Indianapolis First Church of the Nazarene Indianapolis, IN

Mark Holcomb (now ONU Professor)

Indianapolis First Church of the Nazarene is a church of around 1000 regular attendees. Their youth ministry is a cell group based ministry, which meets in homes throughout the week. They also have a weekly gathering, which includes worship, drama and more. Their overall student leadership team is called The Summit. The Summit meets once a month and is open to anyone who wants to come. This is a shift from what used to be an election driven model, which generally became a popularity contest. The result has been a team of students who are driven to implement the ideas that they create at these monthly gatherings. There is a yearly retreat for The Summit where they plan the calendar, cast vision and discuss leadership principals. The Summit also plans retreats and other events and run them.

Another form of student leadership is the role of Cell Group Leaders. Most of these leaders are part of The Summit, but are not required to be. This form of leadership is more intensive that The Summit and the expectations are higher. Cell Group leaders are trained at a retreat at the beginning of the year. This retreat is separate from The Summit Retreat. Juniors and Seniors are trained to lead senior high cell groups and Sophomores and Freshmen are trained to lead junior high cell groups. There are always two cell group leader’s for each cell group, preferably one guy and one girl. The two leaders alternate the role of leading the group. They also share the responsibility of contacting no-shows and following up on visitors.. All of the cell group leaders meet for a Leader’s Cell Group every week. There is one Leader’s Cell Group for the Senior High leaders and a separate one for the Junior High leaders. This weekly cell group allows each student to take turns leading the lesson. They always use the upcoming week’s lesson and then critique, review and give feedback on the topic and leader’s style. This allows the cell group leaders to actually practice being a part of a small group, while also leading one. Every Cell Group, including the Leader’s Cell Groups are supported by adult mentors who guide, support and encourage the Student Leaders. In order to be a cell group leader you must be involved in a cell group, the Leader’s cell group and be willing to accept on-going training. A leader must also be involved in relational ministry to their students and be showing a commitment to tend to their own souls.

Powell Grace Brethren Church

Kary Oberbrenner

Powell Grace Brethren is a four year old church plant of a Columbus mega-church. They already run around 700-800. Their student leadership team is more practical than missional. The student leaders are in place to serve the youth ministry and enable it to function. They meet on Wednesday nights before youth group. They originally met on Sunday mornings, but realized that 25% of their youth group was made up of teens who don’t go to their church on Sunday Morning. Therefore students who didn’t go to their church on Sundays (i.e. Catholics, etc,), but were committed to the youth ministry, were eliminated from student leadership. They also feel that in urban settings it is essential to contain as much of your ministry as you can to one night, due to the vast amount of outside activities pulling student and adult leaders in all directions. They used to have nominations for student leadership, but the youth pastor shot that down after doing it for one year, because it became a popularity contest. Student Leadership is now open to anyone who is willing to be held accountable to the standards they have set for student leaders. These expectations include attending youth group regularly, being an example in dress and conduct, attending a local church regularly and most of all being authentic. Authenticity is one of the most important attributes. They value honesty, confession and community and model it through the adult leadership team The Student Leadership team is only an affirmation of what they already are. They are rarely recognized formally in public. They give perks to the leaders, but the perks come with lots of responsibilities, but a lot of accountability. The students are divided into three tracks or Core Groups. They meet from 5:30-6:00pm for prayer and teachings on leadership principals and then split into their Core Groups for an hour. The three tracks are Youth Band, Drama Team and Miscellaneous Things (set-up, prayer, announcements). This ministry values student leadership in a practical, hands-on way, which helps the adult leaders not burnout. They have also begun to see the need for a higher level of commitment and expectation for seniors, in order to keep them active. In response they are now training two seniors to lead the student leadership meetings with the youth pastor. The youth pastor meets separately with these two seniors. The youth staff feels that if you don’t have student leadership you will plateau and burn out. This leadership must be hands-on and practical, and must include training on leadership principles. The students are invited to half of the adult meetings in order to keep unity among the leadership. The adult meetings that the students are not included in occur after youth group on Wednesdays. The adults meet for Half-Time, where they review the evening of ministry while the student leaders clean-up the youth space. A unique aspect of their leadership team is that it moves in different semesters, due to sports and other clubs. They feel that you need a Student Leader Representative in each major club at school, so if a student chooses they are excused from being a leader at youth group for that semester. They are then welcomed back when that season of activity passes and they are able to commit to faithful youth group attendance again. The students must be faithful in attendance for the semesters they are involved in. For more info on their ministry you can go to www.gbcpowell.org.

