Student Leaders: Resetting our Focus

From a staff perspective, student leaders are at the heart of a college ministry. None of us has the financial resources to build a full-time paid staff that can meet the demands of both the students involved in the ministry and the students on the campus who are in need of Jesus Christ. All of us want and need student leaders who will give their time and energy to our ministries.

However, the danger we face as staff members is seeing our student leaders as a means to an end instead of seeing them as our primary target for ministry. With student leaders, our ministries will have a much higher probability of success – more numbers, more programs, and more recognition. Let us be honest with ourselves and allow the Holy Spirit to search us and know our hearts. How often are you tempted to see the students as a pathway to build up your ministry? We often seek students to lead and do the ministry that we have planned, but do we invest in them as much as they are investing in others?

Jesus chose his disciples (leaders) and gave them several opportunities for ministry. They accomplished great things at times (Matthew 10, Luke 10), and other times they failed (Mark 9-17-29). Jesus offered them the tremendous responsibility of carrying on His ministry in His name (Matthew 28). He certainly did not shy away from giving his disciples the opportunity for ministry, and I am not suggesting that we should either. I do believe, though, that Jesus spent much more time with His disciples than sending His disciples.

In the great commission, the famous passage where Jesus passes the torch to His disciples, Jesus ends with this, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20b). Here is the key to the great commission for both the disciples then and disciples today – Jesus is with us. He does not take us through some course, give us a certificate, and then leave us to go and do His ministry. No, He has given us the Holy Spirit, the very breath of God, to lead us, speak to us, and minister to us.

The example Jesus gives us is to be relational in everything we do. How relational are you with your student leaders? Do they have relationships with your staff? How much are you or your other staff members investing in them as they invest in your ministry? Do you see them as a valuable commodity for your ministry’s well being, or do you consider them the principal objects of your love, energy, and time?

Ezekiel 34 gives us a warning against looking out for our own interests at the expense of those we are to be caring for: “Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock?” The same question and issue are posed again with Peter and Jesus at the conclusion of John, and the answer is the same in both places. We are called to feed our sheep, and our student leaders are hungry for what we Christ can give them through us. Our leaders are not the best things for our ministry; they are our ministry. What they can do for us pales in comparison to what we are called to do for them.

My prayer is that as staff, we will be guarded against using our leaders for our own agendas, even if our agendas are filled with good things. I pray that we can keep our leaders as the apples of our eyes, as the objects of our love and affection. As we give ourselves to them, the Lord can and will do exceedingly abundant ministry to them and through them.

Clay Kirkland is the Associate Director of the University of Georgia Wesley Foundation – ckirkland1@hotmail.com.