It’s summertime! It’s time for vacations, weekend trips, and family reunions. But wait…you lead a young adult small group or Sunday School class. What are you supposed to do with that responsibility while you’re gone for a weekend or two this summer?
Let me make a suggestion. There are some young adults within your group that are completely capable of stepping up to the plate for you and can lead while you are away. They are simply waiting for you to ask. They may not know that they are waiting – but they are!
One of the best things you can do as a young adult ministry leader is to give away leadership to those in your group periodically. And those weekends that you are away are some great times for you to make the ask.
Why is it important to give young adults in your group the opportunity to lead and teach sometimes? Here are three key reasons that are important for sharing the leadership with those in your group:
1. It gives them the opportunity to do something many of them have never done before.
Let me give you a warning: They may give you a “deer-in-the-headlights” look when you first ask and say, “You want me to lead?”
A majority of young adults in our groups have never been given roles of leadership in our churches. When you as the young adult ministry leader identify some individuals within your group that have some great potential to lead, don’t miss out on the opportunity to ask them to share their gift. Take note of people who have well thought out questions and answers to questions you ask. Who are the people that others naturally follow in your group? These are some ways to identify those to ask.
Make sure you give them plenty of time to prepare. Try to give the person you ask two weeks so that good preparation can be done before they lead.
2. It speaks confidence into them.
When we ask an individual in our young adult group to lead the session in our absence, it speaks a degree of confidence into them that will go much longer than the day they’ll lead. The fact that you recognize his or her capability to lead could unleash something that no one has ever tapped into before in that individual.
It’s a powerful thing to communicate to a young adult that you believe in them and see them as an important part of the group.
3. You’ll eventually need to multiply your group and will need leaders.
The intent behind every small group should be to eventually multiply into another group. The Great Commission tells us to make disciples, so we need to consistently be thinking about how that will continue to happen in our group.
The day will come that you will become too large to be one group and you will need to multiply. Who’s going to lead that group? Hopefully, you’ve been training a young adult in your group to take the lead of that small group. They will be more confident if they have been given opportunities beforehand to lead and facilitate a Bible study under your support and guidance.
So go ahead, schedule that vacation. And ask someone in your group to take the lead while you are away. But get ready for that “look.”
Mark Whitt is the Collegiate and Young Adult Specialist at Lifeway Christian Resources. Before joining Lifeway, he spent many years on the campus of Murray State University as a campus minister. Connect with Mark on Twitter.
