Student Leadership Basics: Crafting Vision

You Belong

When they hear how much of a role my student leaders have in creating our ministry's vision, other youth workers often look at me as though I'm crazy. They wonder, Why would you entrust your teens with creating your vision?

To which I say, Why wouldn't you?

Now, before you decide I'm crazy, let me clarify a few things.

As the leader of our ministry, I'm not directionless. I'm not looking to my student leaders to tell me how to lead or do my job. The vision casting we do happens together in a carefully constructed context of year-long discipleship. As part of that discipleship process, my student leaders learn about godly leadership and the church. Because they're actively thinking and learning about these things, they can be trusted with significant responsibilities, including setting vision. What's more, because we are in a discipleship process together, I can influence the process. I don't just stand back, wave my hands, and say, “Have at it.” Instead, I ask questions that help teens move in a direction that makes sense for our ministry.

That said, because student leaders have a role in casting our vision, we typically break two vision-casting rules:

1. Our vision usually can't be reduced to 4 words or a catchy slogan. If you asked my student leaders, “What's your youth ministry's vision?” they'd probably give you a blank stare because when we're casting vision, we don't call it that. That language makes no sense to teens. But, if you asked our student leaders, “What's your youth ministry about?” they'd be able to tell you.

2. Our vision changes but that's OK because so do our teens, who graduate from our ministry every four years. Rather than outlast our leaders, our vision is meant to uniquely reflect them (as well as their gifts) as well as who our ministry is in a given year.

This year, my student leaders and I crafted the vision for our ministry as part of our discussion about the greater church using Rachel Held Evans' Searching for Sunday. One of the great things about Rachel's book is that she highlights several congregations from different denominations. One of them is Kathy Escobar's The Refuge, which was inspired by both the Beatitudes and the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. Rachel talks about how The Refuge “extends an invitation” rather than boasts a doctrinal statement. Basically, their invitation consists of several sentences about who they are and what they love.

Using The Refuge's invitation as our model, I asked my student leaders to work together in small groups to craft an invitation for our high school ministry – essentially our vision for who our ministry is and what we're about. They then shared their invitations with one another and combined the best of them into one larger statement. Here's the finished product:

Read the rest of this article here. 

Jen Bradbury on Youth Ministry

Jen serves as the Minister of Youth and Family at Atonement Lutheran Church in Barrington, Illinois. A veteran youth worker, Jen holds an MA in Youth Ministry Leadership from Huntington University. Jen is the author of The Jesus Gap: What Teens Actually Believe about Jesus (The Youth Cartel), The Real Jesus (The Youth Cartel), Unleashing the Hidden Potential of Your Student Leaders (Abingdon), and A Mission That Matters (Abingdon). Her writing has also appeared in YouthWorker Journal, Immerse, and The Christian Century. Jen is also the Assistant Director of Arbor Research Group where she has led many national studies. When not doing ministry or research, she and her husband, Doug, and daughter, Hope, can be found traveling and enjoying life together.

More about Jen

Jen's Books

Now Available!

A Mission That Matters: How To Do Short-Term Missions Without Long-Term Harm

Order Now

Now Available!

Unleashing the Hidden Potential of your Student Leaders

Order Now

The Real Jesus

Order Now

The Jesus Gap

What Teens Actually Believe About Jesus

Based on National Research

Order Now

Subscribe

Categories

Tags

Recent Posts

Archives