Is Student Leadership Valuable?

I want to encourage you not to write off students, thinking they are too young or inexperienced to lead. If you give them a shot at it, you will be surprised at what they can accomplish and the value they can add to your student ministry and your church. I could share dozens of stories of students who have led beyond my expectation.

Student leaders bring growth to your student ministry numerically! When you empower students to lead, you are giving them ownership and buy-in to the student ministry. Also, you are training future leaders and pastors.

I promise you that time spent developing young leaders is never time wasted. The investment is worth it and the future of the church depends on it! 

I was in Japan a couple years ago and spent some time with an incredible church with great pastors leading it. One of the things they shared blew me away. There are 126 million people in Japan, 40 million in Tokyo alone. And of the 126 million people who reside in Japan only about 0.5% are Christian. They explained that there are over 7000 churches in the country, but that only a few elderly people attend. They went on to explain that after the war the county opened up and missionaries flooded the country. Thousands of churches were planted and multitudes of people were reached. So why are all of these churches empty today? Because they never focused on raising up the next generation. 

As the Church, we have not only a responsibility, but a mandate to invest in the next generation. Investing can’t just be playing some games, singing some songs, and telling students Jesus loves them. We need to intentionally raise them up into all that God has for them and the best way I’ve seen this done is by giving them opportunities to lead as a student. In fact, I will go as far as to say that probably the single greatest thing I’ve done in student ministry is to create a culture of students leading. 

Matt Moore

Pastor & Author of Intentional Youth Ministry