Inner City Impact Chicago, Illinois
The definition of student leadership is simply students that can get people to follow them. At ICI they have a program that some students get involved in called “Leaders in Training”. Student leaders begin by working in the programs for the younger kids. At the same time, they are being trained by a full time staff person on various aspects of ministry. After a certain amount of time and investment, promising student leaders are hired as interns and given more responsibilities as they grow in their leadership capabilities.
Brown Corners United Brethren Church Clare, Michigan
They define essential elements in a student leader as someone who has a relationship with God, is looked up to by some of their peers, lives above reproach (1 Timothy 3:2), and is an emerging shepherd who is committed to being a disciplemaker. Each year the youth pastor picks 2 to 4 students that fit the mold and challenges them to take on more responsibility
within the youth ministry. He mainly calls on them to lead Bible studies and prayer meetings and to share God’s activity in their lives.
King Street United Brethren Church Chambersburg, Pennsylvania
They define student leaders as those who influence others toward Christlikeness. Students who meet the adults’ expectations of “FART” are invited to be a part of the “Student Leadership Team”. “FART” stands for Faithful to Christ; Available to be used by God to influence others; Responsive to challenges presented by the adult leaders; and Teachable.
The students on the “SLT” desire to influence their friends toward Christ and meet weekly during Sunday School for prayer, accountability (in their efforts to influence others), and training.
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My stuff:
The purpose statement of our youth ministry is that “the EDGE Youth Ministry” exists to love like God does as we FOCUS the whole of our lives on God, FOLLOW in Jesus’ footsteps, engage in FAITH-SHARING with our friends, FEED the needs of others, and live in FAMILY with each other.” I believe this is an accurate and biblical picture of a faithful and mature disciple of
Jesus Christ and gives a clear vision of the kind of student leader that we are after.
Therefore my operational definition is that student leaders are those who have committed to faithfully live out the 5 purposes of our youth ministry by modeling that lifestyle and influencing those around them to do the same.
We want to be challenging all our students along the lines of these 5 purposes in everything we do, but more specifically, for those students who have shown faithfulness and maturity in the past, we are currently working (programmatically speaking) on a two-fold plan. On a weekly basis, we have small groups that meet during the Sunday School hour. We are encouraging our student leaders to take full advantage of this time for prayer and accountability and to influence those in their small group towards the same end. On a monthly basis, we want to offer a more extended time for training, assessment, and encouragement.
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