Have you ever thought about getting involved as a Christian youth leader? Perhaps you don’t think of yourself as much of a leader but let’s imagine if you were asked to lead a Bible club or youth fellowship. How would you respond to that request? Or let’s say that you are a musician who has been asked to get involved with a Christian band or worship team. How would you know if you should do it? What if you had an opportunity to lead a Christian youth group, oversee a church ministry or lead a children’s Sunday School class? How would you decide if those opportunities were right for you?
The Doctor has been thinking about youth leadership recently because of some e-mail questions that he’s gotten on this subject. We’ll take a look at those questions a little later but for now, let’s check out some of the qualities that make for a good leader and see how someone can tell if they are right for a leadership position.
Not Old Enough?
Some people believe that most teens are just not mature enough to have the responsibility of a leadership position. While this might be true for some teens (and many adults for that matter), age really doesn’t have as much to do with leadership as you might think.
For example, there are a number of instances in the Bible where God gave people some important leadership responsibilities while they were still pretty young. Some examples would include Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:1-7), David (1 Samuel 16:1-13) and Mary (who was probably around 14-16 years old when the angel Gabriel appeared to her in Luke 1:26-38).
A little later in the Bible we find that the Apostle Paul (then known as Saul) was a “young man” shortly before he met Jesus on the Damascus road and became a Christian (see Acts 7:58 and Acts 9:1-6). In fact Paul later told another young leader, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12 NIV).
So you can see that youth in itself doesn’t automatically disqualify people from leadership positions. Of course some of you may be saying, “Yeah sure, but I’m not a teacher. I’m not a Pastor or anything like that.” Ok, fair enough- you may not be a Pastor, but have you ever considered that you are a leader, at least in some ways?
Follow The Leader
The truth is that everyone is a leader in some respect. This is due to the fact that everyone has some influence with others, even if it’s only in small amounts. For instance, you may be in a position to influence people like friends at school or co-workers at an after school job if you have one. Your words and actions certainly have an influence on those who may be your teammates, roommates or classmates too. Or perhaps you have younger family members that look up to you as an example. Those of you reading this on the Internet know that your words can also have an impact on online friends that you’ve never even met in person.
So you can see that your influence -however small- can be used to lead and impact others in whatever manner you choose. This makes everyone a leader to some degree and part of our responsibility as Christians is to use whatever amount of influence we have to lead and impact others in a way that honors God. The Bible talks a little about this leadership responsibility in the book of 2 Corinthians…
“…God has given us the privilege of urging everyone to come into his favor and be reconciled to him. For God was in Christ, restoring the world to himself, no longer counting men’s sins against them but blotting them out. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. We are Christ’s ambassadors…” (2 Corinthians 5:18b-21a).
So you don’t necessarily need a title to be a leader- you already are a leader in some way!