Raising Leaders to Encourage Change

Here's a message from Danny Bowers for all of you at Impact 2009 and anyone else considering servant leadership teams!


"To encourage the healthy and get the sick parts heading in a healthy direction I need leaders around me. Not just warm bodies in the room but people who love Christ and want to see His truth invade the lives of students. We have intentionally been hands on with our leaders as much as possible. Praying with them, encouraging them, coaching them, loving on them & challenging them. We have set the standards high and here a few results we have seen already:
• Setting high standards helps our leaders know what is healthy and why we are doing what we are doing. It gives them the boundaries they are working with-in.
• Our communication to leaders needs to always bring them back to our biblical purposes.
• Encouragement needs to come before anything else. Our leaders need to know we love them & care about them. They need to know they matter and are important to us as people, not just helpers in a ministry.
Leaders will give when they see the eternal goal. We have seen leaders pour themselves into these students and the ministry because they understand where we are going.
We have seen our students begin to 'own' the ministry they are in as well as open up to these leaders. I get to sit back and watch the kingdom dance with joy because we are pursuing health. Our standards are based on God's call for our lives, how can you go wrong? "


What are your thoughts on building up leaders? How do you encourage the leaders in your ministry?

Be sure to check out the PDYM Blog. Its a virtual neighborhood of youth pastors and workers who desire to learn from one another and share with others in their journey of working with students.