young people

14 Things Older Leaders Should Know About Younger Leaders

I did not write this, but I want to share it with not only the older leaders of the Church but also for the younger leaders of the church.  Also for anyone who has ever entered into Church.


I am going to pull a few of the points from the original post and add some comments. 


2. Willing to work together. Twenty- and thirty-somethings are more willing to collaborate than any other generation before. They trust each other. Really. And see collaboration as the starting point, not some grandiose vision of teamwork that is far off in the distance. Collaboration is now the norm. It’s hard to believe, but it’s true- young leaders don’t care who gets the credit. For the next generation- it’s way less about WHO and way more about WHAT.

While this is a bit rosy of a picture, I am going to have to agree with this comment/observation.  Most of the young adult church leaders I encounter are in a constant state of healing from allowing the church to break our hearts.  Most of the time these heartbreaks come from un-wanted egos of others dominating the Church in a way that leads to divisive leadership and a cementing of the Church in a dead custom that is masked as "tradition".  I cannot tell you how many times we share ideas with one another and how few of us get really get credit.  

3. Generosity and sharing are the new currencies of our culture. In business, relationships, networks, platforms, technology, distribution, content delivery, etc., open source is the new standard. This new wave of leaders has tools/resources such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, Instagram, and tons more social media tools that make influencing much more readily available and easier than ever before. The currency with all of these social mediums is being generous. Sharing your ideas, sharing links, sharing friends, sharing networks. This is a complete paradigm shift from 30-40 years ago.

One of the things that I hope to help change in the Church is a movement away from being nice and move toward generosity.  Friendly means we are nice in as long as we are not troubled too much.  Generosity comes at great cost and expense of the generous one and it is these sacrifices which carry more weight in a world which we "millennials" feel there is an abundance for all.  

Will someone be in charge other than me...

I recently was in a meeting which one person after the meeting said, "Will someone be in charge other than me? I have been in charge for several years and I am tired."

Another person instantly said, "YES! I would love to be in charge! I have some ideas on what to do and a change in direction. I will take this off your hands."

To which the original person said, "Well.... what do you mean new direction?"


I walked away and slapped my head.


In the church leadership I always hear, "we need young leadership" or "I have been doing this too long, it is time for a young person to take their turn." And yet, we are offended when the new/young person wants to do things differently than what the long time leader did.

Church, we cannot have it both ways. We cannot desire young/new leadership AND desire these new leaders to keep the status quo.

We cannot expect new wine to not bust old wineskin.