Chester Church of the Nazarene

Tim Haynes

Chester Church of the Nazarene is a small, river-town church in West Virginia. Their approach to student leadership is through practical church body based involvement. They have three student leaders who are appointed at large to their NYI Council, which has a total of 6 other members, including the pastor. Two of these three students have felt a call into ministry. These members take on genuine responsibility. They dream, plan, lead a bible study for the other teens. They are in charge of monthly Sunday youth afterglows (securing people, locations, etc.). They create and mail a quarterly newsletter to teens. They are also are actively involved in ministry of the church. Two of them serve on the Sunday morning praise team, two others are ushers on Sunday nights and some Sunday mornings. They have planned church-wide events, such as a Christmas Parade float to help reach out to the community. They also help out in other areas when needed, including preaching on Sunday morning, and leading the adult bible study on a few Wednesday nights. It is a strong conviction of the church that the teens are included in the life of the body of believers.

The expectations of the student leaders are that they are members of the church and of NYI. They are expected to demonstrate an active Christian lifestyle, where they are seeking a deeper walk with Christ and growing in Him. The Pastor also wants to see them struggling and grappling with issues of faith, because it is sign that they care about their relationship with Christ.

Youth For Christ Findlay Area

Don Leader

Youth for Christ in Findlay does encourage the practice of using student leaders, but leaves the implementation of it to the local club. They do not offer an area-wide program, plan, training or network for the clubs to plug into. Less than half of the clubs presently practice student leadership, with the three leaders who do all being full-time staff. They typically look for kids who are regular attendees to campus life, have made a commitment to Christ, is growing as a disciple and is reaching out to their friends. Student leaders are expected to attend meetings and training, but both are very limited. Any student is able to apply by filling out an application form and signing a covenant which says that they agree with the mission of YFC, and will make lifestyle choices that honor God. They don’t help plan the meetings as much as they simply help out with them. They hand out materials, perform roles in skits and help the leader with the function of the gathering.

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My own view



My basic definition of a student leader is one who truly sets the example in faith, in speech, in life, in love and in purity. Servant leadership is more than a title or a phase, it is a lifestyle. Serving others is leading others. I have transitioned through a few phases of the practice of student leadership in my own ministry. Peer ministry best typifies what I now practice. I believe that it is important for students to be ministered to by students. The primary attribute I look for is love. Teens need loved, and they need to feel loved by other teenagers. I see it as our student leaders’ role to make sure every youth Christ entrusts us with feels that Godly-kind of love. I do involve the students in the program planning, and they are also involved in helping make our weekly gatherings happen, through various responsibilities. These areas are not their primary focus though. These roles do not require preparation time and fulfill the purpose of learning to be a servant. One of our primary roles of peer ministry is that of Cell Group leader. We rely heavily on small groups throughout the school year. Each group has an adult mentor, but they are in place to guide the student leader and hold him/her accountable, not to lead the group. The student leader is primarily responsible for caring for their group; following up on them, encouraging them, calling them and more. My leadership team is open to anyone who would like to apply and is willing to commit to the covenant we have agreed upon. I do pursue those students who I see the desire or potential in, but it is open to others. One of the primary commitments for any leader is to be involved on Sunday nights for The Core. The Core is a group of students who has decided the dig into the core of who they are, who God is and who they are in God. Not every member of The Core is a student leader, but every student leader, must be a member of The Core. Every member of The Core is expected to lead the way and set the example at church, home, school and everywhere else. These students are all being trained on what it means to live the life of a Christian leader in every area of your life. I learned so much from talking to the first three ministries. Each of them were very intentional and focused with their leaders. They had a plan, they had their purpose and they were putting it into action. I was challenged most by the innovative ways that they are recognizing student leaders, without making it a pride thing for the students. They are truly trying to build leaders, and not just use them. That is huge!

As this election nears, this is a good site to keep an eye on.

Grace Brethren Church Columbus, OH

(“The Rising”) (Mega church)

Call their area of student leadership: Forerunners. They take the idea of ‘giftings’ described in Ephesians 4 (i.e. evangelists, teachers) and say that students also have certain bents or giftings that the Lord has created them with. The challenge is for them to go the extra mile in this particular identified area of gifting. On a practical level, the selection of these leadership students is a ‘one at a time’ type selection. Where basically, the youth pastor opens up the Forerunner opportunity to anyone interested, regardless of current spiritual maturity. It essentially becomes a commitment to spend time with the youth pastor and vice versa. These students have input on programming elements and are specifically trained to be ‘ambassadors’ to the other students, in terms of using consistent language that will unite the youth, and not create a separatist ‘holier than thou’ attitude for student leaders.

