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The longevity of any ministry hinges on the Pastor and Elder’s ability to transfer their DNA into the next generation of church leaders. As I sit here this morning, with my son in his little bouncer chair hoping he doesn’t wake up before I finish this article, I am amazed at the wonder of creation. What blows my mind is this little man is the combination of his mother and I. He has some of my good things and some of her good things, hopefully more of hers. Every element of his little body started off as a combination of his parents. He is slowly becoming his own person and one day will be his own man.

The tragedy today in American churches is the failure of leadership to raise up the next generation of church leaders. As men and women grow into positions of leadership they should carry on the DNA of those who raised them in the ministry. The misconception of leadership development is in the product, in which a minister is taught what and not how. This is a grave fallacy, “what” will always become irrelevant. If form is to follow function in the church as well as design then pastoral mentoring needs to concern itself with the function not the form, the how of ministry.

Form = style. This includes liturgy, preaching, music, and sacerdotal duties.

Function = core reasoning. This includes theology, decision making, wisdom, integrity, accountability, and passion.

There is always room for the practical application of the sacerdotal duties to be performed in ministry. Pastors need to teach how to perform a wedding and how to lead a funeral. This should be a small portion of the over all mentoring. Unfortunately a great deal of the mentoring happening in churches today revolves around the central goal of preserving a style. We are a contemporary church, traditional church, dunk them in baptism church, sprinkle in baptism church, etc. Pastors are turning out men and women who are dedicated to their form of ministry but have no knowledge of function. They are unable to lead the next generation because all they understand is ceremony. the most tragic of these situations is the next gen pastor who is living within a false conception of leadership and thinks pastoring the next generation is simply an issue of changing the music style.

Jesus modeled this when asked what all his teaching boiled down to… “Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” -Mark 12:29-31 Jesus spent the majority of his time on function. With only a few exceptions he left the implementation of sacrament up to the disciples, even asking them to prepare the upper room. He asked us to break the bread and drink the wine; He told us to baptize. Jesus spent the rest of His time with his disciples on function… teaching them, this is how I want you to live.

Just as my son is a combination of his parents the next generation of church leaders should be a combination of the Elders and Pastors they have served under. Our son will not wear the same clothes, sing the same songs, or even learn in the same way… but he will look at the world through the lens his mother and I provide.

This process of mentorship should be far more organic for pastors and church elders but the art of mentoring has been lost over centuries and crowded by technology. Since everything else is moving a thousand miles an hour should we not be able to raise up a generation of leaders with blog’s, books, and podcast? These means of teaching can be effective but should not replace the real world involvement of an elder or pastor in speaking wisdom into the next generation of church leaders. Four core concepts play into equipping a young leader, Jesus modeled all of them…

Live
And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And they immediately left the nets and followed Him. -Mark 1:17-18

The disciples would follow Jesus from this day until his death in what may be the greatest hands on teaching experience ever written down. Raising up the next generation of leaders requires a commitment of time to live life together. We are quick to preach on the necessity of setting a solid example but forget the most essential lessons which need to be modeled. In order to raise up a generation of leaders we should not only be modeling the business of church but should be instructing on the business of real life. Young leaders need to see the elders and pastors of their churches modeling Godly living. They need to be invited into our homes and taken along on simple errands, the stuff of life. How much more powerful were the beatitudes once the disciples saw Jesus actually live what He preached?

Countless conversations must have occurred around camp fires at night and long dusty roads to the next city. Long after Jesus would ascend into heaven and the disciples would journey to the ends of the earth you can be assured each of them held onto their favorite moments and more than likely those moments are not recorded in scripture. Living life together will allow those you hope to hand off to a chance to see you deal with the real details of life, outside of meetings and Sunday insanity, and it will allow you to watch the younger generation in action.

Consider those you hope to mentor and see take the torch of leadership into the next generation. Find time to have them over for dinner, go for coffee, or invite yourself to their home. they would love to have you over for a meal, but are fairly positive you don’t have the time.

Invite
Matt. 10:5 These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them, saying, “Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; 6 but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons; freely you received, freely give. 9 “Do not acquire gold, or silver, or copper for your money belts, 10 or a bag for your journey, or even two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for the worker is worthy of his support. 11

Those you wish to see rise in leadership need to be invited into difficult situations to see how you handle yourself and discern from the Lord the next step. Jesus masterfully sends the disciples on their own ministry experiences. He gives them a chance to see the real world. By allowing the disciples to struggle with Him and sense the frustration he sensed He is teaching them an invaluable lesson on leadership.

