have growing youth departments with commitments each year in terms of salvation, the desire to enter the ministry, the desire to take part in the life of the church and to lead in their own youth de partments. This could be and should be the status of every church. Several suggestions based on fact and research from these churches may assist you in evalu ating your youth leadership. Some of these ideas were submitted by students from a class in Youth Leadership at Talbot Seminary. These are listed in abbreviated form and need additional research and planning before anyone at tempts to implement them, but they should contribute to a def inite beginning for a youth lead ership program. 1. The first premise on which to build a program is to seek out potential leaders and at the same time create an environment in which all youth have equal oppor tunity to develop. The use o f a simple tool called a sociogram will aid in this search. A sociogram is designed to study and measure inter-personal relationships in a group of people by use o f ques tionnaires and charts. It helps to recognize leaders, non-leaders and centers of influence w ith in a group. 2. If you have officers in your youth group, how are they chos en ? Are they selected on the basis of popularity or leadership poten tial and abilities? Some churches are having their students elected to a youth cabinet without being elected to a specific position such as president, secretary, etc. The group of elected officers then de cide through discussion and evalu ation who is best qualified on the cabinet to do each specific job. Members of the cabinet hold that office for three months and then rotate to a different position. A f ter another three months, another election is held and a completely new slate of officers take over, thus giving everyone equal oppor tunity to serve.
IN OVATIONS IN LEARNING LEADERSHIP INYOUTH Wehave not becausewe train not bi| Uo’twM UJhiqkt
A PASTOR stood in front of his church board and stated, “ I just don’t know what’s the matter with these youth. There isn’t a leader among them! They just aren’t interested in the church any more.” Perhaps you have experienced this in your own church. Many are bemoaning the lack of youth leadership but in time this con tinual lamenting can become re dundant. In many churches there are very few youth who are “ lead ers” or who exhibit any apparent signs of leadership potential. It might be suggested though that instead o f wasting energies com plaining about this condition, ef forts should be taken to reverse this tide by developing a construc tive training program. It appears there are two main reasons why many churches find themselves in a vacuum when it comes to youth leadership. Unfor tunately the first reflects a judg ment upon many present-day churches. S cores o f capable church young people are lost from the rolls of the local congregation by the time they reach high school because they find no outlet for their creative energies, no outlet
the fact that we have not because we train not! Research tends to show there is general agreement that there are no persons who are “natural” or “ bom” leaders in every situation. Effective leaders are cultivated and disciplined in dividuals who do not emerge by chance. We do find many churches who for their latent desire for service, no challenge for growth in Bible knowledge, and no interest on the part of others to see them grow and develop. By the time a church realizes something must be done, a good portion of their youth have joined the dropout status with lit tle hope of reclaiming them. Many of them leave during the transi tion period between junior and senior high and between senior high and college. A definite pro gram and emphasis of leadership development would serve as a sta bilizing factor. The second factor involved in the lack of youth leaders is a re flection of the philosophy that youth are incapable of producing positive gains in terms of Chris tian service. Therefore, no pro gram has been developed to train them. It simply comes down to
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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