Next Generation Leadership

The continuation of the youth speaker series
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Who are the next generation leaders? Is it the person sitting on your left or is it the person sitting on your right? When we think of the term “leader,” we imagine someone who is mature and is around the age of a young adult or older. This is a misconception that many of us young people believe. A leader can be a person of any age; it’s a person who is willing to step up and take responsibility of a group or to coordinate an event. Young people who want to take their faith to a whole new level should become leaders for God.

Many Christian teenagers do not take their faith and relationship with God seriously. Think about it; do your Christian friends strive to become more like Christ or do they succumb to the secular world? Many teens follow the behavior of a secular society. They want to feel popular and be accepted by their non-Christian friends, instead of being perceived as “Jesus Freaks”. I follow the behavior of the secular world many times in order to feel accepted, but I continue to strive to be more like Christ. We shouldn’t be ashamed of being God’s elect; we should be proud that God chose us and sent His son to be a propitiation of our sins.

A common belief that young people including me say to excuse ourselves in becoming a leader is the phrase, “Leaders are for people who are older than me.” It is a privilege to be a leader for God. 1 Timothy 4:12 says, “Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourselves an example of those who believe.” According to Paul’s letter to Timothy, the younger generation should act as mature as the older generations. Just because we don’t know as much as the adult leaders know, doesn’t give us the excuse to not become leaders.

This leads me to my next point; how do we become a leader? Being a leader means we must have humility because Christ Jesus was humble. “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of man. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross,” Philippians 2:5-8. We must follow Christ’s example in order to become a spiritual leader that is fit for leading the church. Paul, a leader and follower of Christ, states in 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” Paul was a great leader due to his faith in following Christ. He continuously preached God’s word and had faith in God’s plan for him. Despite Paul being imprisoned many times, he persevered through trials and was obedient to God’s commands. We too, can become leaders for Christ by imitating His attitude and characteristics.

Not only does a Christian leader have humility but they must also dwell in God’s word and have a close relationship with God. Moses was a prime example of someone who had a strong faith and relationship with the Lord. Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt with the help of God. He trusted in God and obeyed God’s commands. Moses’ relationship with God was so close that the Lord said to Moses in Exodus 33:17 that he had found favor in the Lord and that God knew him by name. God’s elected children should yearn to have a closer relationship with God and yearn to become the leaders of the next generation.

The leaders of the next generation need to be rooted by the Bible and by the Holy Spirit. They must be blameless in speech and in conduct. One important quality a leader needs is the desire to love one another. In Titus 2, Paul asks the older men and women to remind the younger generation to love others because Christ loved them. Leaders need to interact with the people around them to understand what problems they are facing. Then they can address those problems by teaching the word of God through fellowship. These leaders are humble, loving, obedient and close with God.

The next generation leaders are us young men and women. We must step up and take our faith to a new level. We know more about this culture we live in today than the adults. Let us combine our knowledge with God’s infinite wisdom and address the problems teens are facing today. A.W. Tozer once said, “When God's sheep are in danger, the shepherd must not gaze at the stars and meditate on "inspirational" themes. He is morally obliged to grab his weapon and run to their defense.” We shouldn’t watch our brothers and sisters fall away from God. We must lead them in the right direction. Therefore, let’s not hide behind the curtain and watch today’s leaders from the background. Instead, we should emulate the leaders of our churches and learn from them. Do not worry about not having humility, obedience, a loving heart, or a close relationship with God now. God will give us these qualities of a leader as we continue to strive to be more like Him. Join me and many other Christian brothers and sisters as we strive to become the leaders of this generation and examples to those who believe.