We should be raising up a generation of leaders who have lion’s hearts. in order to do so we must allow them to see the world as it is. When Elder’s and Pastor’s close the doors to the inner workings of the church disallowing the next generation to be a part of the sometimes very real struggle of leadership they are painting a false picture of leadership. Conflicts and crisis are a part of every church as you deal with those arising invite a young leader to come along, to advise. Young leaders can not help but wonder how they would run things if they were in charge. This is not subversive, it is the natural evolution of a growing leader. As you enter into difficult situations allow the young leaders around you to comment and offer their gut feelings. If you will allow younger leaders to struggle with you through the process of conflict resolution and decision making they will learn a hundred times more than any book you could assign for reading.

Send
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” -Matt. 28:18-19

Lame jobs require lame leaders.
When God places solid young men and women in your ministry or on your staff you have to give them significant roles and empower them to carry out the task you present. You have to send! Too many leaders dull the leadership prowess of the younger generation be refusing to empower them to lead significant pieces of the ministry.

Consider the gravity of the moment in Matthew 28. Jesus is handing off the earthly ministry He has built over three years to these men who are only recently realizing exactly who He is. Jesus is handing off one of the greatest task ever asked of men, build the church. What are we asking of the next generation of leaders?

All too often Elders and Pastors fail to empower the next generation arguing the task is too great or they don’t want to overload the young ones. Lurking In the background is the bigger issue stifling leaders to empower, what if these young people fail? Even more crippling is the question, what if they succeed and they are perceived to be more equipped than I for this ministry?

What if they fail? Praise God!
Your organization has been built on hundreds of good choices and along with it hundreds of bad choices. As a leader you have failed time and time again. Those failures have taught you more than any success. We need to create a safe place for younger leaders to fail. Empowering them and then debriefing failure together in order to learn from the mistake. You can offer more through the process of observation and constructive criticism than you will ever be able to teach with young leaders on the side line. Consider the bigger picture, these people will be leading the church one day, if we don’t allow them to fail we are keeping them from succeeding.

You should not see the process of sending as taking your hands off the ministry you have built but rather leading it through the work of other ministers. Further, this is not a lesson where by you remove yourself from the equation completely. Remember we are living life with this next generation. You set the standard for excellence, coach your team to achieve, send them, and then (this is so critical) debrief.

What if they are better than I? Praise God!
If you empower younger leaders around you, sending them to tackle large areas of ministry, and they do great jobs it will only reflect positively on you. Coaching another to succeed is a far greater gift to the next generation of the church than succeeding on our own. This works out one of two ways. Either the great young leaders in your ministry will succeed by leaving your church disenfranchised at not having the opportunity to add their own gifts to the organization. Or, they will be coached and empowered to serve in your organization blessing the entire church.

Trust
“teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” -Matt 28:20

Not only does Jesus send the disciples he trust them to effectively instruct others on what they have learned. He is confidant through his mentoring he has successfully transplanted His DNA in to his Disciples. From this point on he defers to their leadership.

Jesus is modeling the most difficult step for most Elders and Pastors, it’s the ability to begin learning from the next generation of leaders. Some where along your effective mentoring the student should begin to offer lessons to the teacher. As those occasions arise begin trusting the leaders you have raised up. This may be regarding programming, decision making, or future plans. If you have empowered them to lead you must then trust the leadership they offer.

Young leaders are often sidelined. You can find them holed up together discussing what they wished would happen in the church. More times than not these conversations are not meant to be disrespectful but are based on love and respect for the ministry and hope to see it make as much a difference in the following generation as the current. Craig Groeschel, pastor of lifechurch.tv recently wrote of a lunch he had with the “young guns” of the church where he asked…

• What do you think God wants to do through our church that I’m not seeing?
• What are we doing that stopped working two years ago?
• What should we be doing to reach people that we’re not?
• Where have I lost effectiveness but those closest to me are afraid to tell me?
• What vision do you have about ministry that no one will listen to?

However you decide to go about this make sure you listen and trust the young leaders in your church.

There are a great deal of words being written on the next generation. Churches are firing up snazzy post modern ministries to lure the busy 20 something’s to their churches. In the midst of strategizing about how to get those young people in the doors churches should also be struggling with strategies for raising up the next generation of leaders who are more than likely working in cubicles and offices on your church property. The greatest gift we can offer young men and women who are called to ministry is a solid blueprint on the function of what a minister does. If we will build in them core reasoning abilities and then send them into ministry they will come up with forms we have never seen.