Why You May Be the Perfect Atypical Student Leader
Recently, I was in conversation with a good friend about my vision for student groups at One Life. I guess you might even call it a little bit of a healthy debate. When you’re a student nerd like myself, you find it a little bit shocking that everyone else in the world doesn’t wake up thinking about the 12 year old who just had her first kiss under the bleachers, the 14 year old who just took his first blunt, or the 15 year old who just found out mom had an affair and now the only stability she has ever known is gone. I think about these things. They keep me feeling alive. I dream about a world where every student has an adult(s) showing up in their life to show them that they are created in the image of God. Even in the midst of a very broken world, they are deeply loved, and deeply valuable.
Back to the conversation with my friend… She felt like maybe we as a church should focus our energies on trying to recruit younger student leaders who had more time to spend with students throughout the week. She sees the significance of students having adults in their lives to walk with them through the messiness of the teenage years, but as a mom with kids of her own, she makes a great point that you feel like if you have extra time through the week, you feel guilty for not spending it with your own kids. My response to this conversation was something like this, “I get it. I get that leading students is going to look different for moms and families than it will for the young college age or single adult. However, there is so much that Mom’s and Dad’s as student leaders, can offer our students at One Life. It may not be as much social time, but inviting them into life alongside their families to see what Christ centered living looks like is something so many of our students need.”
A few days later, I received this message:“So I had a God moment. I thought of how you said students seeing a leader with their family is beneficial to them since so many of their families are dysfunctional. Well tonight while I was walking the river walk with a high school girl, and talking about her problems with boys and school my husband FaceTime’s me. He talked to both of us for about 5 minutes and then said “I love you so much. I’ll call you when I get to the hotel.” I hung up the phone and my high school friend talked about how sweet it is that we are so nice to each other. Also, tonight I was responding to my daughters texts about her wanting a boy over. My high school friend couldn’t believe my daughter would even ask. She said she just would have done it and made him leave before I got home. She said she couldn’t believe how honest my daughter is. Anyway, I think God was trying to prove your point to me of the importance of doing life with students sometimes by just letting them see how I live my life.”
This has nothing to do with proving points, but has everything to do with who we as believers are called to be. Discipleship doesn’t have to be formal. It’s messy. It doesn’t have to be hours. It’s intentional moments. It doesn’t have to add to your plate. Invite them into what you’re already doing. In a matter of moments, my friend didn’t ignore her kids, or her husband, and as a result there was someone who saw a deeper picture of Jesus and his intention for the family because she poured out her cup only giving what she had. But that little bit has the power to change the trajectory of a student’s life, as they experience Jesus through adults who step into their world, and invite them into their own. And that is our mission.