Misplaced Safety

Jul 26 2010 Author: Doug Franklin Filed under: Adult volunteers, Leadership, Youth Ministry

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I work with a lot of adults on mission trips and the one thing I notice is how many of them want to rescue students. This rescuing is always in the name of “safety.” Its been a long time since an adult has said to me, “hey lets challenge these kids so they can learn what they really can do.” Most adults are afraid of pushing students and students are the ones who lose out. I think students like LeaderTreks trips so much because they don’t normally get challenged. When they do face a challenge, they love how it helps them become who they were meant to be. I think most adults want to rescue students from hard things because they are selfish. Adults always feel better about themselves when students do well. When students fail, adults feel like they have failed and it makes them uncomfortable. When adults rescue students they create unequipped followers in the kingdom of God. These unequipped followers will soon be leading the church. We have a choice to make; will we keep students safe and in the process make ourselves feel good, or will we challenge and help them learn the hard, tough lessons that will prepare them for leadership?

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6 Responses to “Misplaced Safety”

Ryan S.
July 26th, 2010 at 8:02 pm

Doug, I agree with you to a point. I agree that adults are selfish in their rescue efforts, but I think it goes beyond feeling good to a fear of loosing a kid altogether. At least in my context of small church youth ministry, there is this idea that if we loose too many youth, we are failures and run the risk of loosing something more precious than a kid… but loosing our jobs. I disagree with your statement that these unequipped kids will one day be running the church… I doubt the unequipped will even be around church to offer them the opportunity. That to me is quite something that scares the poo out of me.
Doug Franklin
July 26th, 2010 at 10:24 pm

Ryan, last time I checked lots of the unequipped were running the church.
Ryan Smith
July 27th, 2010 at 9:45 am

That’s true, I just wonder with the “up and coming” generation if the trend will continue…
Doug Franklin
July 27th, 2010 at 9:47 am

Ryan, I know that both you and I are working hard to make sure they are equipped.
mike p
August 4th, 2010 at 5:04 pm

Good points. I know that with our groundbreaking trips and with our ‘high-profile’ trips (as far as Chinese officials go, etc.) I am reluctant to let the students fail big. And yet, one of the students told me that he liked the ‘raw’ feel of the trip (18 days, lots of changes, and students ‘taking the wheel’ on a rotating basis) because the experience let them experience what it really meant to step out in faith…So, strking a balance? What are the key crux elements.
mike p
August 4th, 2010 at 5:05 pm

Oops that last sentence was a question.

My name is Doug Franklin and I serve youth workers through a ministry called LeaderTreks. I love youth ministry and the people who serve in it. I work with an incredible team creating tools and resources enabling youth workers to develop students into leaders. I want to influence youth workers to challenge students and prepare them for leadership in the kingdom of God.
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