“I wasn’t a born leader. I was helped. Forged. Developed.” — Craig Hamilton
Isn’t that true for so many of us? Leadership doesn’t come effortlessly or without training.
Unfortunately, when it comes to youth ministry, we can tend to think the opposite. Often, we throw people into a leadership position when they have next to zero training or experience. Sometimes people can find themselves being a ‘youth leader’ and lack clarity on: ‘Why am I here?’ ‘What am I meant to be doing?’ ‘How do I even do this?’ ‘Do I have what it takes?’. This isn’t a comforting thought! Nor is it a healthy situation for our youth, the youth leader, or their parents!
To avoid situations like this, MPC Youth is starting a new initiative to raise up future youth leaders. On Sundays, during the growth group section of our program, I (Sam) will be training/discipling our ‘Youth Trainees’ to grow in the character, convictions, and competencies necessary to lead and disciple youth in the future. Each term, we will meet together to be trained for the gospel! Exciting stuff! The training is going to be rich and deep:
Term 1: Lead Them to Jesus: A handbook for youth workers by Mike McGarry.
Term 2: Read this First: A simple guide to getting the most out of the Bible by Gary Millar.
Term 3: Growth Groups: How to lead disciple-making small groups by Collin Marshall.
My prayer is that these 6 x Youth Trainees will benefit immensely from taking the time to consider the gospel, youth ministry, and leadership before being thrown into the deep end. Of course they’ll be learning ‘on-the-job’ as well, you’ll see them running games, leading up front, and even dropping into a small group from time to time. But the bigger goal is to foster a leadership culture at MPC Youth which recruits, trains, and disciples so that others might come to know our great God.
Please be praying for these new trainees and myself!
In Christ,
Sam Hemming
MPC Youth Coordinator
