5 ways to effectively EMPOWER students

Orginally published on Monday, May 04, 2009 at 12:08 AM
by Todd Rhoades

Jimmy Smuda writes: "We know today’s generation is so multi-sensory enhanced, that a regular issue in student ministry (youth and college) is the attention span. It’s no wonder church’s reaching the student demographic are applying services that are either shorter, or sensory enhanced. This could be good and bad. What happens is the student minister over stimulates the student to the point when they are ready to move to adult ministries, there’s a sense of let down. It’s not their fault, it’s just they’ve gone from X-BOX 360, to Atari, Halo 4 to Pong (totally not dogging pong). So here is what helped me. I did not eliminate the multi-sensory parts of services that students love. Doing that would be ministry suicide. But there is something all student ministers can do to help the transition from student ministry, to adult ministry. EMPOWERMENT! When you start students off serving at a youthful age, then when they become adults their natural reaction is to serve. It goes like this..."

By empowering you:

Equip a student to serve

Service becomes ownership

Ownership instills community

Community results in transformation.
You’re taking the student from Entertainment ministry, to Empowering ministry.

Here are 5 ways to do this.

5. Cultivate an atmosphere that allows your students to experiment.

Allow your students to experiment with different approaches to ministry. Give them enough room to think outside the box. This is the most creative generation this world has ever seen. 

4. Give away VITAL aspects of the ministry:

There’s nothing worse then the poor soul that’s been doing your power point, table set ups, or clean up. NEVER to have a chance to spread their wings with things like Outreach planning, teaching, or event scheduling. This becomes more difficult for the student minister who has issues with micro managing.

3. Challenge the ordinary:

Don’t be afraid to challenge your students. There’s more that lies beneath the surface. A good leader never let’s his/her group rely on what other ministries are doing. Though there’s NOTHING wrong with using something successful. It’s when a ministry relies completely on another ministry it smells fake, and a student can smell something canned or un-genuine. We serve the author of creativity, yet we worship at the feet of replication. Dig deep into the heart of your students and see what God has planted inside them.

2. Always give a measurement of growth:

The one way to empower students is to show them their spiritual growth pattern. Think of children when they are physically growing, there’s an excitement. Same goes for high school and college students who have a tangible measuring stick to see spiritual growth. 

1.  Give them the license to FAIL:
The big F word. Students today (not unlike every other generation) have an extremely high level of fear of failing. It’s by our biggest failures we learn our biggest lessons. I tell my student leaders continually, if you’re not failing while attempting to lead something every now and then, you’re not taking ENOUGH chances. Most student ministers are afraid to let their students FAIL AND LEARN under their leadership, because it could be a reflection on THEIR LEADERSHIP, or it deflates THEIR EGO. Kill the ego, let the kids fail at something, WHILE learning what works and what doesn’t work under your authority, council, and mentorship. What a better way to connect with a student then by letting them know you still believe in them when they have tanked.

As student ministers we must find a way to break the crippling statistic of 80 percent of students leave the church after high school. Empowering them to do ministry now, and engraining that in their DNA may just be the answer.

Jimmy Smuda

You can read more from Jimmy here at his blog:  www.belliana.blogspot.com

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Hi... I'm Todd Rhoades. I'm a Christ-follower, husband, father and I love to connect leaders with other leaders. Hopefully you'll find something here at MMI you like and will return often. If you want, you can find out more about me or follow my every step on Twitter.

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