More Harm Than Good: Student Leadership

Have you ever asked yourself “am I doing more harm than good?” As broken people we have the ability to do more harm than good. It’s happened over and over throughout history. I believe that we should not feel bad about asking this question. Because this question promotes humility and demotes pride and arrogance. I’ve added it to my decision making process. I always want to recognize that I have the ability to deceive myself, like it says in (1 Corinthians 3:18) and do more harm than good.

I was thinking about student leadership the other day, and I started to ask myself in what ways can I be doing more harm than good. I thought of 6:

1. We Think It’s All About Leadership – I firmly believe that the first step to being a great leader in the kingdom of God, is pursuing a life of being a great follower of the King. So helping them grow in following Christ is just as important.
2. We Police More Than We Lead – I’m all for setting the bar high, but when that bar has you doing more policing than pouring into the students, you may want to revisit the bar.
3. We Do To Much – You may feel pressure to be visible, and always at the forefront so you pack the calendar with events and serve projects. I believe sometimes we can feel like if we aren’t doing anything, then no ones growing or the program isn’t working. Resist the temptation to do do do, and instead be intentional.
4. We Don’t Do Enough – Sometimes because we love to teach or hangout, we forget the experience piece to the puzzle. Experience is apart of the growth process. Choose things to do that accomplishes the experience piece, and think of it as a vital part to the program.
5. We Forget They Are Students – I think sometimes we can have unrealistic expectations of students in student leadership. We create a  program based on where we think they should be, versus where they are. Yes, students are the church of today, but they are still students who are still growing, physically, mentally, socially and emotionally. So think about that as you create your application and program.
6. We Do It Alone – You have the vision for the program, and sometimes we say to ourselves “I am the only one who can communicate it correctly.” Your voice is important for them to hear, but also are the voices of others. You run the risk of creating a following, detached from the rest of the youth group doing it on your own. Bring others in to help.

What would you add or subtract from this list?

Hope it helps,

AC