Helping Students Become Leaders and Difference Makers

Student leaders are the multipliers of college ministry.  They reach people we cannot reach and they do things we might not be gifted to do.  And, their service frees us to do other things.  Some students come to college as established difference makers.  They have the polish and confidence that goes with having been leaders in high school and home churches.  I am convinced there are those that come to college that have not been in that category, but they have the potential to be.

Here are three steps in helping students become difference makers:

1.  AFFIRMATION

In college ministry we have to be talent scouts.  When we see students that we think have the potential to be a difference maker, it is our job and opportunity to affirm that in them.  Affirmation is the first and probably largest step in students rising to their potential.  These are ones who due to their previous circumstances for some reason or other just did not get the opportunity to do the things that bring polish and confidence.  God can use us to tell students what we see in them and what that could mean for their life and the lives of others.

2.  CHALLENGE

That is where we look them in the eye and challenge them to be all they can be.  I told a girl in our ministry that had come out of a very small church and small high school that she could get by in college and even the rest of her life just by being pretty.  She was pretty and have you noticed that people cut pretty girls more slack?  I think that happens with handsome guys too.  Personally, I would not know.  But, I told her she had the potential to be a difference maker and I hoped she would not just settle for being pretty.  She became a leader in our ministry.  Today she is a Christian author and speaker....besides being pretty.

3.  TRAINING

I am not of the "sink or swim" method of developing leaders.  That is the school that says give them a job and let them sink or swim by learning on the job from their own mistakes or whatever.  Failure leads often to giving up.  When we see potential in students, then we must challenge them, but then we begin to train them how to do what we say they have the ability to do and be.  Mentoring potential leaders is a huge opportunity to shape the campus, the church and the world.