Growing Student Leaders with Jeff Wallace

Do you ever wish you had some students who would step up and lead in your youth ministry? It sounds great, but can it really happen at your church? Our guest on the podcast today is Jeff Wallace. Jeff is the Executive Director of the Lift Tour and Youth Pastor Summit for Student Leadership University. Prior to that, Jeff served over 20 years as the Pastor of Youth Development at Peace Baptist in Decatur, GA. He shares some great insight and practical ideas for youth leaders who want to develop student leaders in their ministry.

Takeaways from this episode:

Challenges and obstacles of having students leading in ministry:

1. Time – it takes time and effort to disciple students
2. Keeping up with trends – meeting them where they are
3. Being consistent

Discover, Develop, Deploy

• Discover
  1. Who are the leaders in the room?
  2. What students are bringing lost people to church?
  3. Who are the students that other students respect?
  4. Be as intention as possible.
  5. Meet students where they are so you can take them where you know God wants them to go.
• Develop
  1. Know where you want to put your student leaders
  2. Do a personality assessment
  3. Teach them leadership principals / what leadership looks like
  4. Know what types leaders they are
     • Strategic leaders – big thinkers
     • Tactical leaders – administrative
     • Operational leaders – the boots on the ground
  5. DISC Profile – focusing on their strengths:
     • D – Dominant
     • I – Influencer
     • S – Steady
     • C – Correctness
  6. You don’t have to have a big group to start developing leaders
  7. Start where you are and steward it well

• Deploy
  1. Have multiple entry points – find out what they are passionate about and connect them to that
  2. Meet with parents to partner with them – parents matter!
  3. Meet with student leaders regularly – fellowship with them
  4. Require adult leaders to invest and be involved in student leader’s lives
  5. Have specific expectations, duties, and descriptions:
     • When will they show up?
     • What will they do when they get there?
     • What happens when they leave?
  6. Keep disciplining them
  7. Enjoy the journey – have a great time with them

You can find out more about Student Leadership University by going to http://home/283089.cloudwaysapps.com/bnfxndjgwh/public_html.slulead.com/.