Dustin Sams
"student ministry on the frontlines"

Student Leadership pt 3

The third part of Student Leadership is Discipleship.  It can be argued that there are many more facets to Student Leadership than just the three that I have written about and that is true.  But most of those issues are ones that I call “teaching moments” in the life of the relationship that I call Student Leadership.  So assuming that you have students with the will to lead and they now have a “job” in your ministry, the next phase of development would be considered Discipleship.

I take each student that is involved with our ministry (STUlea) and try to develop a tailored path that depends a whole bunch on them and their decisions.  They must be willing to enter into the relationship with open eyes and a willing heart.  A lot can happen over the span of four or five years of adolescence and our leadership is committed to be there with them through every phase.  Before, I only allowed older, committed students to pursue this phase…then I realized that a 7th grade student was just as willing and capable to commit and serve as older students.  This has become a joyful and passionate part of my ministry to students…while also challenging me to deeper levels of my faith, testing my patience as a leader, and increasing the desire to see students become more like Christ.

Some of the things that is common across the board with these students are as follows:

• Commitment to growing in the Word.  I provide all I can for them to continue to be challenged in reading scripture.  Quiet Time booklets and other reading materials that are age/growth appropriate.  A “Personal Survival Guide” that has been written by a friend of mine, Eric Ball is the starting point.  The Moving Towards Maturity Set from Reach Out Youth Solutions is top notch and I love it.
• Continual input and pointed conversations with the student to make sure and keep up with their walk.  I wish I could put this into words, but I am sure you get the feel of what I am talking about.  This includes everything from how their grades are doing in school, how their relationship with their parents is going, to their peer relationships and how that affects their daily walk.  I find this to be the most effective way to pick up on areas to work on, both in their lives and mine.
• Specifically designed events for the Student Leaders to build relationships among themselves and with our Adult Leadership.  Cookouts, Bonfires, Florida Trips, small group events, and retreats to dig deeper and challenge them further.

I am a believer in the Jesus Focused Youth Ministry strategy and have been involved with it for several years.  There are numerous resources and tons of reliable accountability with these guys that help me be a better Youth Pastor/leader and keep from falling into the event-to-event style ministry that so often leads to burn out.  If you haven’t checked it out…please do so prayerfully and I think you will find a strategy that helps Youth Pastors become more effective in their calling and passionate about the students we minister to.

I will be adding and refining this as it fleshes itself out on paper in the near future…If you have any questions and/or comments, please feel free and let me know.

Student Leadership pt 2

Step Two: Accountability
I recommend that you have this well planned out ahead of time, because there will always be that one student that tests something not thought through. It will happen. So plan for it. I have the same standard plan that most Youth Pastor’s have. I have a certain mental picture of what I feel God wants a student to be prepared for before leaving our ministry and entering the next step, whatever that may be. It could be college or the workforce or military life. Each student is different and I tailor ministry to each one that I meet but there is a general set of expectations that I have for students that plan on sticking with Student Leadership here.
1. They have to show interest in it. I do not seek out students at this point. Encouragment is at all levels of our ministry and this has been successful in moving students from one level to another. So the questions usually go like this, “Dustin, what does it take to be a student leader?” Bingo. Next Step.
2. I sit down with each student and go over the expectations very quickly and then let them think on it. I cover the high points and let them know that by “signing” on with Student Leadership they are agreeing to all of the above. Here they are. a)Faith in Christ. I allow them to share their testimony with me. b)Church attendance. We have several different denominations involved with our weekly ministry, so attendance at their home church is required. If they don’t have a home church, they must be at ours. At least 3 out of four Sundays a month. I set the bar high. If a students starts to slack off in this area, I always check in and see what is up. c)Attendance at all Student Ministry Events is required for them. Obviously, not everyone can be at all the events all the time, so they just need to let me know what is up. So basically, there are times that Student Leaders are excused. d)By being a Student Leader, they are held to higher standards than others. They are giving me permission to call them on the carpet for their behavior…this includes online, school activities, anything that may affect their witness is fair game. I am up front about this and obviously I handle all of those issues individually and with grace. Teaching opportunities should never be wasted.

