Near and Far Faith

I've envisioned a successful Student Leadership program since I started in ministry. This year is going to be our best year... I can feel it. Here are a few things I've learned along the way:

Spend time on the process. The first year we chose the most the popular kids - both culturally and spiritually (you know what I'm talking about). That BOMBED and it was my fault. The 2nd year was a big improvement - we had an application process that they went through and they chose us, instead of us inviting them. The problem there is that if you have a hard time saying no, you'll end up with some awesome leaders... and some not so awesome ones that bring down the moral of the team. But you'll learn your lesson. This year we stuck with the application process and handed out 2 freshman scholarships to freshman that we believed had increased leadership potential (usually 10th grade is the cut off). We also required parents to be involved in the interview process so they new what they were getting into. Up until that point we reserved the right to cut, or for them to opt out. I could go on, but the point is, spend some real time thinking through the process with some honest Devil's advocates.

Redefine every 3 months. The one new thing we decided to do this year is reevaluate every three months in the form of an Advance (it's the new buzz word taking over "retreat"). It will allow us to address our concerns to that point and let them honestly communicate as well. It's not gonna be as involved as the training weekend, but quality time will be the focus.

Have a quote book. This really applies to student ministry overall, but recently the hilariousness of some of the things that have come out of the students mouths have been noteworthy. Do it on your phone - twitter it or something. But do something that you can reflect on. Everyone loves "remember when..." moments.

Here's a really bad picture of them under the LOVE monument in downtown Philly late Friday night. We focused on leadership being serving this weekend so we went to Philly to work with the homeless.