Hello. I have not forgotten about you. I have just not taken the time to sit down and talk to you. My apologies it is not that you're unimportant it's just that my head is been elsewhere now can we get back to something very important.
The issue is discipleship. Jesus left us with a mandate to go and make disciples, so we've been given a certain number of people to work with. Our job is to make disciples not just teach some fun topic we believe in. So the question is what are we doing to create disciples as opposed to just talking to people. Youth leadership is about transforming world views. It is not just about following the rules and becoming good kids. It is about making little Christs. (those who reflect the love of God.)
When we write a vision or mission statement we are identifying what we want to be as an organization. We are also defining what we want those were participate in our organization to look like as an end result. What are the elements that we need to address in order to facilitate our development towards attaining these goals.
Something for the youth to look at is are we allowing them to minister even what we can do it better than them, or are we showing them how without ever putting any responsibility on the youth to minister.
The true MENTORING AND DISCIPLESHIP making is a four steps process:
Step one; to explain what you want
Step two; to show how it is done
Step three; allowed shared responsibility
Step four; to release responsibility
When determining what is most important in discipleship we look at what will lay the foundation for the next thing to be built up0n. For example when we started talking about leadership I didn't talk about specifics, but I talked about the character that is needed to become a good leader. When we talk about discipleship, we must determine what elements need to be in place to be built upon later. For example; if we talk about the rules and regulations that need to be in place to become a good Christian. We will have people are motivated by rules not people who are motivated by the loving grace of God. If we talk about dress code we'll see people who are always looking at the be clothes and never looking at the heart of the individual. If we talk about love without any specifics will create ambiguity and frustration. Discipleship making is giving attainable goals, and the principles behind the goals, it's not rules but the principles that make those rules effective.
As you write you mission statements. As you write your goal statements. As you write your purpose statements. Please keep in mind that your job is to duplicate Christ. Our job is to duplicate the love of Jesus Christ that he lay down his life for others. Our job as ministers is not to shine but to make a way for those who follow us to shine brighter than we can.
