Student leadership thoughts

So I am in the office this week, basically by myself, and I found myself working on something for the Fall. There is something that has changed my life and something that I have come to believe can really change students lives. I believe that creating, or having some sort of Student Leadership group is huge for youth ministry. I have come to realize that there are things in student ministry that are important, some more than others and student leadership is something that is more important than other things you may have going on in your ministry.

There has been something that I have been taught and it is that you cannot lead what you do not learn. Most youth ministers or youth workers will have once maybe twice a week where they are able to pour into students. Maybe that is at a community group, a service, a fun event, what ever it may be, we do not have much chance throughout the week to invest in our students. The one’s that do have the chance to influence other students are the leaders in the youth ministry. Student Leadership allows us to have another influential night with the leaders of the students but it also pushes the student leaders to look at the way they live their life in a different way.

Student Leadership is something that changed my life when I was in high school and is a large reason why I am in youth ministry now. Student Leadership should not be something that is taken lightly on either the student or leaders behalf. Student Leaders are future leaders of the church and should not be pushed aside or forgotten about or thrown together at the last minute. Student Leaders deserve and need attention that will push them to think, act, live, and speak differently. Students have a tendency to listen and learn from other students more than adults. It is all about influential ability. Students have a much better chance at really influencing other students more than adults may have because students will see each other every day or talk every day.

Student Leadership however is tricky, because when it comes to leading leaders of tomorrow, you need to be able to discern between who are the leaders that are being called by God to lead and who just wants to be part of a group that will get them more face time. Not making out, but more popularity. Student leaders should be picked and sorted through. I am not 100% sure on how to accomplish this task, but it seems that if you let any students come, it becomes more of a regular group rather than a student leadership group.

So my question is how do you chose or how do accomplish the task of finding student leaders in your youth ministry?

For me, I think that sifting through applications of sorts is the best way. I feel that when you have students sit down and answer questions that you can tell what they are thinking or if they are making themselves better or smarter than they really are. I don’t know if I am correct on that, but I feel that an application for a student leadership group is one way of deciding who should be in student leadership.

So for conversation: How have you filled a student leadership team? What have you found that works really well? What is bad?