I was reminded today that even though vision is powerful in the life of our followers, it tends to be short lived. Vision is one of those things that needs to be repeated often. We easy forget why we are doing what we are doing. When we lose “the why” our actions become hollow and meaningless. Meaninglessness leads to boredom and complacency. How many of your adult volunteers are bored? How many of them act with purpose and determination? Vision’s power is much like a flammable log; it burns hot for a short time but then loses its flame. In ministry, you continually need to fan into flame the purpose of everyone’s actions and sacrifice. Remember to:

1. Repeat the vision through people
Use illustrations of how the vision is being lived out by your followers.

2. Find creative ways to share the mission
The guy at Subway next to our offices is incredible at working fast and delivering quality. I often take staff members there and point him out as the best in his field. He makes subs, we develop leaders. I like to ask our staff, “who cares more?”

3. Inspiration destroys fear
Fear kills risk, but inspiration fuels risk. Inspire your people with your vision. Share your story of sacrifice, let people know the risk you are taking in leading them, and then share your dreams.

I know that many of you have cast the vision for your ministry already this year but it’s almost spring and ministry teams are losing strength. Don’t forget to pour on the vision.

When I started in leadership development back in 94′ not many people in youth ministry or the church thought leadership development was important. In fact they pushed against it and many times rejected it for its connection to the business world. Then came John Maxwell and made leadership for Christians OK. Still, many people didn’t like the use of secular or business principles in the church. So they renamed leadership – Servant Leadership. This gave it more of a Christian feel and they could still reject the parts of leadership they didn’t care for, like evaluation, accountability to goals, or conflict resolution. Thankfully we have now come to understand that the truths of leadership are good for both the church and the business world. All truth is from God and can be used for his purpose and his goals. It’s a personal thing for me; servant leadership is a good term and it does describe the type of leader Jesus is, but for me, I like to say leadership is like living in an upside down pyramid – we serve people from the bottom up … it’s pretty much the same thing.

I have started to notice a change in leadership. For people my age (46) and older we think about leadership in terms of time spent. Our influence comes from how long we have been in ministry or how long we have been in a leadership position. It’s not important what we have done but how long have we been doing it. For 20 somethings it’s very different. They are concerned with impact and they don’t care how old you are if you are making a difference in culture and church. So we can’t teach leadership the same way, in fact many younger people reject leadership because it seems to be based on a meaningless statistic.

So how do we teach leadership to a generation that mistakenly thinks it doesn’t need it?

1. We connect service with leadership
We need a new picture of leadership. I like saying, “leaders live in an upside down pyramid.” We lead from the bottom up. We serve those who follow us.

2. We connect personal development to leadership
Everyone is going to be in a leadership position at some point in their lives. If we are in a car with two kids in the back we are leaders. So learning leadership will benefit everyone. We must help people see that leadership is a personal need for everyone.

3. We connect change to leaders
Changes happens through movements. Movements happen because someone takes a stand. Leaders take a stand because they have a vision of a better tomorrow. We are those leaders because we have a vision of a better tomorrow in Christ.

Spring is close, the time of year when our small groups begin to fall apart. Sports, plays, and spring break all take their toll on our small group program. The weak groups fail fast and the strong group lose their momentum. Small groups fail because most small group leaders are not consistent over the long haul. We need to keep in the mind the goal of discipleship and work to see our students grow all year round.

When I am out meeting with youth pastors and small group leaders, I hear the same things; groups start with a bang and within a few months things began to fall apart. The truth is, we love the idea of small groups and we see the benefits of them but we don’t know how to sustain them over the long haul. (Notice no one writes books like “maintaining small groups” or “small groups the second year – feel the excitement!”)

Small group failures are costly – students lose interest, group jealousy begins as some groups flourish and others break apart, and students leave youth group because their small group leader doesn’t care. 

A good small group ministry requires the full attention and creativity of a youth pastor and not just in August and September but year round. To help with this do bi-monthly evaluations of all small groups. Check three critical areas:

Focus of group – social vs. spiritual. If focus is social the group is headed for trouble.

Content – is the Bible study relevant to students’ lives that are in the group? Too often youth workers use the same curriculum for all their groups. I don’t understand what a freshman boy and senior girl have in common. Don’t be lazy – be creative. Create curriculum that will engage with students.

Attendance – students will only go if it’s beneficial. If attendance dips over a period of a month, see point 2.

Have a rescue team ready. This may be you or other youth ministry vets from your staff (It’s good to have a male and female on this team). The rescue team may need to change leaders, meeting times, group focus or may need to change the student mix in the group. Tip: be quick to respond because once you lose a group, the damage is done.

Give your staff tools that help them develop relationships with students. Seminars and training materials can be effective. In fact here at LeaderTreks, we have some great seminars and trainings that can help. But more importantly, I think small group leaders need goals. Sit down with each leader and give them a vision for their small group and how it supports the goals of the whole ministry. Write the goals down and keep staff accountable to the mission of their small group.