First Baptist Church Indianapolis, IN (appx 300 members)

This ministry considers a student leader to be someone who in their words will “take a stand for Christ”. They are looking for a student who will not be embarrassed or feel forced to act immature when addressing spiritual issues and/or while helping lead an element of programming at a normal youth group event. They expect that any student leader would be someone who is acting in regular evangelistic activity (though loosely defined), at the very least bringing friends with them to group meetings, and taking special care to make others feel welcome at youth events. There are no titles or specific extra commitments that ‘student leaders’ must take.

Young Life Northeast Columbus Region, OH

(large/active area for YL)

The basic process of Young Life is the entry level of ‘Club’, which is very surface, then onto ‘Campaigners’, which is a place to dig deeper into the details of the faith. The staff of Northeast Columbus Young Life looks for student leaders to emerge from within the context of these two areas. Being an ‘up-front’ person in the Club setting is not necessarily what makes a student leader. Rather it is the student who is serving in whatever ways possible that distinguishes them from others. The most common areas available are coming early to groups to set-up, helping plan the calendar events for the year and attending Work Crew during the summer. The only real expectation put on these students, or perhaps better stated, is an unspoken pre-requisite, is that they be involved in some sort of expanded discipleship and/or mentoring relationship with one of the staff leaders through regular one-on-one time, or in a small group setting (not including campaigners).

Vineyard Columbus, OH

(Mega church – High School Only)

The role of student leader in this youth ministry is open for application from any student in grades 10-12. Each fall, there is an interest meeting held where students are given an application to fill-out, which requires much detail and includes references. Once an applicant is approved, there are a number of expectations placed on them:

They are required to be members of the church, be involved in some small group community, they must attend the monthly (though often just bi-monthly) student leader training meetings and they must be involved in a mentoring/discipleship relationship with an adult youth leader. These students wear name badges to youth events with a different color background distinguishing them as leaders. They are expected to help out at all events, whether that is through coordination of event programming, or through assisting in any service oriented tasks. They are also required to be in charge of contacting new students visiting their youth ministry. And finally, though not technically required, they are highly encouraged to a part of the leadership support team on their annual international missions trip.

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My Definition

When I talk to others about my student leaders, I call them…brace yourself…student leaders. The specific invitation in our youth ministry (Thirsty Uth) to student leadership comes from either a specific request of the student of ‘how can I get more involved’ or from a specific statement from one of the adult youth leaders saying ‘I see you as a leader among your peers’. Our programming is generally a stepping stone type set-up (assuming the person being introduced is not a believer…obviously people can join in at different levels). Big eventàLarge Group Meeting (Encounter) Small Group (BOX groups…based on Christ)àMinistry TeamsàIndividual Discipleship/Mentoring/Leadership Role The mission statement of our church and youth ministry is the same: ‘A family of faith on a mission to know and make known the fullness of life in Jesus Christ’. To me, a student leader is the student who has demonstrated that his or her intent is to be committed to that mission. I believe this loose definition leaves appropriate leeway for the youth leaders to determine the ‘commitment’ of each student on an individual basis. We have an expectation, communicated…though not as an official requirement, that a student leader would: have shown consistency in involvement over a non-defined period of time, be involved in some sort of small group and or discipleship/mentoring relationship, and that they would be involved in some level of personal ministry (determined individually according to that student’s gifting). With this type of operational definition, the number of student leaders is changing regularly each year, but generally in an increasing number, since there are always more areas of service available, and that requires new members of the family, on mission, to serve in them.

One slightly ambiguous, but over-riding factor, in defining a student leader to me is Influence. The trick here is acknowledging the peer-influence of the un-committed student while reinforcing the preferred version of influence, which comes from the overflow of a heart on mission to know Jesus Christ. (These student leaders with hearts that are on mission can obviously still be high peer-influence types…it’s just not required.) (…but man…it sure is funner when they are!) (Yes, I know funner is not an official word…yet).

“OK, everyone in the van.”

With that I walked out of the church and got into Big Sexy. (The unofficial name for our church van) About a minute later the 5 members of my morning Bible Study had crawled into the van and we were off.

