I can remember quite vividly the last time I looked up to a 7th grader. But wasn’t for his leadership. It was for girth. 

I was in eighth grade, he was a year younger and the first Jr. High student I can remember with a beard, while I was still showering in my whitey-tighties! We met for the first time during a tackling drill at football practice one morning. I wasn’t small, but this guy was huge...and I was supposed to tackle him?! This may have been the first time in history where the player carrying the football tackled the defender, But laying in the cold, Missouri mud, all I could do was stare  up at this giant with respect.

That was the last time I looked up to a 7th grader and that was 14 years ago…

It’s time I changed that.

Some of my recent convictions, from Scripture and culture have started to reshape what I expect from my students. I have been looking for leaders to step up in my group, but all I have been able to see are good kids and bad kids. And I can’t quite figure out if the good ones are the “leaders of the pack”  or if they are just better “followers of the rules.” I’m thinking that maybe those I see as leaders may just be saying the right things at the right times.

As a Jr. High pastor for only three months now, I have done a lot of observing. Not really knowing what to expect from this generation of young students, I have tried sit back and watch a lot more than my personality would normally allow. I have read books and listened to sermons on young teens and how to reach them. I have listened to advice from parents, fellow youth workers, and friends. Coming to a conclusion that leadership is not really expected from our young people, but instead mind-blowing when it happens. My findings are not groundbreaking, but some of them surprised me.

One of the encouraging books that I read was “Do Hard Things” by Alex and Brett Harris, the younger brothers of writer Joshua Harris.  The entire book was about  shrugging off the low expectations set on today’s young people. Citing our culture’s nonchalant attitude toward the upcoming generation. Today’s adult world has written off our students, essentially waiting for them to grow up to an age where they can contribute to society. I find it pretty ironic that it is now teenagers, like Alex and Brett, who are begging adults to expect more from them. I know they probably wrote this book with intentions to encourage youth to step up, but I took it as a challenge to expect more from what I consider to be  a youth group “leaders”.  So when I started studying for this week’s Wednesday night lesson, it was the Bible, to no surprise and in classic fashion told me how to make it happen!  

I have taught on Paul’s encouragement to Timothy before. When I comes to spurring youth on toward stepping up in the youth group and in the Church as a whole, 1 Timothy 4:12 is a no-brainer. But this time, tried to not over “brain” it and let the text do the talking.

Students at every ministry I have ever been at (from elementary to campus ministry) know this verse. They are quick to quote it when “old people” are hassling them about being too loud, being rude or running in the halls. I know I justified my young days of crawling under the pews, quoting to myself to “not let them look down on me”. But a deeper observation (seems to be at theme with me) drew me a picture of what a leader, at any age should look like. It is not about following all the rules, attending all the events and being the well-behaved one. It’s about our young people using their untapped zeal and passion to “set an example for the believers”. Paul is not only teaching young Timothy how he should lead, but also teaching the Church from whom to learn!

Paul tells Timothy, with no doubt the church listening in, that he is to set an example. When was the last time we learned something from someone younger than us? I would have to think back, and still may not be able to answer. But it not just setting an example, it’s specific examples that Paul wants. These are the specifics as to what we should look for in leaders.

He mentions speech first, pertaining to the way leaders should talk. Meaning that the words out of my students mouths need to be encouraging, not defensive or argumentative. A true leader will have a tame tongue, and youth is no excuse for being disrespectful. Paul lists to lead by an example in conduct as well. Not only talking the talk but living it out as well. He adds love, pointing toward service and giving unselfishly; and  faith, as in knowing for sure what you believe. And lastly purity is not added for poetic justice, but a sure-fire way that Timothy could be set away from his sinful culture. These were the things that Paul considered prerequisites for leadership.

I now notice that Paul never said anything about attendance, Bible-toting (although in the next verse he encourages the public reading of Scripture), participation in youth games, or a number of any other ways I tend to measure leadership in my young people. All of these things are important and I want all of my students to behave, but Paul didn’t give Timothy a list of rules to execute. Instead, Paul offered this young man a blueprint for a lifestyle.

When I stand before my youth tomorrow night, I want to look out and see leaders. But I won’t. Not all of them will understand their potential, because our world tells them they don’t have to have one. But, I think they know deep inside that their lives were made for more than following rules and playing games.

If  I look at my students and all I see are good kids and bad kids, is that because I have created a atmosphere were following rules is more important than a lifestyle of faith? If I could somehow reach that deep untapped potential inside of them that our world doesn’t see, stressing speech, conduct, love, faith and purity as lifestyle qualities maybe then I could find true leaders of youth.

Fourteen years ago, I laid on the ground gazing up at a 7th grader who had just floored me with surprise. Hopefully soon, I will again be blown away  by a young leader…without the headache and stiff neck to follow of course.