Letting the Students Lead

Week after week, students gather in youth ministry spaces to see their friends, sing, play games, and hear the Word. They funnel into the space to catch up with their friends and enjoy the night ahead of them. Each week, students come to these services and our hope is that they catch a glimpse of what it’s like to be a part of the body of Christ and to faithfully love and serve Him in His church.

What if we could be more intentional with making that happen? Students may have six or so years in youth ministry, but we desperately hope that they will stick around the church long after graduation. What if the students in your room could actively play a part in the happenings of your student ministry? All the while alleviating some of the responsibilities off of your shoulders and onto theirs. 

Enter the Student Leadership Team. This is an intentional and active aspect of discipling the teenagers in your youth ministry by giving them specific responsibilities.

The students sitting in your youth ministry are willing and capable to help lead certain aspects of the student ministry. Developing a student leadership team isn’t simply about offloading your workload onto them. It’s about giving them meaningful opportunities to lead and to be developed into faithful disciples who have a hand in the work of the ministry.

In his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul shares about the role endowed by God for the leaders of the church:

¹¹ And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, ¹² to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ...

Ephesians 4:11-12

Faithful friends, our role as student pastors is to equip them for ministry. But remember, you are not alone in this! The Lord has uniquely gifted the students in your youth ministry to use their gifts for His glory. Developing a leadership team takes time, intentionality, and casting vision. Here are a few ways that creating a Student Leadership Team can benefit the students in your ministry.

1. Student Leadership turns students from consumers into contributors

When students take part in the activities of worship nights, they begin to see the components that are often missed or overlooked. They see the preparation, time, prayer, and hard work that it takes to offer a worship night for students. 

Instead of merely sitting in the seats and listening to the music or the message, students begin to co-create the activities of the night. Their involvement means they have skin in the game and a willingness to take part and appreciate the ministry.

Contributors to your ministry will widen your horizons as well. They may have input that you did not see at first or constructive criticism on how something is received by their generation. By having a hand in the student ministry activities, students will have a greater appreciation for the work that goes into the ministry. Their involvement could mean greater engagement with those serving on leadership and the ones seeing their peers lead.

What’s more effective? A ministry where students simply attend or a ministry where students help lead?

2. Student Leadership is discipleship in action

At first glance, a Student Leadership Team might seem like it will alleviate some of the burden you carry in leading the student ministry. Although that is partially true, your students will take on some of the responsibilities you carry for a typical student ministry worship service, it is also true that your responsibilities will shift.

With a Student Leadership Team, your role will shift from maintaining the events and activities to developing spiritual maturity in students and intentionally pushing them toward leadership. Students will have great ideas. But they will also have some stinkers. It is your responsibility to make sure you vet suggestions and create guardrails to protect what ideas get implemented.

I am all for sitting down with students and engaging the Scriptures together. In fact, that is a vital aspect of discipleship. A Student Leadership Team places the Scriptures at a high value and takes the God's Word literally by engaging them in active involvement in the student ministry. A leadership team does not negate the Bible Study, but puts faith in action. Allowing students to maintain leadership roles within the ministry allows them to practice servanthood, prayer, responsibility, decision-making, evangelism, and a sheer dependence on the Lord. In other words, leadership gives students a place to practice the very things you’re trying to teach them. Leadership is a vehicle for discipleship. 

3. Students can influence their peers in ways adults can’t

Can we just take a moment to thank the Lord that God has uniquely positioned teenagers in spaces and places where they are in social environments day in and day out? We celebrate the fact that a teenage girl in your ministry can relate to other teenage girls far better than you or I can (praise the Lord!) Student leadership allows them to impact and influence their friends by showing them that ministry is not reserved for professionals. Every believer is called to faithfully serve the Lord Jesus in their context. This means...

The athletic girl who runs track can faithfully reach other track runners.

The introverted young man that is highly into video games can reach other gamers for the sake of the Gospel.

The artistic student can help her friends see that a creating God is highly creative and has endowed us to be creative as well. 

Each of us have been created by God to do something for His name and for His glory. Students can influence their peers as living examples of the grace of Christ. Your students can reach people that you cannot.

4. Student Leadership prepares students for a lifetime of ministry

Often we sell our ministries short by making graduation the goal post. But what if we start broadening our horizons and see further down the road? If students sit in our youth ministries with little to no contact to the rest of the happenings in the church, will they graduate from your youth ministry and have no idea where to go? By giving them a voice and a role in your ministry, you are enabling them to fall in love with the bride of Christ. 

Student leadership provides teenagers with a safe place to learn and experience ministry while they are still being formed. The leadership team becomes a place where students can try, fail, receive feedback, try again, and grow from it. 

5. Student Leadership multiplies effectiveness beyond the youth pastor

If every aspect of your student ministry depends on you, then your ministry has a ceiling. You can only personally disciple so many people, organize so many things, and acknowledge so many students. But when you develop leaders, your influence multiplies. 

By creating Student Leadership, you are not merely offloading your responsibilities, you’re maximizing the reach in your ministry. 

We can all agree that a Student Leadership Team would greatly benefit your ministry. But how do you actually do it?

Cast Vision

Speak frequently about the goal and purpose of your ministry. Everything that happens is to reach that goal. Students should be able to state what the vision is for your student ministry. Don’t simply try to hand out titles and fill roles. Give them a sense of purpose and watch them buy into that vision.

Choose character over charisma

We might be tempted to look for the extroverted students, the popular students, the funny students, or the charismatic students. But don’t overlook the quiet, faithful students who love Jesus and consistently exemplify grace and servanthood. Certainly be on guard not to elevate a student that is living in sin but can rally their peers. Character matters deeply. We often use this acronym in our church: Faithful. Available. Teachable. (yes, we’re looking for F.A.T. people!)

Give students real responsibility

Before a student can serve on the stage, are they willing to pick up a broom? Would they clean up a spill? Student Leaders exemplify Christlikeness not merely when they sing from the stage but when they bend down and serve others. There are a multitude of roles students can fill that are important and benefit the student ministry. Students can serve the youth ministry by greeting and welcoming students, leading games, making announcements, running social media, helping plan events, and running sound. 

Recently the students on our praise team recognized that the adults were vacuuming, mopping, and taking out trash after the service. This group of leaders took the responsibility from them and created a monthly schedule so that everyone on the praise team would also serve our youth ministry by cleaning up the space. That communicates real responsibility that honors the Lord and doesn’t elevate the stage presence.

Train them often

We set our students up for failure if we give them a title and hope they figure it out. Meet with them regularly. Spend significant time frequently meeting with them, studying the Bible, casting a vision for the student ministry, and praying together. When we enact a Student Leadership Team, we must make space to invest in their spiritual growth. The best student leader is one who faithfully follows Jesus, sees needs, and seeks to fill those needs because it benefits the health of the church.

This is not something that I came up with, and I cannot necessarily credit one specific person for quoting this (although I hear Shane Pruitt say it a lot): "Young people are not just the church of tomorrow. They are the church of today." We have a unique opportunity to invest in this generation of the church and the next when we invest in students. Take heart. It is not easy work. But it is worthwhile. You are impacting the kingdom of God through the generations of believers in your youth ministry!

Questions to Consider:

• Are the students in my ministry open to leadership responsibilities? If so, what responsibilities could we start with? If not, what steps can we take to get them to a place of readiness?

• What opportunities already exist in our student ministry for teenagers

  to exercise meaningful leadership? 

• What components of your student ministry are you willing to let students take on? Even if they would do it differently or you might be able to do it better, in order to help them grow?

• If you had to miss a night of student ministry, would the students you have trained up be able to carry the ministry forward?