No age barriers to serving by Jacob Duduc
What is at the heart of this next generation when it comes to serving? How do we get this next generation to be a part of the movement we want to see at the church? I believe we need to see authentic leadership!
One of the greatest opportunities we can give to this next generation isn’t leadership, but opportunities to serve. I remember being at a conference once where they talked about generations, going through baby boomers, millennials, and then talked about Gen Z. Gen Z usually doesn’t want the spotlight, doesn’t want to be seen as a big and upcoming star. InsteadGen Zwants to serve. They want to be a part of the mission of the church, help make Sundays happen, help play in the band, help serve the coffee. But the thought of standing out the front with a microphone is terrifying.
So what’s our solution? How are we able to help empower and enable this next generation to make change in the church? It is by authentic, peer-driven leadership.
Rather than giving them the platform to speak to young adults, we can empower them to drive conversations. One of the best opportunities I tried to lead in helping the Young Adults was after every time we met, going to the town center afterwards and getting ice cream. This drove authentic conversations, authentic relationships, and authentic leadership. Young adults were able to give their insight and help build others up side by side. These conversations may not have happened if you asked them to stand in front of the group with a microphone and answer the question, but when someone with a spoon in their mouth says “What do you reckon”, this creates a platform for their voice. Not elevated but next to each other. So when I approached leadership to start helping, they encouraged me to serve and empowered authentic leadership that drove more authentic leadership.
At Youth a couple weeks ago, we had an “Encounter” night, where we have a church style night. We have a home cooked meal together, we have worship and then we listen to a message. At the start of the night, one of the younger boys was serving on the sound desk, and his friend was chatting with him. I didn’t ask anyone to do the slide show for the night yet, so I decided to ask this student. After being very reluctant at first, and much encouragement, he decided to give it a go. He ended up doing super well and felt so empowered on the night. He told us he wanted to begin serving on a Sunday and wanted to serve more in the church. By empowering this Youth kid to have a go, he was able to serve and be empowered to help his peers.
Why? Because I called something out of him that he couldn’t. His authentic leadership.
How do we empower the next generation to serve? We help them tolead change from the sounddesk. Serve from the shadows and make a change without the spotlight. Help them to lead change by serving.Leading out of a genuine want to help and wanting to be a part of somethingbigger.
So what can we do? Ask! Ask that young person who’s got a great voice to sing, ask that young guy curious about the bible to help write a bible study. Ask the kids who're good at tech to serve.
Serving doesn’t need a platform, it needs a simple question, “Hey, could you help me out!”