Help I'm A Student Leader Practical Ideas And Guidance On Leadership

Help! I'm a student leader!: practical ideas and guidance on leadership Copyright © 2005 by Youth Specialties Youth Specialties Products, 300 South Pierce Street, El Cajon, CA 92020, are published by Zondervan, 5300 Patterson Avenue SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49530 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fields, Doug, 1962- Help! I'm a student leader! : practical ideas and guidance on leadership / by Doug Fields. p. cm. ISBN 0-310-25961-4 (pbk.) 1. Church work with teenagers. 2. Church youth workers. 3. Christian leadership. I. Title. BV4447.F54 2005 259'.23--dc22 2004030559 Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version (North American Edition). Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. Some of the anecdotal illustrations in this book are true to life and are included with the permission of the persons involved. All other illustrations are composites of real situations, and any resemblance to people living or dead is coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other-except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Web site addresses listed in this book were current at the time of publication. Please contact Youth Specialties via e-mail (YS@YouthSpecialties.com) to report URLs that are no longer operational and replacement URLs if available. Editorial direction by Dave Urbanski Editing by Ivy Beckwith Proofreading by Kristi Robison and Janie Wilkerson Interior Design by SharpSeven Design Cover Design by Holly Sharp Printed in the United States of America 05 06 07 08 09 10 / DCI / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Radical leadership If you asked the president of a large company for a oneword definition of leadership, she might describe it as enthusiasm, drive, power, presence, or competence. These words are often associated with the world's view of leadership. But if you investigate Jesus' leadership requirements for his closest followers, you'll see that only one word makes it to the top of his list. It's not an attractive word that will make you want race to the end of this book. Ready? Drum roll, please...Jesus asked his leaders to... serve. Serve! (Go ahead and reread it-I'll wait.) Is it safe to assume that right now you're not too sure you want to be a leader if that's what leaders do? I understand-it's quite shocking at first. But if you want to follow the lead of Jesus, you'll fi nd the primary objective of a biblical leader is to serve. Carefully read this verse to understand how Jesus wants his closest followers to act: You know that in this world kings are tyrants, and officials lord it over the people beneath them. But Chapter One Student Leaders Serve among you it should be quite different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant... (Matthew 20:25-26, NLT) Jesus' selection of leaders could be considered either insane or ingenious. But since he was God in the flesh, let's assume his leadership judgment fits in the latter category. The first 12 men he chose to lead with him included five fishermen, a tax collector, and six others whose occupations are a complete mystery. Sometimes we wonder why Jesus chose these men instead of those who were already seen as leaders. Whatever the reason, the greatest leader ever to live chose ordinary guys to lead with him. Clearly, Jesus connected serving to leading. He deepened the definition of leadership when he described himself as a servant rather than a king: "For even IFields, Doug is the author of 'Help I'm A Student Leader Practical Ideas And Guidance On Leadership', published 2005 under ISBN 9780310259619 and ISBN 0310259614.