iLead is a new resource by Inside Out Youth Worker and focuses on developing student leaders within local youth groups. I was given a copy of this book by Kevin Phillps, one of the Directors of J-Life USA after the luncheon we hosted several weeks ago. He authored one of the chapters and I quickly came home and devoured the material.
The book is broken up in to 11 chapters; each chapter focusing on a particular leadership necessity that make youth ministries grow. These necessities are: divergence from the norm, “leading from the front”, balancing grace and truth, multiplication, partnership, creativity, humility, teaching, empowering, planning and bundling a leadership style that suites one’s unique giftings.
Ben Stewart writes the first chapter on divergence. Ben is currently doing youth ministry in Wisconsin. Ben talks a lot about not trying to live up to the expectations of others – a great point to start a leadership book with when talking about ministering to students. Of all the youth pastors I have known, many run themselves ragged and burn out quick because they are trying to serve in more ways than are humanly possible. They try and meet every kid and every parent’s expectations and by doing so, set themselves up for failure. Ben challenges youth leaders to impliment changes at high points rather than wait until things get rough. He balances this idea by encouraging readers not to become arrogant in their leadership style and to be open to the advice and accountability in a leader’s own life.
The second chapter really exemplifes leadership in any context. “Leading from the front” is a quality that any leader needs to adapt in to his style rather than pushing from the back and micro-mangaing those that they supervise. In my own ministry, I am trying to break the micro-managing urge after being accused of “nagging.” It is challenging to demand excellence in your work and expect productive, quality and timely results from those who work with you. Jimmy Donaruma, the author of this chapter, says that the way he gets this done is by leading by example, gleaning input from his team, leadership in his life and from those he serves, and setting a clear bar as a standard for all. Jimmy trained at Nyack College in New York and now does youth ministry in New Jersey.
Chapter three tackles an important aspect of leadership: balancing grace and truth in ministry. Brian Kannel serves as a youth minister in Pennsylvania and he has found this to be a challenge in his work. He gives several real life examples of students and their development. His advice is to communicate consequences without punishment or acusation. He also stresses the importance of building a team with teammates that bring balance to this issue.
Drew Grubbs brings home a central point in chapter 4. As an experienced student minister for over 20 years, Drew has come to recognize the importance of multiplication. He sees student ministry as an opportunity to impliment a “farm system” of sorts. Single A would be the level that he is mobilizing his leaders to disciple kids who make decisions to follow Christ. Double A moves kids on to a serving capacity. Triple A starts scouting for leaders. He believes that by helping kids move through these different levels of development.
In the fifth chapter, Jeff Pearson deals with partnerships. The premise is that it is always better to work together than alone. He rightly points out that pride, jealousy and differences in opinions are obstacles that need to be overcome. He encourages working with other churches and youth leader networks.
One of my favorite chapters was chapter six. David Moorehead talks about creativity in leadership and how important it is to think outside of the box and keep the juices flowing. His four principals about creativity are: it comes through Christ, crisis and cultivation. In other words, Christ as the ultimate creator inspires creativity. Additionally, when trying new things, things don’t always go according to plan. Continuing to step out and try new things makes room for evaluation, which allows leadership to continue to reinvent its methods of impact. Moreover, creativity grows throgh the process of trial and error as well as the commitment to keep going. Finally, including others allows for more ideas to flow in to the creative process and thus bring fresh perspectives and energy to the ministry.
Tom Maxwell is another seasoned youth ministry leader from the south. He has served for more than 20 years at Lakeside Baptist Church in Virginia. In his chapter, Tom shares his strategy for raising up a new generation of leaders. His strategy is simple: step out of the way to make room for others. He advocates impowering leaders by not only stepping away, but coaching them and championing their efforts. He discourages micro-managing and encourages his leaders to move on to other opportunities as the Lord leads and their gift has fully developed.
Sam Hettinger’s chapter discussed leading through teaching. Writing from New Jersey, Sam’s perspective is one that comes from a life of growing up in youth ministry. He contends that teaching the Bible needs to come from four main perspectives: direction, discernment, defense and desire. I am excited that one of his points was a value of f2fmi – “We are all teachers and learners.” Sam encourages readers to be life long students of the Bible and in that light, always drawing from the Bible for one’s self and as a result, having much to offer students. To clarify Sam’s four “d’s”, direction refers to really knowing the word. Discernment is about knowing the difference and drawing a distinction between the Spirit of Scripture and our culture. Defense is refers to studying the evidence surrounding the credibilty of Scripture. Finally, desire refers to presenting the Christian message in a relevant and attractive way.
Chapter nine was written by the guy who gave me this book. Kevin Phillips. Kevin’s chapter was incredibly meaningful, not just because I know him, but because he makes some great points. Kevin talks about leaders as servants. Kevin is really in to multiplication and empowering students to lead. This is reflected in his work with J-Life USA. He draws out the process of growing student leaders by outling it in this way: seekers become believers through relationships, believers become servants through service, and servants become leading servants through responsibility.
Joshua Blair writes about one of the most desired and lacking areas in youth ministry leadership: good administration. Joshua serves students in Wisconsin with his wife Lora. Joshua gives an example of two extremes. The first is a youth pastor that is unorganized and unplanned. He is highly relational but drops the ball sometimes. The community is quick to forgive him but there is something clearly missing in his ministry. The other youth minister is hyper-organized. He has got a plan for everything and builds great teams. Yet, the kids are distant from him and he wishes he could go deeper with them. Joshua suggests that youth leaders aspire to be balanced: to strive to make a well thought plan while making time for relationships.
The final chapter is written by Kelly Carnahan from Cody, Wyoming. Kelly expounds upon discovering unique leadership bundles. He encourages youth leaders to lead with what comes naturally to them and to focus on these unique strengths.
This book was put together by Inside Out Youth Worker. Kent Julian is the face for the organization. Inside Out Youth Worker is dedicated to training and equiping youth leaders to impact students for Christ. Kent also has an interest in doing school’s work so we have an affinity there! Check out his other company at http://www.LiveItForward.com.
On many points, the leadership principles illustrated in this book can also be found in John Maxwell’s book, The 360 Degree Leader. In this book, Maxwell discusses how to lead from the middle of an organization – a position that many youth leaders find themself in. iLead is available through the Inside Out Youth Worker store.
