Who's Next?

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Permalink Reply by Julia Chantrell on 20 November 2008 at 11:07pm

Get them involved in planning and decision making; discuss problems with them; allow them space to develop their own ways of doing things; let them make their own mistakes and refrain from 'I told you so' if things go wrong; give them the chance to lead things and work with the team; pray for them and love them.

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Permalink Reply by Eric on 20 November 2008 at 11:15pm

Absolutely right.

It used to infuriate my daughter when leaders said the youngsters would descried the program etc, and after all the discussion just have something totally different imposed on them. The justification being “oh but Eric they are to young to organise anything for them selves” – grrr if that person really believe that then perhaps the person shouldn’t have been involve with youth work. But If that’s what they believed why ask the youngsters and say they will decide and ignore them – that is just inept. But hey what about mentoring – let them try, giving them gentle nudges to help, being prepared with a rescue plan if it all goes very wrong. Isn’t that how we learn, by being involved, trying, making mistakes, having our own successes.

I guess it comes down to giving our young people some respect, and having the wisdom of our years to help them learn and grow.

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Permalink Reply by Julia Chantrell on 20 November 2008 at 11:20pm

Well, it certainly works with our lot...
Sometimes I feel so proud of them I could burst.
[And yes, other times I want to bang their heads together - but that's what you expect!]

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Permalink Reply by Eric on 20 November 2008 at 11:23pm

Yes - we have been here before with you suffering the sin of pride when they took a service. But then having listened to it on your link, I think I would have been just as guilty.

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Permalink Reply by Viv Schreibke on 21 November 2008 at 5:39pm

Being in Guernsey we tend to lose a lot of our talented band members to university at 18 - and because we are in Guernsey we don't have in influx of people at nearby universities to replace them. So we get them for a few years and very rarely get them back apart from in the holidays.

The majority of our younger band members come up through the 14-18's youth group and I guess 14 is probably the age that they start taking on a small role in the band. As we see them mature in age, gifting and faith they are let loose on the congregation!!! Its great to see them fired up for leading worship and generally the church are very accepting of their style & mistakes ( which obviously we all make - I guess they just feel them more)

But what age is too young?? This is something I have found myself thinking about recently?

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Permalink Reply by Mikey Powell on 22 November 2008 at 7:16pm

Hmmm.... it's a difficult one - but a very important one. I have been impressed with how different people in Christian circles have done this. Soul Survivor for instance, Matt Redman was phased to be replaced with Tim Hughes, and now the same is happening with Ben Cantelon taking on the responsibility. Even Darlene has taken more of a back-seat role at Hillsong as well.
This encourages me because, becuase it would be easy for these guys to just carry on and for things to get stuck in a rut. How can we learn from their examples then? Always be on the look-out for those who can follow us. And be seeking to give them opportunities.
This is something I find difficult as I am myself only 18 - lots of people would think of me as the next generation! I was really blessed with the opportunities I got and the support people gave me; I can count 5 people who were instrumental in getting me to where I am, and allowing me these opportunities.
I really want to be able to do the same for others - though it's not always easy to stand aside! What we mustn't do is to not let others have a chance to make mistakes just because we know we can do better at the moment!

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