About 15 seconds later the first voice popped up and said, “Adam, where are we going?” I was prepared for this question and told them that we were going on a field trip. “Our Bible Study needs to be on location.” Within a few minutes we had weaved our way into town and pulled into the parking lot of a little cafe downtown, Sweeties.

With wide eyes the owner of Sweeties greeted us. I could almost see the dread in his eyes when he saw 6 people cheerily waddle into his establishment at 6:20 AM. I said, “do you mind if we have our Bible Study here this morning?” He said sure and I told the students to order whatever they wanted.

After a few minutes we were all settled in and ready to go. With that, our Bible Study progressed as normal and we worked our way through Daniel 11. A very tough passage. The coffee helped, but all the students (and me!) were still confused.

It was a whale of a way to do a Bible Study. I look forward to more of that in the future. Perhaps the neutral location will even help bring in more of my regular students? It can’t hurt.

It goes without saying that this is a crazy week. This is a wild, wacky crazy week! I have too much to do and not enough brain power to get it all accomplished. I h hope I can not only survive this week, but come out ahead.

Monday: Today I went down to the Toledo area for a funeral. I never met the deceased, but this was a case where I was gong to support the family who are a big part of our church family. It was actually a little fun as I road down with our interim pastor and we chatted merrily both ways.

From there, I zoomed back up to Romeo to get to our last golf practice of the year. I got to play with a few player I have not played with all season, so that was a good time. Later tonight I must get moving on one of my other big projects for the week. (But I am so tired!)

Tuesday: I have BS in the morning at 6. Then I have to get a good portion of my Wed evening talk done before noon so I can get moving on my paper for grad school which is due on Thursday. Hopefully I will get in contact with both Sonlife and Bair Lake to finalize some numbers for upcoming trips to their respective places. (Including the Saturdays conference) After school I’ll be meeting with the worship team to practice for Wed. Night.

Wednesday: More of the same. Pounding through projects. We have LF in the evening and I will likely spend most of the afternoon running around like a chicken with no head. All of my projects for the week have to be complete by Wednesday at 6 PM!

Thursday: Wake up in the middle of the night and drive to Huntington. I have class from 8-4 PM. After this I hope to relax, go see a movie or crash in a hot tub. My biggest fear is that we’ll have stuff to do for Friday’s class.

Friday: Classes resume. Following this I am hoping to catch the end of N. Stevens round at MSU on my way home. Last year the round didn’t end until 5 PM. So you never know. Perhaps I will even be able to talk the prof into letting me go a bit early.

Saturday: After coming home late Friday night. It’s a quick nap and then get the adults together to leave for Saginaw by 7:30 AM. We have a Sonlife Strategies seminar all day. It’s a great conference and I learn a ton each time I go. This will be the 3rd time I attend and my leaders first.

Sunday: Another crazy day as I have SS and church followed by a business meeting. (I’m certain to rant on this later!) At 2-5 PM I have a golf team party. From 6-9 we have our prayer & praise time at the Fisher’s. Then I will crash and die.

here is Light Force at our senior high retreat 

here are the McLane kids this weekend. Megan, Paul and cousin Ryan 

this is megan’s halloween costume! 

We packed up the family Camry and drove down to see my sister-in-law and nephew for his 5th birthday. I am sad to say this is only the second time I’ve met Ryan. He is a really cool kid. He is a very typical 5 year old, annoying in every way. But fun nonetheless.

I am really glad that we went down there. It wa a bit of a pain since our kids don’t travel very well, but well worth the trip. One of the funny things that happened was that Ryan’s grandma was walking to me about “what a shame” it is that my brother and sister in-law are getting a divorce. As I agreed on one hand, I couldn’t help but think to myself… You reap what you sow. He’s not innocent and I don’t feel bad for him. The only one I feel bad for is little Ryan as he is the victim of it all.

Divorce sucks. I hate it. I’ve seen it too much. It drives me to be a better husband and a better father. But divorce still sucks!

We went into the regional aiming for 320 as the number. Had we gotten that number, we would have conquered second place. It didn’t happen. Too many mistakes landed the Bulldogs well down the ranks as the season closed with a bitter taste. Only N. Stevens advanced, with a 5th place overall 78.

The season comes to a close with a lot of questions remaining for next season. Who will step up? When will we play? Who will be the coach? All of these questions are in the air heading into the off-season.

Ministry-wise, it was a successful golf campaign. I’ve continued to build relationships with the players. I still have no ulterior motive than to be involved in the community. With that said, I have accomplished that goal.