I’ve finally fulfilled my New Year’s resolution. It’s only taken me 11 months and 10 days, but I finally signed up for a gym membership. I decided to sign up for someone to show me around. I needed some direction, some pushing, and a personal trainer to guide me in this new territory called “getting in shape.”
I started off the experience by jumping on the treadmill, and having the trainer teach me to “feel the burn.” As he left me to warm up, I couldn’t help but begin to do what I do best: people watch. I began to observe a visually impaired gentleman use the equipment with the assistance of another adult.
It struck me as interesting. My mind immediately went to youth ministry. Just as the visually impaired gentleman needed his guide, so student leaders need us to guide them through the journey of learning how to lead.
Trust
Trust is incredibly important in any relationship—even more important if one individual has no idea where they’re going. As leaders of students, we must teach the student leaders to be trustworthy. We must lead by example.
Dependence
As youth pastors / leaders, we have a huge responsibility to be depended on. This isn’t something to be taken lightly. Students of all ages depend on us to be truthful and honest with them. If we’re not, how can we then teach our student leaders to be?
Familiar
If we ourselves aren’t familiar with the territory that we’re walking in, then we’ll be walking into a wall. We must be familiar with where we’re going. How can we teach students how to lead, and what to expect, if we ourselves have yet to do such a thing?
Student leadership should never be about “the blind leading the blind.” As leaders ourselves, we need to show the proper example to our students, so they can, in turn, lead their peers closer to God.