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Where Are the Leaders?
Equipping the next generation for leadership.
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What about leadership skills? Three of the participants learned leadership from the intentional modeling, teaching, and coaching of their mentors, while the other two learned from simply watching the life of the one helping them. None of the leaders said that they took a college course on leadership. However, this does not imply that leadership skill development is unnecessary. It is quite the contrary: leadership skills should be passed to the next generation. This survey reflects the mentoring that is typical of past generations. The key points out of this informal survey are that character, specifically a heart for God, is the primary outcome of quality mentoring, and that skills come from experiencing the lives of their mentors. The second question we need to ask is, "How can we pass these leadership lessons on to the next generations?" As you look at the younger generation of potential leaders in your congregation, you may realize that you don't even use the same language. How is this going to work? How do you deal with other generations? They have such a different view of life. They think differently, they talk differently, and they are motivated differently. It is as if they are in a different world or different culture. Paul expresses a similar situation in 1 Corinthians 9 where he describes how he adapts his approach to the audience he is addressing, from those within and those outside the Jewish culture. Paul's message remained constant, but his packaging of the message varied from culture to culture. The adapting Paul did to engage the cultures he was in was far more difficult than you are facing; you can do it, too. Just as Paul's message remained constant, developing a heart for God within leadership must be a constant. In Matthew 22:37–38, when a Pharisee asked Jesus about God's greatest commandment, Jesus said that it was to love God with all your heart, soul and mind. That message will never change and must be central to a church leadership development plan. There are other characteristics of a leader listed in the Bible which must remain constant. But how you deliver this message may change from generation to generation. What are you facing? There are two generations that seasoned leaders are dealing with, the group called Generation X (with ages between 25 to 40 years old) and Generation Y (with ages between 11 to 24 years old). You are probably pulling some of the Generation X members into greater leadership roles now. Generation Xs have several common characteristics according to management consultants Corey Hessen and Brian Lewis. They need to understand the vision and mission of the organization. This group is asking the question, "Where are we going?" The connection between working decisions and values is important to them. They prefer learning one-on-one (mentoring) from someone in whom they have confidence. |             |
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