After half a century of attending church and half of that leading, I’ve concluded that the most important and overlooked ministry is the identification and development of leaders before the age of 14. God has strategically placed people who work with children and middle schoolers as catalysts for changing history. The problem is that we’re consumed with broader tasks and have little vision or training for this specific opportunity. A major reason for this is that our culture perceives leading as an adult activity. We thereby miss a critical window for leadership training.
In the following do’s and don’ts, you’ll learn how to avoid thwarting young leaders, and you’ll also discover practical ways to develop them in a local congregation, regardless of size. (For the purpose of this article, I’ve defined leadership as the way God organizes his people to use their individual gifts for common goals. Leaders provide a uniting vision and a motivating cause that’s bigger than themselves.)
Don’ts
Here are three things you need to avoid when developing young leaders:
1. Don’t confuse leadership with discipleship or service. If you do, you’ll think you’re creating leaders when you really aren’t. Having analyzed dozens of youth-oriented church programs deemed “leadership,” I discovered nearly all dealt with other matters such as Bible study, serving (like handing out bulletins), singing on a children’s church worship team, or turning knobs on a sound system.
2. Don’t treat all kids the same because they’re not. If the primary role of leading is establishing direction and helping the rest use their gifts, then stewardship suggests we’re best off identifying those kids with leadership aptitude and then intentionally developing them. These are what we call “habitual” leaders, kids who’ll constantly gravitate toward roles of influence because that’s how God has wired them (Exodus 18, 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4).
3. Don’t wait too long to develop young leaders. Moral psychologists agree that character is pretty much set by 14. And since leaders must handle power and influence many, it’s paramount to reach young leaders with character training before they turn 13.
Do’s
Here are four steps that will help you identify and develop young leaders:
1. Look for kids with strong leadership aptitude. Savvy children’s ministry staff can indentify kids with aptitude. (I define aptitude here as the ability to learn leadership faster and easier than the rest.) Create a list of your 10 to 20 percent most influential kids, from ages 3 to 13. (Indicators of leadership aptitude emerge in social settings as early as preschool and even before.) Get your teachers and staff together and determine the “catalysts kids”—those kids who turn heads of peers, behave a bit bossy, and function as pied pipers (for good or bad). Once you’ve indentified these kids, you can intentionally invite them into leader roles. If you need help indentifying young leaders, we’ve created a leadership aptitude assessment on the KidLead website.
2. Develop opportunities to lead within your ministry. The power of a local church is that it’s a veritable leader lab, a garden for growing leaders. Give your young leaders chances to lead, not just serve. Since this will require extra effort, you may want to recruit a leader development team, while you or others run the rest of the programs. Here are four factors for creating quality leader training opportunities:
a. A clear task. Focus on the what, not the how. You want to create leaders who can think on their own and problem solve. Be clear on the end results but encourage innovation.
b. Leader plus two minimum. Mentoring happens best when a trainer can concentrate on no more than two budding leaders.
c. Genuine authority. Start small, but give away authority to truly teach leading. Let them make mistakes. Don’t just give orders.
d. Coach and debrief. When kids possess aptitude, you don’t need to tell them, just ask them key questions. Before, during, and after a large task or project, interact with them so they brainstorm ideas and analyze. Then debrief. Reflect on what did and did not go well, why the results turned out as they did, and what they might do differently next time. This is where learning gets traction.
3. Pinpoint and train leader coaches. We’ve found that the best leader coaches are themselves leaders—versus managers, teachers, or nurturers—who like kids. If you realize that you’re not a strong leader, consider handing this training over to a gifted leader on your team or recruit someone from outside your ministry (who enjoys and works well with kids).
4. Disciple your leaders. You may or may not have an intentional spiritual formation program, but be sure the kids on your leader list receive discipling. This is not about excluding certain kids. It’s being sure you include specific ones. People whom God has wired as influencers will impact many others (for good or bad). Therefore you want them grounded in faith and within the range of God’s voice. Accomplishing this, you multiply your ministry and not simply add to it. After all, what did Jesus do? He went deep with a hand-selected few, at times dismissing the many (Mark 1) because he knew his time was limited and he wanted maximum impact.
Now Is the Time
As I look at the first half of my ministry, I know I would have been far more effective as pastor and leader if someone had identified my wiring as a kid and developed that potential. By midlife I realized that whatever time I had left, I wanted to equip others to identify and develop leaders while they’re moldable.
We’re forever playing catch up because we fail to think proactively and invest early. We lack a sense of urgency, succumbing to ministry as usual, tweaking the engine instead of overhauling it. But if you want to change history, focus on leaders. If you want to change leaders, focus on them when they’re young.
Alan E. Nelson, Ed.D., is the author of KidLead: Growing Great Leaders and is the founder of KidLead Inc., a non-profit organization that certifies trainers to use its active learning curriculum. Alan lives near Monterey, California, with his wife of 28 years, Nancy. The Nelsons have three sons.
