As I have been watching students develop into leaders, I have noticed that their leadership skills grow in direct proportion to their growth in confidence. So how do we as youth leaders help our students grow in these areas? What are the intentional actions that we need to take in order to help students believe in themselves? Youth ministries often focus on high energy outreach events to reach more students for Christ. But how about developing the leadership and confidence of your students in order to reach their friends for Christ?

There are three key focuses to growing students’ confidence

Confidence comes from understanding God’s design
I am not just giving you the “Jesus” answer. Most often students don’t think they’re special. They don’t think they have some great God-given ability to change the world around them. They rarely see their potential. They need to understand that God made them for a purpose and God would never short-gift one of His children. God isn’t in the business of giving life to His kids and then cutting them off.  Most students don’t get it – yeah, they understand God will forgive them, but do they bank on God’s personal plan for them. For students to be confident they must know that God has their back.  He is their safety net and in the end, every Christ-follower wins. Students must understand that they are made for a purpose and God gives them all the needed tools to complete that purpose.

Confidence comes from positive life experience
For students to grow in confidence they must have an experience beyond what they thought was possible. They must be placed in situations that require them to reach beyond themselves, to do something they thought impossible. The experience is reinforced when they receive recognition from their peers. This is why I love teaching leadership on mission trips and wilderness trips. I believe that when students have ownership of these events they will be required to step beyond themselves and do more than they thought they could. The experience will give students the chance to recognize each others’ giftedness.

Confidence comes from a positive adult who is willing to risk
Students must have a positive adult figure in their lives cheering them on to greatness. Adults need to tell students how they see God working in their lives. Adults also need to take risks and offer students leadership opportunities. Students need adults to connect the dots for them concerning how God has made them and how their giftedness can be used in real life. When students are given the leadership of an event and the success or failure of that event is in their hands, they will develop confidence, regardless of the outcome, as long as they have the support of a positive adult.

Confidence doesn’t happen by accident – create a plan for your students to develop into confident leaders.

This Sunday, Todd, one of my student leaders said “the best part of these meetings is that we get to sync with each other.” Todd was right and he got me thinking; when we “sync” with each other we are happier, we dream bigger, and we are much more effective overall. So what does it take to “sync” a leadership team?

1.    Shared Values – the deep convictions that lead to mission. Often, we write mission statements to connect us together, but if you want to get to the heart of the matter share your values with each other and find common ground. This will allow you to sync at a deeper level.

2.    Authenticity – live in the wide open space of God’s grace. When teams take prayer requests and pray for each other, vulnerability is reached.  And when we share our failures and faults, we reach a depth that only humility can take us.

3.    Accountability – the ability to challenge each other to reach high performance. Many times, we are willing to keep people to their commitments, but seldom do we challenge each other to do the unexpected.

When I am with “synced” team members I believe that I am at my best. How about you? What would it take for your leadership team to be synced?

In his final year with the Bulls, Michael Jordan and his teammates were pushed to a game seven against the Indiana Pacers in the eastern conference finals. In a thrilling game, the Bulls beat the Pacers and made it to the championship.  The only problem was, the opponent for the championship (the Utah Jazz) had been resting for over a week. The Jazz were a younger team, hungry to prove they could beat the best.  Immediately after beating the Pacers the bulls had to travel out to Utah and start the championship series. A reporter asked Michael to be honest; could the older Bulls beat the well-rested, younger Jazz? Michael looked at the reporter and said, “Our legs might be tired but are hearts are not.” The Bulls went on the beat the Jazz in five games.

Never underestimate a champion and what he or she can do for a team. The reason the Bulls won so much is because they had a true champion on their team. Champions make all the difference. Are you a champion for your ministry team? Do you stand up and say what is not being said? Do you stand in the stream of mediocrity and inspire excellence?

Check out this free tool to get your team talking about becoming champions.

When starting a student leadership program many people in the church are going to have questions. Church leaders are going to want to know how far you are going to carry this idea of students making decisions. Parents are going to want to know who is going to be on the team and what the criteria is for choosing student leaders. The adult volunteers in the ministry are going to want to know what their role is in this program. These are all good questions and for you to have a successful program you need to deal with them honesty and openly.

Church Leaders
Often time church leadership will be on board with a student leader program; after all who can better understand the need for growing new leaders. They will however be casus about how far the program will go in letting students make decisions. Remember part of their job is to minimize risk and students being in charge don’t exactly scream risk free.  When presenting the program to them be complete in the scoop of the program. Detail what decisions students will be making, describe the bounties you intent to put in place to insure safety and clearly explain how the program is based on a mentoring relationship with an adult. Remember when you say “student will be in charge” the adults are envisioning a food fight followed by a small urban riot. Be clear and complete when making your presentation. The benefit of having the church leadership on board will be to create support for the program even during difficult times.

Parents
Helping parents understand the program is very important. Nothing could be better than having parents support for the leadership team and nothing could be worst if they feel felt out of the process. Parents always want to know two things; who is on the team and what is the criteria for getting on the team. When answering these questions be consistent and honest. We sometimes feel like we need to tell parents what they want to hear – be honest; if their son or daughter doesn’t meet the criteria for being on the team tell the parents and layout for them the conditions on which they could be on the team. Also remember to be consistent; if you let a student on the team that doesn’t meet the criteria and you keep others off nothing we ruin your credibility faster and the ramifications could be bigger than you think.

Consider this plan. Call a meeting of the parents and explain them the reasons for having a student leadership team, the program itself and how students will be selected. Before the meeting ask a few parents to serve with you and your volunteer team on a committee that selects the student leaders. The benefit of this will be to have cover in that you are not making this decision alone. This also gives ownership to the parents by being involved in the process. Announce who is on the committee so all the parents understand. Communicate often, let parents know the deadlines for getting applications in, let them know when the team will be announced and let them know how you will tell the students that apply and don’t make the team. I do suggest having a private meeting with students that don’t make the team to let them know why and what they can do to make it next year.I want to encourage you to see parents as your partners in student leadership development. In the twenty plus years I have been doing this I have never been successful outside of a strong relationship with the parents.

Adult Volunteer Leaders
Surprisingly adult volunteers often struggle with student leadership teams because when you talk about students making decisions and taking leadership for events and programs you are usually talking about students taking their positions. As the youth director everybody knows your role but for the adult volunteer their role is leading the small stuff. You know the stuff that you want to now turn over to the student leaders. See the problem – adult leaders often don’t buy-in for this reason.

The answer is to retrain your adults – move them from chaperons to mentors. Let’s be honest; you don’t need van drivers and cooks you need adults that will pour their lives into the lives of students no matter how messy it gets. By helping your volunteers see that their role is to develop deep relationship with students you will give them a vision for the future and their ministry that is powerful and inspiring.

I suggest presenting you ideas about a student leadership team soon after getting church approval and before going to parents. Volunteers will help answer parents’ questions and help identify potential student leaders. Having them understand changes they will have to make early on in the process will insure a smooth transition to the new program.

The key is to communicate. Don’t just share the reasons behind the program once; state it over and over again and to people start saying it back to you. Starting a student leadership team sounds great but remember before you start get the church leaders, parents and adult volunteers on your side. It will make all the difference.