steps:

• Words describing dimensions of the program (Crafts, Music, History, Places, Media, Poetry, Writing, Field Trips, Animals, Sports, Photography, Cuisine, Books, etc.) are typed on a page, then enlarged to a 36” x 48” sheet, which is taped to the wall.

• The team sits around a table with a stack of Post-its. After a brief discussion, they are instructed to come up with as many ideas related to the theme and components of the camp as they can within 10 minutes. They write them down, one per Post-it. No talking or discussion; this is a 10-minute brain dump. Participants are encouraged to be creative and think outside the box. As they write, the camp leader and Cohort Leader circle the table, collect the Post-its, and arrange them on the sheet.
• At the end of the 10 minutes, each Post-it is read and discussed, and the group decides where it best belongs. That Post-it is then placed on one of two secondary charts.
• By the time this process is finished, the vast majority of the camp’s activities will have been drafted. The emerging leaders will have before them a visual snapshot of the “guts” of the camp—and it will all be their design!

Learning Centers

Our experience at Neighborhood Ministries was that after Stickies, the emerging leaders could see where they were going and what needed to be done. Their most important task was to design and teach the Learning Center classes. During the remaining Saturday planning sessions, each staff member would practice teaching their classes to the others, receiving input and advice.

Classroom management was a serious matter: The youth were responsible—from the time the first child entered to the time the last child left—to lead their class. This meant knowing two things: their subject matter and their kids, and they could not accomplish the latter unless they were solid with the former. They all had observed teachers struggling to control their classrooms—most had dished out their share of the grief! Now they were the teachers; what would they do differently to avoid the trouble they knew kids could give them?

Here are a few principles we taught our emerging leaders to help them foster a positive classroom experience—for themselves and for their students:

• Be creative. Choose a theme for your classroom and decorate it accordingly. Design learning stations where kids can focus on differing tasks. Use videos, music, games and crafts. Use nature; use stuff in the community. Keep talking to a minimum. Let instruction be mostly experiential.
• Know how you will start and end each class. Know your transitions. Begin and end on time.
• Pinpoint detractors. Which kid(s) is (are) behaving in such a way as to sabotage your class? Some disrupt loudly, while others do so subversively. Never yell; just point the havoc-makers out to the adult sitting in your class. He or she will escort them out so that your focus remains on teaching the class.
• Have fun! Let your enthusiasm be infectious! Kids should feel when they enter your classroom that they have ventured into your wonderful world, and that it’s a great place to be!

Failure to lead the class effectively could have dire consequences, considering—and this was important—no one was going to come to the rescue. I or some other adult might be sitting in the class, reading or do- ing some work, but our sole responsibility was to be indifferent and do nothing unless asked by those teaching the class. Throughout the training, they were continually reminded, “If you don’t thoroughly prepare to lead your class, and if you lose control, they may rise up, tar and feather you, and no one will save you.” Classes rotated every 30 minutes, so they would not suffer long, but no one wanted to experience an uprising!

Logistics

Of the four three-hour training sessions, the first was spent designing the contents of the program (the Stickies exercise). The remaining sessions focused on:

• Critiquing learning center classes. Each emerging leader would take a turn teaching while the rest role-played kids in the class.
• Getting special training (e.g., first aid).
• Managing camp logistics: setting up field trips; decorating learning center classrooms; making lists of supplies needed; lining up transportation, meals, volunteers, etc.

A final week of preparation took place during the week immediately prior to the camp. Here we would orient any college interns joining us. (Most ministries recruit college interns to run their programs. Our college interns assisted the emerging leaders.)

Leading the Camp

There is another way of thinking about the Scout motto “Be prepared.” A seminary professor once pointed out to me:

Why spend hours and years in a practice room studying an instrument? Because one day you will do what for most people is only a dream: perform great masterpieces of musical literature.

The work and preparation of the past year has equipped the emerging leaders to do what other youth can barely imagine: lead a month-long day camp.

In musical terms, they “practiced” during the months of preparation. That is when they worked. Now Day Camp is here, and practice time is over. The time has come to “play.”

The ministry leader’s primary role now shifts to that of chaplain. Every morning, you lead the staff through a time of devotion and sharing. They can talk about the previous day and encourage one another as they face the new day. Then they take the stage and perform the masterpiece they have been rehearsing.

Take It on the Road

As the saying goes, “You complain you have no shoes, until you meet someone who has no feet.” A significant part of the emerging leaders’ summer experience is going on a mission trip.

This experience serves two purposes. One is to immerse the youth for a brief time in an environment different from their own. It is especially important that they experience third-world poverty in order to gain a more objective perspective on their neighborhood. A second purpose is to provide opportunities to use their teaching and leadership skills among children in other neighborhoods and cultural contexts.

Youth Development: The Matrix

This is the Emerging Leaders Youth Development Matrix. Each young person is immersed during their high school years in the activities of leadership, discipleship and life study. When finished, they will have experienced growth in the areas of character and wisdom. They will have acquired leadership skills and an awareness of their personal strengths. This will give them a sense of direction as they move toward adulthood. And they will take with them the satisfaction of having influenced for good the generation of young people following them. As leaders of these emerging leaders, we have the privilege of witnessing transformation in the heart of the city, where youth grow in faith and confidence to serve others, starting with the children of their neighborhood and reaching as far as God’s purpose for their lives takes them.

Exhortations to an Emerging Leader

You are the leader . . .

It’s your class. If you need something, inform the adult sitting in the corner and we will get it for you. If a child is disruptive, ask and your adult partner will remove the child from your class. We will follow your instructions to assist and support you. But you are the leader, and we will not undermine that leadership by rescuing you. Do not worry. Win or lose, succeed or fail, we will be there afterwards to advise and prepare you for greater success tomorrow.

Classroom focus . . .

“Where there is no vision [direction], the people perish [are unrestrained]” (Proverbs 29:18, KJV). Your job is to give directional leadership to your class. People are less likely to look sideways if they are focused on what’s in front of them. Own your classroom; give it directional leadership, and you will remove 75 percent of potential discipline problems before they start.

Know your role . . .

At any given moment, you are either leading or supporting the leader. You are modeling one of these two roles at all times. Always identify the leader. If you are the leader, lead. We will support you.

Courageous love . . .

How does love (seeking the other person’s highest good) impact our response to the problem child? Can we convince them to change their behavior, for their own good as well as the good of the group? If we cannot, or if they are unable to change, do we love them enough to make the tough decision? If our context is not working for them, then let’s courageously and lovingly direct them to something better.

Principled leadership . . .

Curriculum, planning, discipline problems, games, leading—where is God in all of this? Must the name of Jesus be spoken for Him to be present? His presence should run deep. God is in the principles and motivations that determine your actions. Jesus is in the details because He is behind the details. Be principled in carrying out your responsibilities. Then when you speak God’s name, you give the children you serve something tangible. They will see Him in you, your actions and the program you lead.