**Additional thoughts on Accountability: I often ask for report cards/mid-term grades and make sure that they are keeping up with the studies (No Pass/No Play). If they get in trouble at home/school, then there are ramifications on this level as well.

This will get them to the next step, Discipleship see pt 3

Student Leadership pt 1

I get asked a the question a lot about our Student Leadership style here, I wanted to take a little time and really flesh out what it is that we do strategically. Student Ministry is different in each church, so before we discuss all the aspects of it, I needed to get down our overall plan for Student Leadership. So here goes. Please take it at face value…if there are aspects of it that you can use, then feel free. If you have a comment, then feel free to leave it and maybe we can come out with a better understanding of what Student Leadership is.
Student Leadership began here out of necessity. Things needed to get done and I was only one person. When I moved into this ministry venue in 2003, I had to establish my style here. I moved from a larger church situation to a smaller church and community here on the edge of the Mississippi Delta and some of the “resource” changes caused me to evaluate what was important and what was urgent. What I mean by resources are not just with money/budgeting changes, it means different people, different buildings, and a different local culture. I had a handful of students that didn’t know me and I didn’t know them…so that was the place to start. With the few students that were attending, I found it easy to establish expectations early rather than having to “retrain” a large group. The image that comes to mind is steering a small dingy verses trying to turn a large ship around. Obviously it is easier to set the course with the small boat.

Step One: Responsibility
The first part of establishing my expectations was responsibility. Clear and very real. Student Leaders have a job, or should have a job to do. Each responsibility has very real expectations and evaluation. For an example I am going to use the job working the lights for our stage in our facility. It seems easy to some and difficult to others. I look very closely at the way a student is “wired”. If keeping up with details are not a big strength for a particular student, then that may not be a good place for them to plug in. Careful and correct placement is a win-win for both the ministry and the student, this will also help keep that student from burning out or becoming frustrated with serving. The responsibility involved needs to be clear and evaluating “job” performance is a great teaching moment.
“If you, as the youth leader, are not able to be specific about what leadership looks like, acts like, how it spends its time, what results are expected – then don’t ever expect your students to be able to do that for you. Set the vision of where you believe God wants your ministry to go, then make a list of functions in your group/ministry that need to be done in order for that vision to be accomplished. Then begin praying for God to raise up the students who can be trained to fulfill those functions.” Eric Ball, Youth Communicator & Student Ministry Consultant

Another piece of the responsibility puzzle is that as that student gets older and more proficient in the area of lighting, he/she is responsible for training a replacement before they graduate. This is a big one that helps keep the ebb and flow of graduating out talented ministry oriented students in check. If they are the only ones doing the job after they figure it all out…then you face a huge hole in your leadership and back to square one when that gem leaves you pushing the light buttons by yourself or worse, it lowers the quality in the presentation of the Gospel, if even for a short time. So keep them recruiting and training new blood. Some will wash out and decide not to be a part of it…but the ones that keep with it are truly worth their weight in gold for sure.
The responsibilities in our ministry have moved from two or three “jobs” to literally dozens of places for students to take ownership of our ministry. Year one involved setting up the couches and making sure the Xboxes were on. Now I am truly amazed at how “adult” they seem to be. The first three student leaders weren’t even called that…they were just solid students that wanted to be around and help out. Now I have a list of nearly 40 students that want to be a part of something bigger themselves…God has truly blessed. My time now is spent building positive relationships with students and less time setting up the chairs (and I truly hate setting up chairs) for our ministry activities. We have now established a “Lead” Student Leader…I am not sure how that sounds, cause to tell you the truth I am having difficulty naming it. I don’t want to have a “president of the youth group” so I explain it this way. I now don’t have to go to each individual to make sure things are squared away, I go to one student and ask. It works surprisingly well. For this article I will call it the office of “the guy who’s tail is in a wringer if something is not being taken care of for Flipside 517,” how’s that. It’s great, everyone should have one. My philosophy is this, if you want a job you can have one…but be prepared for the next step. Accountability will be taken care of in pt 2.